The Statistical Reporter. A Monthly Journal of Statistical Enquiries Concerning India

The cultivation of the poppy and the manufacture of opium in these two Agencies are regulated by Act XIII of 1857 under the general control of the local Government and the Board of Revenue and the immediate supervision of the Opium Agents in charge of the Agencies. [...] The Collectors of Land Revenue in the districts within the range of the Agencieare Deputy Agents for the enforcement of some of the provisions of Act XIII of 1857 but they do not otherwise take part in the details of supervision which are coducted by Sub-Deputy Opium Agents acting under the orders of the Opium Agents. [...] on the Coast to relinquish the monopoly to open the trade to the operations of private enterprise and to substitute as a source of revenue in place of the abandoned system the grant at a specified rate of passes to cover the transit of opium through the Company'territories to Bombay. [...] In determining the amount of transit duty it was proposed to be guided by a comparison of the cost of transit direct to Bombay with that of the transmission of the drug to the Coast by the cheapest of the more circuitous routes through the territories of Native States ; and on the basis of such a comparison it was fixed at Rs. [...] To prevent molestation on the road a vernacular pass is granted to the person appointed by the merchant to accompany the despatch in which the particulars of the consignment are inserted and a weekly register of the passports is sent to the Commissioner of Customs Salt and Opium Bombay.