OPIUM OR WHISKY?

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 5197, 17 November 1877, Page 1 (Supplement)

OPIUM OR WHISKY?

(From the Baltimore Evening Bulletin .) The intemperance of the Chinese iu opium smoking has often been alleged as a reason for tho expulsion of the race from California. The fabts do not, however, bear out the charge. Tlie Bureau of Statistics furnishes the following figures : “ Opium prepared for, smoking, imported into the United States during the fiscal year 1877 (and on which a duty of 6dol. per lb. was paid), amounted to 47,428 pounds, costing at the port of shipment 502,662d015., of which 40,615 pounds, costing 494,236d015., came into San Francisco. During the preceding three years the average value of opium for smoking which'entered into consumption in tho United States was a little leas than 600,G00dols. per annum. The addition of duty and freight largely increase the coat of the article, which will not exceed I,ooo,OOOdois. a year. The cost to consumers at retail will, however, considerably exceed that sum.” Upon this basis the annual importations of smoking opium does not exceed an average of 57,000 pounds, the consumption of which must bo distributed amongst 90,000 Chinamen, giving to each (apothecaries’ weight) 3648 grains per annum. The average daily dose of moderate smokers is reported to be 20 grains (Mr. Bayard Taylor, at his first and only experiment, smoked 12 grains, and then was not more exhilarated than he would have been by a pint of Beaune), but the average daily consumption of tho Chinese is only just 10 grains apiece, not eaten but smoked. If the average daily consumption of whisky by any 90,000 Californians do not produce more intoxication, aud the crimes, diseases, and squalor consequent upon it, it must bo admitted that tho Californians are a happy race.