3
Limasol have
increased from £207 in the twelve months ending 30th
September, 1878, to £1718 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 expenditureю
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 increaset taxation. Thus
although the British commissioners of district vied
with each other in a healthy ambition to exhibit a
picture of paradise in their special localities, the people
grambled 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. Under these favourable conditions
for political agitation the «Cypriote Fraternity» has commenced its existence.
I do not attach much importance to this early
conceived movement, as Greeks, although patriotic, have
too much shrewdness to sacrifice an immediate profit
for a prospective shadow. The island belongs at this
moment to the Sultan, and the English are simply tenants under stipulated conditions. Before Cyprus
could belong to Greece it must be severed from the
Ottoman Empire, and should England be sufficiently
wayward to again present herself to the world as the
spoiled child of fortune, and deliver over her new
acquisition according to the well-remembered precedent
of Corfu, the monetary value of all property
in Cyprus would descend to zero, and the «Cypriote
Fraternity» if householders or landowners, would
raise the Greek standard over shattered fortunes.
The total of population within the entire district of
Limasol in 1879 represented 23,530, comprising 12,159
inales and 11,371 females, of all ages.
The following list is the official enumeration of
animals and trees within the same province :-
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
