Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1899 American Edition.djvu/458

 118 THE BRITISH EMPIRE: — CYPRUS The weights and measures of Ceylon are the same as those of the United Kingdom. The money of the country is the rupee of British India with cents in place of annas and pice ; thus Ceylon has a decimal coinage. Dependency. The Maldive Islands, 500 miles west of Ceylon, are governed by an hereditary Sultan, who resides in the island of Mali, and pays a yearly tribute to the Ceylon Government. Next to the Sultan is the Fandiari, the head priest or judge, and besides him 6 Wazirs or Ministers of State. The Maldives are a group of 17 coral islets (atolls), richly clothed with cocoa-nut palms, and yielding millet fruit, and edible nuts. Population estimated at about 30,000 Mohammedans. The people are civilised, and are great navigators and traders. Statistical and other Books of Reference concerning Ceylon. Blue Book of Ceylon. Annual Report on Ceylon. Census of Ceylon, 1891. Colombo, 1892. Colonial Office List. Annual. London. Statistics of Ceylon ; in ' Statistical Abstract for the Colonial and other Possessions of the United Kingdom.' Annual. London. Annual Statementof the Trade of the United Kingdom with Foreign Countries and British Possessions. Imp. 4. London. Baker (Sir S. W.), Eight Years' Wanderings in Ceylon. 8. London, 1855. Carpenter (E.), From Adam's Peak to Blephanta. 8. London, 1892. Cave (H. W.), The Ruined Cities of Ceylon. London, 1897. Chalmers (R.), A History of Currency in the British Colonies. London, 1893. Clutterbuck (W. J.), Aboi;t Ceylon. London, 1891. Dechamps (E.), Carnet d'un Voyageur. Paris, 1892. Delmas (E.), Java, Ceylon, les Indes. Paris, 1897. Ferguson (J.), The Ceylon Handbook and Directory. 8. Colombo and London, 1893. i^erpuson (J.), Ceylon in 1893. Illustrated. 4th Edition. London, 1893. Oeiger (W.), Tagebuchblatter und Reiseerinnerungen. Wiesbaden, 1897. Gordon- Cumming (Miss E.), Ceylon. London, 1891.— Two Happy Years in Ceylon. 2 vols. Edinburgh, 1892. Haeckel (E. H. P. A.), A Visit to Ceylon. 8. London, 1883. Murray's Handbook for India, Ceylon, &c. 2nd edition. London, 1894. Noblemaire (G.), En Conge. Paris, 1897. Schmidt (E.), Ceylon, Berlin, 1897. Tennent (Sir James Emerson), Ceylon : an Account of the Island, Physical, Historical and Topographical. 5th edition. London. 1860. Christmas Island. See Straits Settlements. CYPRUS. ffigh Commissioner. — Sir William F. Haynes Smith. K.C.M.G., appointed 1898 ; salary, 3,000Z. The island is the third largest in the Mediterranean, 60 miles from the coast of Asia Minor and 41 from the coast of Syria. It is administered by Great Britain, under a convention concluded between the representatives of Her Majesty and the Sultan of Turkey at Constantinople, June 4, 1878. The British High Commissioner is vested with the usual powers of a colonial governor. He is assisted by an Executive Council, consisting of the Chief Secretary, the Queen's Advocate, the Receiver-General. The Legislature con- sists of a Council of eighteen members, six being office holders — the Chief Secretary, the Queen's Advocate, the Receiver-General, the Chief Medical Officer, the Registrar- General and the Director of Agriculture — and twelve elected (for five years), three by Mohammedan and nine by non-Mohammedan voters. The voters are all male Ottomans, or British subjects, or foreigners,