CYPRUS.

Thames Star, Volume IX, Issue 3003, 30 September 1878, Page 1

CYPRUS.

THE CONDITION OF ITS POPULATION AND ITS RESOURCES.

The following is a summary of the result of the investigations which have been instituted in regard to the present geographical, topographical, and social condition of the Island of Cyprus :—

There are 220,000 people in Cyprus, three-fourths of whom are Christians. In Nicosia the Moslems are in the majority, and are fanatical, but the Christians arc in a great majority everywhere elae. The inhabitants generally are peacefully disposed, lazy, tolerant to strangers, fond of pleasure, and somewhat addicted to intemperance, but robbery and murder are unknown among them. Midsummer is the worst season of the year for health. .The rural districts arc, however, nearly free from fever. The Turkish soldiers in Cyprus number 5001 besides which there are also 275 zaptiehs, or Turkish policemen. .Nicosia is protected by ramparts, which are armed with forty ancient cannon, capable of ho very great defensive operations. Famagusta is surrounded by walls of some strength, bat they stand in need of a proper armament Baffo and Larnaca are weakly-protected from the sea. Kyussia can be made a formidable stronghold. Limasol and Famagusta are, the only ports where the landing of troops can be easily accomplished. At Larnaca there is no rainfall during ten months of the* year, but when the rains set in they are more like torrents sweeping down from the far-away mountains than what Western Europeans are accustomed to. These torrent beds arc perfectly dry during the two summer months. There are three aqueducts, which usually contain good water. * About one-fourth of the land has been cultivated. The land in the north is mostly held by peasant proprietors, but a few of the estates reach to as great an extent as three thousand acres. The ordinary crop-bearing ground, fetches £3 an acre, and the cotton-producing ground £10.

The exports exceed the imports by considerably over £200,000. A large trade is done in wool and locust beans, which are extensively exported to Austria and Russia. The cotton grown in Cyprus is from American seed and is excellent, and the trade in cotton is "being gradually developed. Some trade is also done in tobacco and in madder, but the cultivation, of these articles wants encouragement. Copper and' splendid asbestos are to be found near Baflb, and amber and copperas near Laijnaca. . There are salt lakes in the Island of great extent, and very, lucrative ; they arc Government property. Turkey drew over £200,000 yearly profit out of the Island, but the sources from which this Bum came' can be easily . so managed as to produce- half a million sterling, and the Island be benefited in the process. The revenue of the Island is derived principally from agricultural tithes, duties on wine and stamps, a sheep' tax, and a salt monopoly. / . . The administration' of the several local Councils and Law Courts has been exercised by Moslems and Christians/all of whom have been elected by (be people. The v Administrators who were found existing have been allowed to continue their functions under the control oi a British Court of Appeal. At Nicosia the Christians are in the enjoyment of civil and religious freedom. * One' Archbishop and three Bishops of the Greek Church were elected by the people, and their position and dignity were respected by the Turkish Government. — Standard. , , ,

A. Disastrous Ghost Investigation;—A man.saw a ghost while walking along a lonely highway at midnight. The ghost stood exactly in the middle of the road, and the wayfarer,- deciding to investigate, pojked at it with his umbrella. The next instant be was knocked twenty feet into a mud : bold. Moral —Never poke an umbrella at a large white mule when its back iiturned/ , Peace at Last.—^-Brow.n's wife went to the dentist's on Friday.and took gas. The new- set of teeth is not ready, nor is she ready; and so there has been peace in Brown's family for several days. As' .Brown joyfully remarked : " Her mouth is closed for repairs." Practical.—" My boy," said a solernnvisaged evangelist to a lad who had just emerged from a hair-pulling match with. another boy, "do you expect to roam hereafter in a land o£ pure delight?" "No," said the lad; "I have busted another button, and „ expect to get licked for it." Teaser. —Some one was talking to Jolm Leech of Frank Matthews., and said, " You know Frank—not Charles —the one wi?n the most t's ? " " Most teas ? ". answered Leech; " most brandies-and-water, you mean !"' . ■