ation, I see no
reason why Government should not derive benefit from them. The
opium-smoker and the rum-drinker pay as much for the indulgence of their
appetites, under existing circumstances, as they would do, were the
privilege of supplying them farmed out to individuals, who would be
responsible to the Authorities for the good conduct of their
establishments.

I should advocate the suppression of gambling-houses _in toto_, did I
not know the utter impossibility of effecting this among either a
Chinese or a Malay population. As their existence, then, must be
tolerated, and as they are, to my certain knowledge, the scene of
robbery and murder, much more frequently than persons unacquainted with
the criminal calendars in our Asiatic courts of justice suppose, I say,
let them be registered, taxed, and made subject to the visits of the
police at any hour of the night or day. By the means I have pointed out,
a revenue amply sufficient for the purposes of the Hong Kong Government
might be raised; and I should have no hesitation in undertaking to
defray every fraction of its expenditure, had I the privilege of farming
the opium-tax and the spirit-tax.

Of the climate of Hong Kong, I have little that is favourable to report.
Hitherto, it has been decidedly inimical to the European constitution;
and hundreds of our countrymen are already buried there. Last summer
(1843), from the first of August till the end of October, a very
malignant fever raged among all ranks, and carried off soldiers,
sailors, Government servants, mercantile men, and tradesmen. There were
some peculiarities attendant upon this fever, however, which I shall
mention, in the hope that my observations may lead future residents to
be a little more careful of their health, than most of the present
inhabitants have shewn themselves to be. In the first place, then, the
fever, with few exceptions, was limited to particular localities.
Secondly, not one European female died of it, and only two suffered from
it severely. Thirdly, those who occupied spacious _upper-roomed_,
well-aired houses, almost to a man escaped. Fourthly, those who exposed
themselves to the sun, suffered most. And, lastly, the new comer from
Europe was more subject to take this terrible fever, which the medical
men characterize as a mixture of the yellow fever of the West and the
bilious fever of the East Indies.

A stranger landing in Hong Kong, particularly if coming from many parts
of In