It Has Checked The Productiveness Of The Island, The
Area Now Under Cultivation Being Less Than A Third Of All The Culturable
Lands Of Cyprus.
Some modification of the tax, or of the machinery for
its collection, would therefore seem to be imperatively required.
There are not wanting points of analogy, as of difference, between
Cyprus and some of the British provinces of India, and a suggestion has
been made to substitute the Indian system of a fixed money payment for
the tenth of the produce in kind. Curiously enough, the converse
proposition has lately found favour in India in connection with the
agrarian riots in the Dekkan, and what is there regarded as the bane of
the Indian system is now proposed here as the antidote of the Turkish
system. Like the Cypriote, but in a greater degree, the Dekkan peasant
is poor, indebted, and indifferent to the improvement of his land, and
both are constantly liable to the effects of drought and famine. But
whilst the State requires from the former only a tenth part of his
actual crops, the Indian peasant is liable for the full money rate fixed
without regard to the rainfall and the crops. As between the State and
the peasant, the elastic tithe tax would seem to be preferable-its evil
working in Cyprus being due mainly to the irresponsible and unscrupulous
agencies entrusted with the collection of the tithes. In attempting any
reform, therefore, care should be taken at the outset to avoid
principles or methods that have contributed in India to evils similar to
those that have to be rectified here. The direction and scope of the
reform must necessarily depend upon more complete information than is at
present available respecting the land tenures and local agricultural
customs of this island, the varieties of soil, the means of irrigation
actual and possible, and the conditions and habits of the agricultural
classes generally.
Information on these essential points may, however, be obtained
before the termination of the present engagements with the tithe-
farmers in March 1879. A rough field survey would prepare the
ground for a systematic inquiry into rights and interests in each
estate and village throughout the several districts of the island.
The inquiry, conducted by the respective commissioners of districts
in the next few months of favourable weather, may be made to
embrace the following points
1. The extent of the several holdings, and whether held under
proprietary, sub-proprietary, or occupancy rights.
2. The average produce of each estate or holding, and its value,
say for the last three or four years.
3. The areas respectively (1) under cultivation, (2) not under
cultivation but culturable, (3) unculturable and barren waste.
4. In the case of culturable lands not under cultivation, inquiry
should be made whether this is the result of the oppressive way of
collecting tithes, or the want of money or cultivators, or whether
the land is required for grazing or other purposes.
5. The character of the soil in various parts of the island, and
the respective producing capabilities.
6.
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