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SIR SAMUEL WHITE BAKER
CYPRUS AS I SAW IT IN 1879
page 374 View PDF version of this page owners that I have already described, as exhibiting the simple power of a few water-wheels to produce abundance, while upon the margin of such verdant examples the country is absolutely desert, parched and withered by a burning sun, yielding nothing either to the owner or to the revenue, while at the same time the water-supply is only four or five yards
beneath the feet of the miserable proprietor, who
.has neither capital nor power to raise it to the
surface.
There is no necessity for the government to
embark in any uncertain enterprise, neither should they interfere with the native methods of irrigation ; and above all things, no money should leave the island to fill the pockets of English contractors in the purchase of pumps, or other inventions. All that is required by the Cypriote is capital ; lend him the money at 6 per cent. : the government will be saved all trouble, and the profit to all parties will
ì>e assured. The money expended in the erection of water-wheels or other works will circulate throughout the island in the payment of native labour, and will relieve the wants of many who, in the absence of land, must earn their livelihood by manual labour.
" Water ! " is the cry throughout this neglected island ; it has been the cry in Eastern lands from time immemorial, when in the thirsty desert Moses smote the rock, and the stream gushed forth for multitudes; when Elijah mocked the priests of Baal with, " Call him louder ! " in their vain appeal for rain, and the " little cloud, no bigger than a man's hand, " rose upon the horizon in answer to his prayer. In the savage tribes of Africa, the " rain-maker " occupies the position of priest and chief. In England, the
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