This important subject requires a separate department, and
nothing can be more simple if administered by persons qualified by
education for the development of trees suitable to the island. The
poverty of the local government, owing to the miserable conditions of
our tenure, which send the cream to Turkey, and suckle the necessary
staff upon the thin skimmed-milk, does not permit the real improvement
of the forests. It is simply ridiculous to make laws without the active
weapons to enforce authority; we may as well rest satisfied with the
game laws in England and dismiss our keepers, as prohibit the cutting of
wood in Cyprus without supervising the forests by a staff of foresters.
If the words "Thou shalt not steal," even from a divine command, were
sufficient to prevent felony and petty larceny, it would be folly to
incur the expense of police; but we know that practically all laws must
be upheld by force, represented by the authorised guardians of the
state. 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.
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