Company should try the effect of the offer of free passages from China
and from Singapore and of liberal allotments of suitable land to _bona
fide_ agriculturists.

The sources of the Company's revenues have been referred to on a
previous page, and may be summarised here under the following principal
heads:--The "Farms" of Opium, Tobacco, Spirits, and of Pawnbroking, the
Rent of the edible birds'-nest caves, Market Dues, Duties on Imports and
Exports, Court Fines and Fees, Poll Tax on aborigines, House and Store
Rents, profit accruing from the introduction of the Company's copper or
bronze token coinage--a considerable item--Interest and Commission
resulting from the Banking business carried on by the Treasury pending
the establishment of a Banking Company, Land Sales and Quit-rents on
land alienated, and Postal Receipts.

The Poll Tax is a source of revenue well-known in the East and not
objected to by most of our natives, with whom it takes the place of the
land rent which the Government of India imposes. To our aborigines a
land rent would be most distasteful at present, and they infinitely
prefer the Poll Tax and to be allowed to own and farm what land they
like without paying premium or rent. The more civilized tribes,
especially on the West coast, recognize private property in land, the
boundaries of their gardens and fields being carefully marked and
defined, and the property descending from fathers to children. The rate
of the Poll Tax is usually $2 for married couples and $1 for adult
bachelors per annum, and I believe this is about the same rate as that
collected by the British Government in Burma. At first sight it has the
appearance of a tax on marriage, but in the East generally women do a
great deal of the out-door as well as of the indoor work, so that a
married man is in a much better position than a bachelor for acquiring
wealth, as he can be engaged in collecting jungle produce, or in
trading, or in making money in other ways, while his womenkind are
planting out or gathering in the harvest.

The amounts _received_ by the Company for the sale of their waste lands
has been as follows:--

1882, $16,340

1883, $25,449

1884, $15,460

1885, $2,860

1886, $12,035

1887,[24] $14,505

The receipts for 1888, owing to the rush for tobacco lands already
alluded to, and to the fact that the balances of the premia on lands
taken up in 18