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It would be a valuable acquisition. We have seen that under the Turkish administration it was a small mine of wealth, and remains in the same position to its recent masters. We pay /96,000 per annum to the Turks, out of an assumed revenue of /170,000 . Therefore, without any trouble or risk, the Turk is receiving 3 ^ per cent, interest upon three millions. This es tablishes an unfortunate precedent in the valuation of the island should England eventually become a purchaser. If Cyprus can, without undue taxation, afford a revenue of £ 170,000, it is palpable that a large margin would be available for those absolutely necessary public works—irrigation, the control of the Pedias river, road-making, harbour-works, bridges, extension of forests and guardians, and a host of minor improvements, such as district schools for the teaching of English, &c. &c. In fact, if we held Cyprus with-I out purchase as a conquered country, such as Ceylon 1 Mauritius, or other of our colonies, it would occupy the extraordinary position of a colony that could I advance and pay its way entirely by its own sur-I plus revenue, without a public loan ! This is a fact I of great importance—that, in spite of the usual Turkish Ì mal-administration, the island has no debt, but that England has acknov/ledged the success of the Turkish I rule by paying .£96,00 0 per annum as the accepted Ì surplus revenue of this misgoverned island !—which ! holds upon these data a better financial condition than any of our own colonies. If the total gross revenue is /170,000 a year, and we can afford to pay /96,000 to the Porte, and at the same time allow the home government to boast in the

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