t this British colony in our Western
Hemisphere, and gives no dates or information as to how and when it was
acquired. The Government reports are also meager and unsatisfactory,
and there is no wealth of detail as to exports and imports. The
country, however, is rich in gold, mining having commenced in 1886.
Diamonds have also been discovered.

The chief sources of revenue, however, are customs, excise and
licenses. With the word "excise" we have come to have unpleasant
associations. From "The Statistical Abstract for British Self-Governing
Dominions, Colonies, Possessions and Protectorates" we find a table
showing the imports of opium into the various countries under British
rule. The opium imports into British Guiana are as follows:

1910 1,251 pounds sterling
1911 1,270
1912 2,474
1913 4,452
1914 5,455
1915 4,481

These figures would seem to indicate that even on the Western
Hemisphere the taste for opium may be cultivated. It need not
necessarily be confined to the Oriental peoples. The population of much
of South America is a mixed lot, the result of mixed breeding between
Spanish settlers, Indians, native tribes of all sorts. All this jumble,
including the aborigines referred to, might, with a little teaching
become profitable customers of the Opium Monopoly. Time and a little
effort, given this fertile field, ought to produce a "healthy
expansion" in the opium trade.

And that this insidious habit is indeed taking hold, in at least one
more country in South America, one may infer from the following
paragraph which appeared in the New York Times, 4 October, 1919:

DRUG EVIL IN ARGENTINA

Buenos Aires Opens Fight on Use of Narcotics

The city government of Buenos Aires, Argentina, has begun a
determined fight to wipe out the drug evil by the enactment of
stringent laws governing the sale of narcotics. This step was taken
after an investigation by the authorities had disclosed that not
only was the narcotic habit strong among the poor, but that it was
spreading throughout virtually every class in the city.

Until the passage of the laws druggists were permitted to sell
cocaine, morphine and opium to any purchaser. The new laws forbid
the sale of these drugs except in filling prescriptions prepared by
registered physicians. The city a