When We
Reflect That In The Proverbially Wet Climate Of England There Is A
Considerable Difficulty In Assuring A Supply
Of wholesome water, and
that the various water companies have made enormous profits, it is not
surprising that in a
Neglected island like Cyprus there should be
distress in the absence of abundant rain. The uninitiated in England
seldom appreciate the labour and expenditure that has supplied the
response to the simple turning of a tap within an ordinary house. If
they would follow the artificial stream from the small leaden pipe to
the distant reservoir, they would discover that a glen or valley has
been walled in by a stupendous dam, which imprisons a hill-rivulet
before it can have descended to the impurities of habitations, and that
the pressure of waters thus stored at an elevated level forces a supply
to a town at a distance of many miles. This same principle might be
adopted in numerous localities among the mountains of Cyprus, where the
streams are perennial, but are now exhausted by the absorption of the
sandy beds before they have time to reach the villages in the lower
lands. Iron pipes might be laid to convey a water-supply to certain
districts, upon which a rate would be levied per acre and the crops
would be ensured.
The government at the present moment obtains a revenue in kind, or in a
money valuation of the corn taken at the threshing-floor; thus in the
absence of a crop through drought, or other accident, the revenue
suffers directly together with the owner:
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