[Ncn^  f,  1895. 
344  THE  TROPICAL 
THE  LOWER  PULNEV?5  PLANTERS' 
ASSOCIATlUxV. 
The  following  is  from  the  Annual  Report 
of  this  Association  : — 
Labour  and  Crops. — Our  Labour  supply  is  good 
and  being  chiefly  local  we  are  able  to  avoid  the 
heavy  outstanding  advances  current  in  many 
planting  districts.  The  crops  last  year  were  good 
and  this  year,  in  spite  of  the  unfortunate  rains 
we  liad  abo\it  the  time  of  the  opening  of  the 
blossom,  and  the  scanty  rain  .since,  will,  .so  far 
as  can  be  judged  now,  be  fair,  though  not  as 
good  as  last  year.— il/.  Mail, 
CYPRUS  : ITS  PRESENT  AND  FUTURE. 
(Fr’om  the  Westminster  Budget,  Aug.  23.) 
A TALK  WITH  ITS  HIGH  COMMISSIONER. 
As  Sir  Walter  Sendall,  k.c.m.g..  High  Com- 
missioner of  Cyprus,  had  recently  arrived  in 
London,  it  occurred  to  us  that  he  might  be 
willing  to  give  some  information  about  the  one 
British  trophy  of  1878.  The  island  has  so  often, 
lately,  been  described  as  a whits  elephant  that 
isformation  about  it  from  one,  who  could  speak 
with  authority,  seemed  likely  to  be  generally 
interesting.  The  High  Commissioner  replied  very 
courteously  to  the  suggestion,  and  so  a represen- 
tative of  the  Westminster  Budget  found  himself  a 
day  or  two  ago  in  pleasent  tUe-d-tete  with  Sir 
Walter  Sendall  not  very  far  from  Hyde  Park 
Corner.  Sir  Walter  at  once  remarked  on  the 
contrast  between  the  climate  of  Cyprus  and 
England,  which  he  felt  very  much,  as  he  hap- 
pened to  arrive  in  London  just  after  the  long 
drought  came  to  an  end. 
CYPRUS  AS  A HEALTH  RESORT. 
“ And  is  Cyprus  fairly  healthy  ? ” I asked. 
“ It’s  an  extremely  healthy  place,”  said  Sir 
Walter.  “ It  got  a bad  name  when  we  occupied 
it  fir.st  ; but  for  a long  time  it  has  been  the 
healthiest  station  for  troops  on  the  foreign  roster. 
There’s  no  doubt,  if  we  had  better  roads,  it 
would  be  much  resorted  to.  The  few  people, 
who  have  come  over  from  Egypt,  .say  that  tlie 
change  from  Cairo  and  Alexandria  is  exceedingly 
agreeable.  They  come  over  in  the  summer-time, 
of  course.” 
As  Sir  Walter  has  held  the  Governship  of 
the  Windward  Isles  and  of  Barbados,  the  fol- 
lowing question  naturally  suggested  itself  to  me  : — 
“ Is  the  climate  at  all  like  that  of  the  West 
Indies  ? ” 
“ It  is  during  the  hot  months.  Then  it  is  like 
that  of  the  tro])ical  West  Indies.  But  then  we 
are,  of  course,  north  of  the  Tropics,  and  we  have 
a really  cold  winter  ; fires  all  over  the  house,  in 
every  room.” 
“ And  the  island  is  otherwise  attractive  ? ” 
“ The  scenery  in  the  mountainous  part  of  the 
island  is  extremely  beautiful.  Unfortunately,  the 
least  inviting  nortion  of  the  island  is  the  part 
which  first  catches  the  eye  of  the  visitor,  and 
that  is  Larnaca  and  the  road  from  Larnaca  to 
Nicosia— a flat  uninteresting  country.  The  proper 
jiame  of  Nicosia  is  Lefkosia,  from  the  white 
minarets  of  the  Turkish  mosques.  The  place  it- 
self is  picturesque  enough,  and  I resi(le  there 
during  the  greater  part  of  the  year ; but  in  the 
summer  tlie  Government  moves  to  I roodos  on  the 
Ulym))us  range,  where  the  troops  are  statiouetl. 
CYl’UUS  AS  A SEAT  OF  WEALTH. 
“ In  the  olden  time,”  said  I,  “ Cyprus  w'as 
wonderfully  pro.sperous,  was  it  not?” 
AGRICULTURIST. 
