In The Town
Of Limasol There Has Been A Decided Rise In The General Value Of
Property, Which Is Due To The Steady Improvement Of The Trade, And Does
Not Represent A Mere Speculative Impulse As In Larnaca, Which Has
Suffered By A Subsequent Reaction.
The municipal receipts of Limasol
have increased from 207 pounds sterling in the twelve months ending 30th
September, 1878, to 1718 pounds in the ten months of 1879.
This has
certainly been due to the energy of Colonel Warren, R. A., the chief
commissioner of the district, to whom I am indebted for all statistics
connected with the locality.
The position of a district chief commissioner was by no means enviable
in Cyprus. The pay was absurdly small, and he was obliged to institute
reforms both for sanitary and municipal interests which necessitated an
outlay, and increased the local taxation. The population had been led to
expect a general diminution of imposts upon the suddenly-conceived
British occupation, and the Cypriotes somewhat resembled the frogs in
the fable when the new King Log arrived with a tremendous splash which
created waves of hope upon the surface of the pool, but subsided into
disappointment; they found that improvements cost money, and that
British reforms, although they bestowed indirect benefits, were
accompanied by a direct expenditure. The calm apathy of a Cypriote is
not easily disturbed; he is generally tolerably sober, or if drunk, he
is seldom the "WORSE for liquor," but rather the better, as his usual
affectionate disposition may be slightly exaggerated, instead of
becoming pugnacious and abusive like the inebriated Briton. There are no
people more affectionate in their immediate domestic circle, or more
generally courteous and gentle, than the Cypriotes, but like a good many
English people, they have an aversion to increased taxation. Thus,
although the British commissioners of districts vied with each other in
a healthy ambition to exhibit a picture of paradise in their special
localities, the people grumbled at the cost of cleanliness and health
within their towns, and would have preferred the old time of
manure-heaps and bad smells gratis to the new regime of civilisation for
which they had to pay.
The Greek element is generally combustible, and before the first year of
our occupation had expired various causes of discontent awakened
Philhellenic aspirations; a society was organised under the name of the
"Cypriote Fraternity," as a political centre from which emissaries would
be employed for the formation of clubs in various districts with the
object of inspiring the population with the noble desire of adding
Cyprus to the future Greek kingdom. Corfu had been restored to Greece;
why should not Cyprus be added to her crown? There would be sympathisers
in the British Parliament, some of whom had already taken up the cause
of the Greek clergy in their disputes with the local authorities, and
the Greeks of the island had discovered that no matter what the merits
of their case might be, they could always depend upon some members of
the House of Commons as their advocates, against the existing government
and their own countrymen.
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