The Growers Have Had
To Pay, Under The Tax Called `Dimes,' An Eighth Part Of
The Produce Of Grapes
To the treasury; but this could
not be taken in kind, so a money value was fixed yearly
by the
Local medjlis, or fixed tribunal; but as the assessment
was based on the market-price at the chief town
of the district, instead of the value at the place of
growth, this tax, instead of being about 12.5 per cent.,
in reality amounted to over 20 per cent. Then again
when the wine was made, an excise duty of 10 per
cent. was levied, and on export, a tax of 8 per cent.
had to be paid. The natural consequence of these
excessive impositions has been the diminution of a
culture for which the island is particularly adapted.
Consul Lang suggests that it might be wise to free this
production from all tax, except a proper export duty."
How easy it is to be generous at the expense of others!--here are
(including Consuls White and Lang) no less than five British consuls who
have been protesting against this instance of oppression and injustice
since the year 1862, and it would naturally have been expected that one
of our first acts upon assuming the government of Cyprus would have been
to abolish an abuse that had excited the remonstrances of our own
representatives. The fact is that we were reduced to a financial ebb of
the gravest character by the absorption at Constantinople of an unfair
proportion of the revenue, and our government was not in a position to
risk a reduction of income by such an important change in the system of
taxation.
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