The sand-grouse is to be seen occasionally on the plains of Messaria,
but never in the quantities that are met with in other neighbouring
countries. Woodcocks are scarce, and those which are shot must have
halted in the island during their passage en route for other shores.
Snipe are very numerous in the marshes of Limasol salt lakes, Morphu,
Famagousta, Kuklia, and Larnaca. Quails are never plentiful, and are
inferior in condition to those of Egypt and Southern Europe. Wild ducks
are to be seen on the lake near Famagousta and at Limasol. The
wood-pigeons, and doves, together with fly-catchers, arrive in April,
but never in large numbers.
Return of Villages, Population, etc., of Famagousta District.
Villages Churches Mosques Turks Christians Total
Naleieh of Famasousta 9* 20 6 685 3,978 4,663
" Carpas 36 46 13 3,470 7,168 10,638
" Messaria 68 66 29 4,861 12,434 17,295
113 132 48 9,016 23,580 32,596
* Includes Famagousta town.
Piastres L s. d.
The taxes for the year 1878 amounted to 1,370,221 = 11,418 10 4
(This being paid in Coime at a very
variable rate, it is scarcely correct
to reduce the amounts to sterling.)
The tithes of this district were farmed
out in 1878 for ... ... ... 25,000 0 0
Revenue therefore was 36,418 10 4
The taxes for the year 1879 amount to... 10,379 90
This does not include indirect taxes such as
Customs, say... 1,000 00
11,379 90
It is impossible to calculate the tithes yet for this year (1879). From
Famagousta the chief exports are corn, from Messaria, donkeys, fruit,
and pottery, the two latter chiefly from Varoshia.
Cyprus: Trooditissa Monastery,
4400 feet above the sea
21 September, 1879.
Messrs. Macmillan & Co.
MY DEAR SIRS,
If I am in time to secure the last efforts of the printer perhaps this
letter in its integrity may convey the information which the autumnal
season has afforded. The difficulty of all writers upon strange
countries lies in their short experience. Each month exhibits the
changes of nature in seasons, meteorological phenomena, and vegetation;
thus the full twelve months should form the data for a detailed
description. I closed my account of Cyprus in August; since which fruits
have ripened and various changes have developed--all have afforded
information.
Taxation in kind, and Government valuation of produce while growing, has
been a crying evil that I have endeavoured to bring before the public as
one of those instances of injustice which stamps the oppressive system
of the Turkish administration; this unfortunately has not yet been
abolished by the British Government. I have already described the
arbitrary and unjust laws that fetter the all-important wine trade,
which is the principal industry of Limasol; but since I forwarded the
manuscript to England I have myself witnessed the miserable effects of
the present laws during the advance of the season in ripening the
produce of the vineyards.
Three weeks ago I walked for some hours through the boundless extent of
grape cultivation at the foot of the mountains below the village of
Phyni; at that time the crop was ripe, and should have been gathered.
The bunches of dark red were equal to the finest hot-house grapes of
England, both in weight and in size of berries; the black were about the
average of the Black Hamburg; the white were smaller and about the size
of the common "sweet-water." A day or two ago I again visited the same
vineyards; the grapes had not been gathered, and I computed that at
least one-third of the crop was destroyed by the delay. The magnificent
bunches of dark red were for the most part shrivelled, one-half the
berries upon each cluster being reduced to the appearance of raisins,
and utterly devoid of juice, while many of the other varieties were
completely withered. The explanation given by the people was simple
enough--"The official valuer had not appeared, and without his
certificate no grapes could be gathered." There are only three valuers
to an extensive district, and it is physically impossible that they can
perform their duties, even were they inclined to attend when summoned to
each village, in the absence of some special inducement. The actual
labour of walking up the abrupt inclines upon the mountain sides which
constitute the vineyards is most formidable, and at least four times the
staff is necessary, of young and capable men, if the valuation of the
crop is to be taken with due consideration to the interests of the
grower. The distressing result that I have myself witnessed in the
partial destruction of the crops can admit of no excuse, but it exhibits
a painful example of mal-administration in the ruin attendant upon a
Turkish system of taxation.
Some persons may suggest that the dried and withered grapes would be
saleable as raisins: this is not the case. Raisins are not merely dried
grapes, as is generally supposed, but the bunch of well-ripened berries
is dipped in a strong solution of potash, and is then either suspended
or is more generally laid upon a mat to dry. In Cyprus the growers
seldom purchase potash, but they dip their grapes in a ley produced from
the ashes of certain woods.
The vineyards at this season are swarming with a species of beccaficos,
and the population are busy in catching these delicious birds with
sticks smeared with bird-lime. It is a species of finch, a little larger
than the chaffinch, the plumage a brownish grey; when plucked the body
is much larger than the common beccaficos, but resembles it in
extraordinary fatness and delicacy of flavour.
