AGRICULTURE IN PALESTINE.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume I, Issue 90, 23 February 1881, Page 4

AGRICULTURE IN PALESTINE.

Tho Ecv. W. J. Strawy, Buxtm Vicarage, Norwich, contributed an article to the London Times last year on the prospects of; agriculture in Palestine. The following extracts (for which we have to thank a lady correspondent) will be interesting at the present time, when the Jews are returning from almost every corner of the earth to what they believe to be the Promised Land : —

1. Nothing can well exceed the desolateness of much of it. Treeless it is for 20 or 30 miles together. Forests which existed thirty years ago e.g. on Mount Carmel and Mount Tabor, fast disappearing ; rich plains, of the finest garden soil, asking to be cultivated ; at best, but scratched up a few inches deep in patches, with no hedges or boundaries. Mountain terraces, natural or artificially formed, ready to be planted with vines, as the German colony are doing at the foot of Mount Carmel. The villages, nothing but mud huts, dust, dirt, and squalor; the inhabitants with but scanty clothing; their houses ovens ; large tracts without a horse, or cow, Bheep, or dog ; no pretence at roads, except from Jaffa to Jerusalem, and this like a cart track over a ploughed field, the rest at best like sheep-walks on the Downs of Sussex ; but for far the most part like the dry bed of the most rocky river, where amid blocks of stone, each makes his way at a foot-pace as best he can, or on smooth, sloping rocks, or over loose stones, thrown down from the old walls on either side, which no one offers a finger to remove ; nothing upon wheels, not so much as a barrow to be met with in a ride of over 300 miles.

2. Everything is taxed ; every fruit tree, so none now are planted ; every cow or horse, &c. ; every vegetable sold out of a private garden. Every eighth egg is not taxed, but taken by the Government. In some places the taxes of the district are sold to the highest bidder. The farmer is unable to sell a measure of his corn till all has beon collected in a heap, and the tax collector has set his sum upon it, from which there is no appeal. Double taxes are expected this year, because, after three years of scarceness, the harvest promises to be abundant.

3. Nothing like a small farmhouse is to be found far or near. If there were, the owner is liable to have soldiers or revenue officers quartered upon him to be boarded and lodged at his expense. The towns are filthy in the extreme — none more so than Jerusalem itself, where, however, taxes are levied on every house for lighting and cleaning the streets ; while a sprained ancle, or a splash into a hole, is sure to be the result of a momentary carelessness.

4. Nothing is done for the benefit or to improve the land of the people by the Government. Not only so, but every offer, and I hear of several, made by private individuals or by companies, is at once refused, or refused unless a bribe be first given to the authorities.

This is i picture, I believe, in no way overdrawn of that land which was once flowing with milk and honey. What might it not become again with fair usage and good Government? But there is no hope for Palestine while it remains m the hands of its present rulers. One result of the British occupation of Cyprus already is to make even Mahotnedans, I was told, both in Egypt and Palestine, hope that the same bright day of better things might dawn upon them.

Palestine is worthless to the Turkish Government. The whole revenue is stated to amount only to ,£IBO,OOO or .£200,000 per annum. Capitalise this at 5 per cent., and it comes to but ,£4,000,000 of money. If it were .£6,000,000, or even £10,000,000, what would that be for England to raise for the purchase of Palestine? A sum sure to be repaid a thousandfold in a few years' time. And what would not £10,000,000 in hard cash be to the Turkish Government at this momen ? For 150 years India was admirably governed by the Old East India Company. Palestine, compared with India, is as one of the smallest countries, compared with the whole of England. Blessed indeed will that power surely be which shall first move to establish some such company for the purchase and government of Palestine ; not seeking in any way its own aggrandisement, but perhaps thus fulfilling, in a way beyond what is ordinary or common, our daily prayer, "Thy will be done on earth, as it is done in Heaven," for, ''Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled."