‘Cyprus.’ [‎84r] (167/184)

CURRENCY, ETC.
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become settled, still it may be useful to quote some of the prices
which were paid at Larnaca about the middle of August, 1878.
Good beef about 4<i per lb. or 9d. per kilogramme (2^- lbs.). A
dressed sheep, of from 35 lbs. to 40 lbs. in weight sells for about 8s.
and a sheep weighing nearly 90 lbs. was bought for 14s.
Vegetables sufficient to supply a ship’s company of 80 men can
be had for 2s.; these vegetables are French beans, tomatoes, vegetable
marrows, celery (for soup) and onions. Cucumbers sell at a half
penny each. Potatoes, not quite so good as the English or Maltese,
but better than those got in India, average about 5 s. per cwt.
Large fowls fetch 14s per dozen; geese and turkeys vary from
2s. to 3s. each; chickens average 6<7. each, and the standing price
for eggs is 6d. per dozen.
Bread is cheap, but bad, being both gritty from the mode of
thrashing, and badly baked. There are, however, some steam
flour mills in the island, as at Limasol.
Fruit is very abundant, and can be purchased at very cheap
rates; melons and water-melons are plentiful, and grapes can be
procured to any extent at 2d. per oke (2£ lbs. English).
Fish is scarce; a species of mullet, about the size of a small her
ring, is the fish generally offered for sale, and varies from 3s. to 4s.
per lb. The red wine, called brusco, or sweet, is sold at from one and
a-half to two piastres per oke, and the white, or new Commanderia
at two or two and a half piastres per oke.
The old Cyprus wines command much higher prices, such as
twenty piastres per oke, and are not always to be procured.
House accommodation is not invariably good; but in each town
there are a few spacious and airy buildings. Both rents and land
values have increased enormously since the cession, several
quotations showing an increase up to ten times what was formerly
paid.
Both fuel and forage are at present somewhat scarce, and
consequently sell at comparatively high prices.
Fairs are very frequently held in Cyprus and are attended by the
peasantry in very great numbers both for pleasure, and for the
sale of the local produce.
The most important fairs are :—
Ktima (near Baffo), 29th June.
Famagusta „ 11th June.
St. Barnabas.
V aroschia.
Cape Carrubiere.
Omodos (for wine, tobacco, and oxen), 14th September.
Larnaca (the anniversary of the birth of Venus).
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L
Houses.
Fuel and
Forage.
Fairs.