“It  was  not  only  rich,”  said  .Sir  Walter,  “ but 
a seat  of  commerce,  and  abounded  in  wealth  of 
every  description.” 
“ And  how  is  it  that  the  British  occupation 
has,  so  far,  failed  to  benefit  the  island?” 
“ Well,”  said  Sir  Walter  Sendall,  “ the  m.aiu 
thing,  of  course,  is  want  of  money  to  develop  the 
resources.  Then,  you  see,  it  has  been  for  400 
years  under  the  Turks,  steadily  wipetl  out,  and 
prevented  from  every  kind  of  progress,” 
“The  root  of  the  wdiole  matter  is  this,”  con- 
tinued the  High  Commissioner,  “ that  .so  large  a 
proportion  of  the  money  raised  by  taxation  leaves 
the  island  to  make  up  the  payment,  whicli  Eng- 
land is  under  an  obligiitiou  to  make  to  the  Forte 
under  tlie  (’onvention,  tiiat  it  ieaves  the  Govern- 
ment w’itli  the  bare  expenses  of  administration, 
without  any  surplus,  which  would  enable  them 
to  emb.ark  ujion  any  expenditure  for  improving  the 
productivene.ss  of  the  island.  Cyprus  is  an  im- 
provable estate,  but  the  Governinent  have  no 
money  to  spend  on  improvements.” 
AGIHCULTURE  2,000  YEARS  BEHIND 
THE  TIME.S. 
“ And  as  the  Cypriotes  are  poor  they  must 
plod  along  as  best  they  can  ? ” 
“ Their  metliods  of  agriculture,  ” went  on  the 
High  Commissioner,  “ are  of  the  most  primitive 
description.” 
Here  Sir  Walter  took  down  from  the  man- 
telshelf a tiny  moded  of  a Cyprus  plough. 
“There,”  said  lie  “that’s  what  they  use  toda3^ 
It’s  just  what  Virgil  describes,  d'liey  ha\’en’t 
changed  their  iiiqdements  of  agriculture  for  2,000 
yeans.  Yon  see,  it  can  only  .scratch  the  ground. 
Here  again  is  a model  of  their  thieshing 
implements.  Of  coui'se,  with  such  materials, 
the  "lain  must  have  a lot  of  dirt  mixed  up  with 
it.  As  for  the  threshing-floors,  they  are  precisely 
what  they  were  in  Palestine  in  tlie  days  cif 
Araunah  the  Jebusite.  Every  village  has  one  or 
more  of  these.” 
Sir  Walter  Semlall  declined  to  di.scuss  the  value 
of  Cy[>rus  as  a jilace  of  arms,  though  ho  hail  no 
doubt  whatever  of  its  great  usefulness  as  a sana- 
torium. He  also  considered  the  phrase  “ enchanted 
island”  as  somewhat  overstr.ained,  except  as  com- 
ing from  a person  wdio  saw  the  Orient  here  for 
the  first  time. 
Tea  In  Cevlon  and  Southern  India.— The 
Madras  Mail  in  discussing  our  Planting  Statis- 
tics for  Ceylon  has  taken  the  opiiortunity  to 
dilate  on  the  great  advantages  presented  by  the 
^Vyllaatl  districts  for  intending  tea  planters.  We 
have  nut  a word  to  say  against  these  advantages; 
but  our  contemporary  goes  too  far  in  s|)eakiiig 
at  huge  of  “ acres  of  poor  soil  and  miserable 
laud”  opeuod  with  tea  in  Ceylon.  We  have  often 
said  how  India  tea  visitors  so  far  back  as  1885, 
declared  after  visiting  our  tea  gardens  that  half- 
a-dozen  years  would  see  ni.any  of  them  snulled 
out;  but  somehow  these  same  gardens  are  now  more 
prosperous  than  ever  they  were.  Gur  contemporary 
makes  a mistake  over  our  statistics — not  37!),OuU 
acres  are  in  tea,  Imt  305,000  on  iflantations  (the 
balance  being  c ;ll'ee,  cacao,  c'tc.,)  besides,  perhajis 
o,000  ill  native  gardens  not  enumerated — making 
310,000  acres  altogether  under  tea  in  Ceylon  today. 
When  60,000  acres  are  added,  before  the  close  of 
the  century,  we  shall  have  370,000  acres  and  we 
see  no  rea.son  why  all  this  area  should  not  be  in 
full  and  prosiierous  cultivation  by  a.  d.  1900. 
