It Is Simply Ridiculous To Make Laws Without The Active
Weapons To Enforce Authority; We May As Well Rest Satisfied
With the
game laws in England and dismiss our keepers, as prohibit the cutting of
wood in Cyprus without supervising
The forests by a staff of foresters.
If the words "Thou shalt not steal," even from a divine command, were
sufficient to prevent felony and petty larceny, it would be folly to
incur the expense of police; but we know that practically all laws must
be upheld by force, represented by the authorised guardians of the
state. At this moment in Cyprus the law proclaims, "Thou shalt not cut a
tree," while practically you may cut as many as you like in the mountain
forests, as there is no person authorised to interfere with your acts.
Some miserable offender may be pounced upon in his own garden, near one
of the principal towns, where the law SHOULD NEVER HAVE BEEN ENFORCED,
as interfering with the individual rights of private property; but in
the situations where the prohibition is of the first importance, there
is literally not an officer or man to prevent the usual depredations.
Why? The answer must be accepted. There is no money, and we cannot
afford an independent department of "Woods and Forests." If the country
is to continue in this slip-shod form it is a disgrace to England.
There is time to save the forests from absolute destruction, and in my
own opinion, before anything is done beyond the necessary roads and
irrigation loans, every possible attention should be concentrated upon
the protection and development of forest-trees.
The position at this moment is as follows. Throughout the entire
mountain range there are not 5 per cent. of pines free from mutilation.
The whole of Troodos, and the mountain districts from near Lithrodondo
to as far west as Poli-ton-Khrysokus, are naturally adapted for the
growth of pines and cypress, which love the soil of the plutonic rocks,
and drive their roots deep into the interstices, deriving nourishment
where nothing else would thrive. Upon the highest altitudes there is not
a dwarf shrub to cover the surface of the loose coffee-coloured rocks,
where in the winter the snow accumulates to a depth of twenty feet, yet
there we find the pines and cypress in their greatest vigour; but even
to these solitary heights the Cypriote has penetrated with his unsparing
axe, and has created a desolation that must be seen to be understood.
There is no sight so exasperating as this uncalled-for destruction; it
is beyond all belief, and when the amount of labour is considered that
must have been expended in this indiscriminate attack upon forest-trees
THAT ARE LEFT TO ROT UPON THE GROUND where they have fallen, the object
of the attack is at first sight inconceivable. The sight of a mountain
pine-forest in Cyprus would convey the impression that an enemy who had
conquered the country had determined to utterly destroy it, even to the
primaeval forests; he had therefore felled, and left to rot, the greater
portion of the trees; but finding the labour beyond his means, he had
contented himself with barking, ringing, and hacking at the base of the
remainder, to ensure their ultimate destruction.
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