At This Moment In Cyprus The Law Proclaims, "Thou Shalt Not Cut A
Tree," While Practically You May Cut As
Many as you like in the mountain
forests, as there is no person authorised to interfere with your acts.
Some
Miserable offender may be pounced upon in his own garden, near one
of the principal towns, where the law SHOULD NEVER HAVE BEEN ENFORCED,
as interfering with the individual rights of private property; but in
the situations where the prohibition is of the first importance, there
is literally not an officer or man to prevent the usual depredations.
Why? The answer must be accepted. There is no money, and we cannot
afford an independent department of "Woods and Forests." If the country
is to continue in this slip-shod form it is a disgrace to England.
There is time to save the forests from absolute destruction, and in my
own opinion, before anything is done beyond the necessary roads and
irrigation loans, every possible attention should be concentrated upon
the protection and development of forest-trees.
The position at this moment is as follows. Throughout the entire
mountain range there are not 5 per cent. of pines free from mutilation.
The whole of Troodos, and the mountain districts from near Lithrodondo
to as far west as Poli-ton-Khrysokus, are naturally adapted for the
growth of pines and cypress, which love the soil of the plutonic rocks,
and drive their roots deep into the interstices, deriving nourishment
where nothing else would thrive.
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