1899-1900 being Rs.24,15,200 (the average of the preceding five years Rs.30,46,244) and the surplus Rs.2,86,770, the preceding five-year average having been Rs.10,64,622. In the Northern Circle the preparation of Working Plans was mainly confined to Thana, where the system of coppice with standards was being introduced. The results of this change of system will be dealt with in a later Part. In 1900 the total area of forest under the Department, including Sind, was 14,945 square miles, of which 13,695 square miles were Reserves (including 679 square miles of leased forest in the Dangs, Surat District) and 1250 square miles of Protected Forest. An area of 1334 square miles was under sanctioned Working Plans in 1900, whilst plans were being prepared for 6038 square miles. Plans had still to be taken in hand for 7574 square miles. The complexity of the working of the forests of the Presidency has been described in previous parts of this history. Owing to the fact that the Government Forest areas were so intricately mixed up with native states and private lands it had always been held that forest administration in Bombay differed appreciably from that in other Provinces, and that therefore methods in force in, and comparisons with, the latter were of little practical use. And to a considerable extent this was undoubtedly true. But one of the outcomes showed itself in a comparatively larger subordinate staff being maintained in the Presidency with a large number of very poorly paid posts. The complaints against the honesty of the menial staff of the Department doubtless had a strong substratum of truth; but the reason was to be found in the fact that they were worse paid than the lower grades of any other department-in fact they were not given a living wage. The Bombay Government had gradually recognized the position of affairs and, in 1888, in a letter No. 5451, dated 13th August, to the Government of India, submitting a scheme for the reorganization of the controlling Forest Staff in terms of the Government of India Circular No. 9 F., dated 2nd June, 1888, they mentioned that the question of the revision and reorganization of the Staff, from Rangers to Forest Guards, was under consideration and. expressed the opinion that a liberal increase in pay should constitute an essential feature of the scheme. Nearly two years later the Bombay Government, in their letter No. 3453, dated 17th May, 1890, reported that an influential Committee had considered the subject, that their recommendations had been accepted and were now forwarded for sanction to the Government of India. Since, as the outcome was to show, nearly a score of years were to elapse before a reorganization was given effect to, it is worth while giving here the tabular statement showing the strength of the subordinate staff in 1890 and the reorganization proposed: The reply of the Government of India was unfavourable (No. 633 F, of 24th July, 1890). A reorganization of all Provincial Forest Departments was under consideration at the time, and this was given as the reason for deferring a consideration of the Bombay scheme; it was added, however, that there was no prospect of its being sanctioned in its entirety. Early in 1891 the Government of Bombay convened a second Committee to discuss the question, the InspectorGeneral of Forests (Ribbentrop) and some local Forest Officers being members. This Committee, as compared with the first, reduced the number of Rangers, increased the number of Foresters and Guards, but abolished the miscellaneous posts, retained the number of clerks, increased the number of peons and materially reduced both the temporary establishment and the total number of the staff proposed in the preceding year. In the following year the Government of India (Circular This No. 24 F., dated 2nd August, 1892) forwarded proposals drawn up by the Inspector-General of Forests. Briefly these were: Rangers, 102; Deputy Rangers (the grade did not exist in Bombay), 72; Foresters, 272; Forest Guards, 3590. suggestion was declined by the Bombay Government. In December of the same year they explained that they were considering the subject of the classification of State Forests into: (a) forests proper, (b) fuel and fodder reserves, and (c) pastures, and that they proposed to address the Government of India in the matter shortly. The immediate result of this letter was that a scheme for the reorganization of the Executive Forest Service throughout India, but expressly excluding Bombay, was forwarded for the Secretary of State's sanction in Finance Dept. Despatch No. 148, dated 10th May, 1893. This melancholy episode for which, in the first instance, the Government of Bombay was certainly not to blame, that responsibility resting apparently with the Inspector-General of Forests, dragged on, and six years elapsed before the subject was again reopened, the Bombay Government addressing a letter, No. 1419, dated 23rd February, 1899, to the Government of India in which they stated that the strength of the Executive Forest Staff could not be determined until the reclassification of forest areas furnished information as to what tracts were to remain in charge of the Forest Department, and adding, "in the present financial difficulties Government sees no prospect of being able to provide, for several years to come, the provincial share of the expenditure required for the revision of forest establishments." In the following year, in Finance Department's Despatch, No. 297, dated 6th September, 1900, proposals for the revisions of the clerical establishment throughout India, again expressly excluding Bombay, were made to the Secretary of State. Thus we see Bombay isolated and her executive establishment denied that improvement in prospects, which was not only overdue, but the nonfulfilment of which seriously retarded the development of forestry progress. SIND As has been described in previous parts of this history, the chief sources of revenue of the Forest Department in Sind were originally the fuel supply of the Indus flotilla, to which had been added the demands of the Railway and Karachi Harbour Works. By 1878 it was considered probable that the Sind forests were sufficiently extensive to be capable of supplying all possible demands of the Railway, whilst it was thought that, with the increased number of trains, the demand for fuel by the Indus flotilla would decrease. The Karachi Harbour Works still absorbed a considerable amount whilst a new, and what appeared would be an increasing, demand for fuel had arisen on the part of the Hyderabad Water Works. The Commissariat Department in Karachi were also to be supplied in the future by the Forest Department. Allusion has been made in a previous part (Vol. II, p. 175) to the erosion trouble existing in Sind owing to the vagaries of the Indus resulting in constant changes in its channels. Owing to this habit areas of land, both forest and agricultural, were washed away in one quarter and accretions deposited elsewhere. The question as to the ownership of such accretions was often disputed and had to be settled by the Courts as between different Government Departments or between a Department and a private claimant. During the year 1877-8 the inundation period was the lowest on record, thereby restricting the area cultivated and causing interference with the work and receipts of the Government Departments. This was followed by very high floods in the ensuing coldweather season, causing excessive erosion, the Forest Department losing 5284 acres of forest swept into the river. The following statement is of interest as depicting the fluctuating areas under the Department from this action. It shows the area lost and gained in the whole Province between 1874-5 and 1877-8. Major McRae was the Conservator of Forests and had introduced, for the first time in 1877-8, a new method of dealing with the trees, which had to be cut on banks which were being |