vend dépôts are issued by the Collector on payment of a fee of Rs. 15 per annum, and retail shops are sold annually by auction. The retail price of opium is fixed by Government at 2¼ tolas for a rupee.
The amount of opium consumed is very large. In the old Gódávari district the average consumption per head of the population in 1903-04 was .619 tola against .o82 tola in the Presidency as a whole, and the incidence of the revenue was 2 as. 2 ps. per head against 4 ps. for the whole Presidency. It has been suggested that smuggling to Burma (most difficult to prevent) is responsible for much of this abnormal consumption. Parcels of opium sent by post from this district were seized in Rangoon in 1902-03 and previous years, and the many emigrants who goto Rangoon from Cocanada are believed to smuggle the drug with them. The Rangoon authorities have been particularly on the alert recently. Another explanation is that opium is used in the district as a prophylactic against malaria; but against this is the fact that the drug is not consumed more largely in the malarious than in the healthy taluks.
The consumption of hemp-drugs per head of the population is smaller in Gódávari than usual. In 1903-04 the incidence of revenue in the old Gódávari district per head per annum was one pie against two pies in the Presidency as a whole.
In the Agency, the villages to which Act I of 1886 has been applied are supplied with ganja from two shops in Pólavaram which get their stock from the plains. Elsewhere there are no restrictions on the cultivation of ganja; but as a fact it is little grown or consumed. There are a few opium shops. They are supplied from Rajahmundry and are managed in the ordinary manner, but by the Revenue department instead of by the abkári authorities.
Under native rule, and even in the early years of British administration, land-customs were levied at frequent stations along the main lines of communication, and had the most baneful effects upon trade. In their report of 1787, the Circuit Committee 1[1] wrote:—
'Numerous chowkis are placed on all the roads, where, besides the zamindars' dues, many russooms are exacted, which is the cause of much vexation and inconvenience to the trader. The enormous duties exacted on teak deserve particular notice. From Pólavaram to Yanam they amount to 200 per cent. That carried by the Narasapur branch pays 250 per cent, at nine places. Hence teak timber is frequently brought from Pegu at a cheaper rate than can be afforded by the merchants who trade in this article to Rékapalle,'
- ↑ 1 See Chapter XI, p. 162.
