14 LIFE IN JAVA.
after which a selection of fresh places for the following year is made.
The Government, though deriving a considerable revenue from the sale of this deleterious commodity, is nevertheless endeavouring, in consequence of its pernicious effects on the Javanese, to lessen the quantity usually supplied for sale on these occa- sions ; and in order to limit the number of persons applying for licences, the prices of these have been raised to a sum far beyond the means of any but the wealthiest Chinese merchants.
The object of Government in changing the localities selected for the temporary depots of opium is to throw an additional obstacle in the way of such smokers and consumers of the drug as are anxious to renew their stock of it. As the towns or villages selected this year may be twenty or thirty miles distant from those named for the next, it is evident that the pooi'er native can ill afford to ride that distance very often, and the small quan-
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