Treasury. The opium monopoly was re-instated by Sir John (April 1, 1858) to swell the revenue, but failed to fetch its true price, being let at $33,000 a year. Sir John removed one impost, the productiveness of which, he said, was small whilst its annoyances and inconveniences were great, viz. that upon salt. Sir John claimed credit for having wholly freed salt from taxation, as it became thereby an article of increased commercials importance. He seems, however, to have been oblivious of the fact that, as salt is a heavily taxed Imperial monopoly in China, his action in abolishing the salt tax in Hongkong merely gave a fillip to the Chinese contraband trade carried on by the salt smugglers in the Colony.
Sir J. Bowring paid much attention to the condition of the Police Force. Being at first dissatisfied with its organisation, he appointed (August, 1855) a Commission to inquire into the police system of the Colony and invited the public to give evidence verbally or in writing. Some changes were made in the constitution of the Force (in 1857) and at the close of his administration Sir John considered the outward appearance, discipline and general efficiency of the Police Force to have greatly improved. He stated that the complaints under this bead, which formerly were frequently addressed to the Government, were in 1858 much diminished in number. Considering the indifferent materials from which the selection, for economical reasons, had necessarily to be made. Sir John considered the state of the Force to be satisfactory and creditable to its Superintendent (Ch. May).
It could not be expected that crime would decrease during a period of such extraordinary commotion. Yet the criminal record of Sir John's regime compares, with the exception of the unique attempt to poison the whole foreign community, by no means unfavourably with that of other periods of the history of Hongkong. Indeed, although Hongkong was at this time more than ever the recipient of the scum of Canton and of the vilest and fiercest of the population of South-China, the experienced Superintendent of Police (Ch. May), himself an ex-Inspector of
