The opinions that I personally offer are based upon the assumption that England can never recede from the position she has assumed in Cyprus, which she must continue, for better or for worse, as a point of honour. Any abandonment of the protection we have afforded to the inhabitants would tend to aggravate their position, should they return to the authority of the Porte, and their only hope would lie in the occupation of our empty bed by France, who certainly requires a coaling depot towards the east of the Mediterranean. Should we wash our hands of Cyprus, and evacuate it in a similar manner to Corfu, we should become the laughing-stock of Europe, and no future step taken by England in the form of a "protectorate" would ever be relied upon. Had we retained Corfu to the present moment, no doubt would have existed as to any change in our intentions respecting Cyprus, but the precedent established by our retirement from that grand strategical position has borne its fruit in the want of confidence now felt by all classes in the permanence of our new acquisition.
It will be admitted that a general want of elasticity has succeeded to the first bound of expectation that was raised by the sudden announcement of a British occupation; the government cannot be held responsible for the disappointment of rash adventurers, but their true responsibility commenced when they assumed the charge of the inhabitants of Cyprus. The first year of the new administration has been marked by a minimum rainfall that has caused the destruction of all crops dependent upon the natural water-supply of seasons, and this partial famine of the first year of our occupation is generally regarded as a disaster. Although disastrous, I believe the serious warning will operate with wholesome effect, by opening the eyes of the authorities to the absolute necessity of directing special attention to the requirements of the people, who after centuries of oppression have become apathetic and inert, which unfits them for the spontaneous action that should be exerted against the dangerous exigencies of their climate. The government of Cyprus must be to a certain extent paternal, and the planting of trees that will eventually benefit not only individuals, but the island generally, and ultimately the revenue, should be made compulsory, in proportion to the area of the various holdings, due assistance being accorded to the proprietors by way of loans.
The eucalyptus is suitable for many localities in the lowlands of Larnaca and Famagousta, and it might be profitably introduced throughout such swampy soils as the neighbourhood of Morphu and other similar positions with good sanitary results; but such trees will represent the woods and forests of the low country without a productive income to the population; whereas by an enforced cultivation of fruit-trees upon every holding the island would in a few years become a garden, and the exportation of fruit to Egypt, only thirty hours' distant, would be the commencement of an important trade, alike beneficial to the individual proprietors and to the island generally.
At the present time, and for many years past, Alexandria has been supplied with all fruits from Jaffa, Beyrout, and various ports on the coast of Syria, but there is no reason why Cyprus should not eventually monopolise the trade, if special attention shall be bestowed (by the suggested department of Woods and Forests) upon the qualities and cultivation whenever an arrangement for an extension of planting shall be carried out. I have never seen any fruits of high quality in Cyprus, but they are generally most inferior, owing to the neglect of grafting, and the overcrowding of the trees. The cherries which grow in the villages from 2500 to 4500 feet above the sea are taken down to Limasol and the principal towns for sale, but they are small and tasteless, although red and bright in colour. They grow in large quantities, and are never attacked by birds which render the crop precarious in England, and necessitate the expense of netting; should the best varieties be introduced, every natural advantage exists for their cultivation.
The apricots are not much larger than chestnuts, and would be classed as "wild fruit," from the extreme inferiority of size and flavour; but there is no reason except neglect for the low quality of a delicious species of fruit that seems from the luxuriant growth of the tree to be specially adapted to the soil and climate. It is useless to enumerate the varieties of fruits that are brought to market; all are inferior, excepting grapes and lemons. The productions of the gardens exhibit the miserable position of the island, which emanates from a want of elasticity in a debased and oppressed population too apathetic and hopeless to attempt improvements.
England can change this wretched stagnation by the application of capital, and by encouraging the development of the first necessity, WATER; without which, all attempts at agricultural improvements, and the extension of tree-planting in the low country, would be futile. I shall therefore devote the following chapter to the subject of artificial irrigation, and its results.
CHAPTER XIV.
REMARKS ON IRRIGATION.
The ancient prosperity of Cyprus must have been due to artificial irrigation, which ensured a maximum of production, similar to the inundated lands of Egypt. In the latter country the Nile is a "Salvator Mundi," without which Egypt would be a simple prolongation of the Nubian and Libyan deserts, in the absence of a seasonable rainfall. The difference between the great cereal-producing portion of Cyprus and the Delta of Egypt is, that, although the plain of Messaria has been formed chiefly through the action of the Pedias river and other periodical mountain streams, which have deposited a rich stratum of soil during inundations, the rivers are merely torrents, or simple conduits, which carry off the waters of heavy storms, or intervals of rain, and act as drains in conveying the surplus waters during floods; while at other times they are absolutely dry.
If the Nile were controlled by a series of weirs or dams, with sluices to divert the high waters of the period into natural depressions within the desert, to form reservoirs at high levels for the supply of Egypt in seasons of scarcity, the command of the water-supply would be far preferable to the chances of rain in the most favoured country. Water, like fire, should be the slave of man, to whom it is the first necessity; therefore his first effort in his struggle with the elements should reduce this power to vassalage. There must be no question of supremacy; water must serve mankind.