The Waikato Times, THAMES VALLEY GAZETTE, AND KAWHIA ADVOCATE. Established Thirty-Four Years. THE OLDEST DAILY NEWSPAPER IN THE WAIKATO. THE LARGEST CIRCULATION OF ANY DAILY PAPER SOUTH OF AUCKLAND. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 27, 1906. THE OPIUM TRAFFIC.

Waikato Times, Volume LVII, Issue 8088, 27 December 1906, Page 2

The Waikato Times, THAMES VALLEY GAZETTE, AND KAWHIA ADVOCATE. Established Thirty-Four Years. THE OLDEST DAILY NEWSPAPER IN THE WAIKATO. THE LARGEST CIRCULATION OF ANY DAILY PAPER SOUTH OF AUCKLAND. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 27, 1906. THE OPIUM TRAFFIC.

J.n China tit least, England lias for iuitky years <illowed the [>r<>tits ol a very questionable trallic to outweigh sentiment, and .-die has remained secure in the enjoyment of a remunerative trade that pioveol the most effectual hindrance to the progress of the Chinese nation. Although the fact of England's countenancing such a traffic ha& been strongly condemned in many quarters, little serious effort lias been made to restrict it. the only organised S'Ofk in this direction being 011 the part at the Society for the Suppression of the Opium Trade, which has

met with little encouragement at the hands of the (ioverument 011 April 10, lyi'l, a resolution by Sir Joseph Pease, condemning the cultivation o! opium in India, the trallic in the drug, and the revenue from it. was adopted by Jii'l votes to I ; > 1 ', and was the ocCftsiou of much excitement in India. A resolution on June •!". I s '.':;, for the appointing of a Jioy;'! Commission against the opium revc-nut, \v;is negatived by 1x 1- to I'but all tinsame a Koyal Commission was appointed under tho presidency of Lord Brassey the following mouth. In their report the Commission did not recommend the prohibition of the growth and manufacture of opium, but suggested increased supervision. The evil, however, was beyond effective supervision, ami little good I resulted from the efforts of the Commission. A few weeks utro. hovvmer the British Government seemed determined to go into the matter more earnestly, and the Secretary of State for India, Mr John Morley, it will be remembered, hinted at his intention of curtailing the area of poppies in India. The growth is restricted to Lieugal and the I nited Provinces, with small cultivations for purely local use in three other districts. The Government receives the crop and manufactures it at the factories at Putna RiiQ Ca/.ipar for the foreign market. Maiwa opium is. grown in Baroda and in some of the nati-.e Stiites. and is subject to heavy export duties. India's revenue last year amounted to upwards of six million sterling, i Illloo'2 Sir J. L. Mackav'- treaty ahol-

isliwl 1 ikm 'in Clmo-M- iiitiji'ual nist >lll s dues) levi.'d uii miTcliuudihe ing from tlie coast into tiie different provinces. In consideration of thib 7 j

per cent, was added to the original ■' per cent, charged by the Interna.lonal Maritime Customs on imported merchandise. This treaty' h;is not yet. been put in force. A few months ago China decided to make ;in end ol the opium trallic. and her lirst action, to which reference is made in a cable published in an- | other column, would lti\-e the impression that she. at least, intends to follow no half-hearted means of ejecting reform. It is humiliating to think that I'lnglaud should batten as she h : s done upon a nation so far submerged as the Chinese arc. and derive profits from a. trallic among them so productive of vice and degradation. It is to be hoped that she will not allow the dictates of lucre to still further delay the prosecution of the reform in which the Chinese Government is now engaged. TIIK KAIiIWT I'KST. A i;t:< km visitor to New South \\ ales. Mr Coleman Phillips, of Wairarapa, who takes a. keen interest in all methods advocated for the suppression of the rabbit pest, has some interesting information to give as the result of his observations in Australia. .Mi Phillips says that the rabbit dilliculty has aroused the serious attention of pastoralists and farmers in Australia, where the result of the Dansyy. experiments at Uroughton Island are being watched with close interest. These experiments, he explained, are confined to the spread of a pasteurella, being a disease akin to the chicken cholera, which had little effect in reducing the numbei of rabbit*. Mr Phillips does not expect great results from the pasteurella experiment, and pins his faith, as heretofore, to the methods adopted in New Zealand, viz., the introduction and spread of natural enemies and the etfeet of natural diseases or the use of netting, trapping or poisoning. In Australia, labbits are increasing in numbers with the growth of feed after the drought, and Mr Phillips estimates that in a short time they will be swarming again. He estimates that over a million a year is being expended in Australia in rabbit suppression without any beneficial result, and is convinced that until -Australia goes' on the same lines a* New Zealandl the rabbit will have the upper hand.