Cyprus, as I Saw It in 1879Baker, Samuel White, Sir
History
Cyprus, as I Saw It in 1879
Baker, Samuel White, Sir
Cyprus -- Description and travel
How easy it is to be generous at the expense of others!--here are
(including Consuls White and Lang) no less than five British consuls who
have been protesting against this instance of oppression and injustice
since the year 1862, and it would naturally have been expected that one
of our first acts upon assuming the government of Cyprus would have been
to abolish an abuse that had excited the remonstrances of our own
representatives. The fact is that we were reduced to a financial ebb of
the gravest character by the absorption at Constantinople of an unfair
proportion of the revenue, and our government was not in a position to
risk a reduction of income by such an important change in the system of
taxation. The Cypriotes have nevertheless derived a collateral advantage
from the change of rulers, as the extreme grievances to which the
consular reports allude were aggravated by the farmers of taxes, who no
longer exist. These people were extortioners of the worst description,
and the bribes and extra payments extracted from the vine-growers are
represented in the gross sum mentioned as amounting to 40 per cent. upon
the general produce of the vineyard. The reforms already established by
the abolition of the nefarious system of tax-farming have relieved the
vine-growers from the most serious oppression, but sufficient abuses
remain to demand a radical change, if the industry for which Cyprus is
specially adapted by nature is to be encouraged.
As I have described in outline the rude method of cultivation and the
manufacture of wine from the first bursting of the young vines, I will
now examine the system of arbitrary interference to which the vine-
grower is exposed through the successive stages of his employment.
The first tax is perfectly fair, as it is calculated according to the
rateable value of the land, which is divided into three classes. These
qualities of soil vary in the valuation from
No. 1 = 500 piastres the donum (about half an acre) to
No. 3 = 100 piastres the donum
The malliea, or annual tax upon these valuations per donum, is 2 per
cent.
When the grapes are nearly ripe, they must be valued before the
proprietor has a right to gather his crop. He is obliged to present
himself at the government office at Limasol, many miles from his estate,
to petition for the attendance of the official valuer, called the
"mahmoor," upon a certain day. This may or may not be granted, but at
all events one or two days have been expended in the journey.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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