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ments, and a year or two later supported by Dr. McClelland in Pegu, eventually resulted in the appointment of Dr. Brandis as the first trained Conservator in India. Dr. Brandis was appointed to Pegu in 1856, but the Tenasserim Forests were added to his charge in 1857. During the years which intervened between Falconer's visit and this appointment the management of the latter forests remained very much in the position his Report describes them, although, as will be shown, McClelland laid a foundation in Pegu upon which Brandis built.

CHAPTER XIV

FOREST OPERATIONS IN BURMA (PEGU) 1850-1857 (continued)

DR. MCCLELLAND'S WORK IN THE PEGU FORESTS

T

AND THE FOREST CHARTER

HE annexation of Burma was perhaps to some extent an outcome of the valuable teak forests the country contained. The annexation of the two southern Provinces of Burma, Tenasserim and Martaban, took place at the end of the first Burmese War in 1826. This annexation was primarily due to the necessity of safeguarding our south-eastern frontier, which the chaotic conditions engendered by the misrule of the Burmese Government rendered otherwise untenable.

It has been shown that under the unfortunate licence system introduced, the teak forests in this region were nearly cut out during the ensuing quarter of a century.

The outcome of the second Burmese War was the annexation of the Province of Pegu by proclamation on the 20th December, 1852. Rangoon was the capital, having been founded by the Alompra dynasty in 1775. It had been the principal mart for the export of teak timber for nearly a century, teak being the chief staple industry of the port. The teak tree had been proclaimed a royal tree by this dynasty and was consequently regarded as a royal monopoly.

Following this precedent soon after the annexation, a notification was issued by the British Government stating that "all the forests are the property of Government, and no general permission to cut timber therein will be granted to

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The Government of India therefore made a distinct claim to the full ownership of the teak forests and their contents, as expressed by the words, "All the forests are the property of Government," and their instructions to the Superintendent were that "the Superintendent of Forests will mark the trees

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RAFTS OF TEAK TIMBER ON RIVER BANK ALONGSIDE A SAWMILL. RANGOON From India Office Album

which may be bought and felled. He will, for the present, be guided by the general principles under which the Travancore Forests are cut, and replenished by nurseries. The price paid for the unfelled log will be inclusive of all duty. The Commissioner will hereafter report what amount should be fixed per tree.'

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In spite of these definite instructions both Captain Phayre, the Commissioner of Pegu, and Dr. McClelland, who was appointed the officiating Superintendent of Forests, regarded the sale of the timber from the viewpoint of the 15 per cent duty levied in Moulmein under the licence system which, as has been shown, had ruined the Tenasserim Forests. It was this view and other expressions of opinion by Captain Phayre on Dr. McClelland's proposals which, as we shall see, gave rise to Lord Dalhousie's famous Minute of 1855 which has already been alluded to as the "Charter" of the Indian Forests.

Soon after taking up his new post the Superintendent made a tour of the forests and compiled the result of his observations in an interesting Report dated 5th April, 1854, to be now noticed. During this tour he visited the southern forests of the new Province, that is those situated on the feeders of the Hlaine, Phoungyee and Pegu streams, which fall into the Rangoon River. McClelland's description of this tract is as follows: "The Yomah Mountains, the central chain of Burma proper, are extended into Pegu and form the spine, as it were, of the Province with the valley of the Irrawaddy on the west and that of the Sittang River on the east; and the several minor valleys lying between the off-shoots by which the chain is terminated in the south, as the valley of the Zamayee or Pegu River, the valley of the Hlaine or Line River, together with the intermediate valley of the Phoungyee or Paizoondown Creek, lying between the Hlaine and Pegu Rivers." The Superintendent's description of the route he took and the extent of the population at that period is of interest.

"In our late tour we ascended the Thounzai Valley in the Hlaine district to its head, and descended through the Oakkan Valley, and having traversed the forests from thence to Mazalee, ascended the choung (stream) of that name and thus crossed the boundary ridge from the Hlaine into the Phoungyee Forests, which, having explored on both sides of the valley, we crossed the second boundary ridge from Phoungyee and descended into the valley of the Zamayee River, from whence

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