Page:A wandering student in the Far East vol.1 - Zetland.djvu/276

This page has been validated.
208
ACROSS THE HEART OF CHINA.

given up to its cultivation, and the proprietor to be compelled to reduce the area by one-ninth every year and to substitute other crops. Confiscation of land by the State to be the penalty for non-compliance.

Drastic regulations are laid down for dealing with the smokers. All officials, gentry, and literati are to be compelled to give up the habit, to act as an example. Officials of over sixty years of age, however, are to be treated leniently. Officials of high rank and title to ask for a given time in which to break the habit, and to be relieved by an acting official during that period. Officials of lower rank to be allowed six months. Teachers, scholars, officers, and warrant officers in the army and navy, if addicted to the vice, to be dismissed within three months. For the general public the following regulations have been drawn up. A smoker must report himself at the nearest yamen and there fill in a form giving his name, age, address, occupation, and daily allowance of opium. He will then be given a licence, and if under sixty years of age a