CORNER OF A GARDEN AT LABDAH, NEAR MUNGPOO, GOVERNMENT CINCHONA PLANTATION, DARJILING DISTRICT, BENGAL, ELEVATION 3000 FEET. MUNGPOO PEAK IS SEEN IN THE MIDDLE DISTANCE. BAMBOOS, CRYPTOMERIA JAPONICA AND TREE FERNS IN FOREGROUND Photograph by Professor W. Wright Smith

ment could well pay its expenses. Within the last few years, however, large quantities of 'sholah' land all round Ootacamund have been given up for cinchona and tea plantations, and wood has been brought from all quarters, and it has become impossible to stop any wood, although it may have been clandestinely cut, unless parties had actually been detected felling it in Government tracts. Our receipts were reduced to a minimum, and it became impossible to check smuggling without a large establishment of Forest Police, which the revenue did not authorise. Smuggling is, however, confined to headloads, and the real cause in the falling off of the revenue has been the large amount of wood brought into cantonment from the plantations alluded to.

This private supply of wood from the different plantations will fail shortly, and the revenue from the Government' sholas will consequently increase, and will authorise a larger establishment. I may also mention that private planting has lately received a great stimulus, and many residents can supply their own wants from their private grounds, and even sell wood. I do not, therefore, feel the alarm as to the future that is expressed by the Commissioner.

I believe it would be the best plan to transfer the conservancy of all the 'sholahs' entirely to the Commissioner and his assistant, relieving the Forest Department of all duties except that of superintending the planting. Whether an officer is appointed or not to this charge, under the Commissioner, the smuggling cannot be checked without a large staff of Forest Police, which will be a heavy charge of itself, but an officer could hardly be employed on a smaller salary than Rs.500 a month, and how is the charge to be met? If it is put on the wood (a necessity of life in a place like Ootacamund) it will cause great dissatisfaction to the residents and visitors to the station. Government will remember that an officer was formerly appointed solely to this charge, but the appointment was soon done away with on the ground of expense, and I could not now recommend the employment of an officer, when I feel sure that an active overseer of character and integrity is fully equal to the charge, if he has a sufficient staff of police under him."

In an Order dated 11th March, 1869, the Government, after reviewing all the correspondence, sanctioned the transfer of the existing forest establishment on the Nilgiris to the Commissioner from the 1st April, with the warning to him that he

"should bear in mind that as a rule the annual cost must not exceed the annual receipts, as the charges and collections for the future appear in the accounts under 'Jungle Conservancy' subordinate to local fund."

The transfer was doubtless unavoidable at the time owing to the paucity of staff of the Forestry Department; but the necessity of such a retrogressive step was on a par with the lack of vision and statesmanship on the part of the Madras Board of Revenue in dealing with forest matters. By 1870 they had lost the pride of place which they should have occupied in India in this matter. The position at this period is well summed up by the Secretary of State in a review of the Forest Report of the Presidency for 1869-70, which was only forwarded to him on 9th May, 1871, although dated June ist, 1870. This Report is of high interest, since it details at considerable length the various branches of work on which the Department was engaged in the several districts and also exhibits the mistakes which were being made and the difficulties, which lack of co-operation and assistance, were putting on the new Department. The Secretary of State's (Duke of Argyll) Despatch is a good summary of the position. He wrote:

"

The financial results show a net profit of £20,909, with stock in hand valued at £44,090, less by £11,813 than what was in hand at the close of the previous year. Major Beddome contends that this should not be deducted from the profit of the year, but this cannot be admitted as a sound principle, since the stock sold was obtained in the previous year, and the cost of obtaining it charged against that year, and the surplus has only been gained by the diminution of so much valuable property belonging to Government. The other reason adduced by Major Beddome, the incorrectness of the valuations, must be remedied by making them correctly in future. This deduction reduces the actual profit of the year to £9,096. Comparing, however, the cash transactions of this year with 1868-9, the charges had increased by £1,699 and the revenue by £10,461, showing an improvement in the cash transactions of 1869-70 of £8,762. Your order gives an abstract of the quantity of material drawn out of the forests by these operations, and I agree with Your Excellency in Council that these results testify favourably to the work of the Department. An analysis of the statement, on page 42 of the Report, show that in six of the divisions given the expenditure had exceeded

the revenue, but the transactions of the Ist are new and insignificant; those in the 3rd, 4th and 6th relate chiefly to plantations; and in Wynaad there had been a considerable increase of profit from 1868-9, although the confidence of the merchants was said to be still impaired by Mr. Turnbull's frauds. In Madura the assigned causes for the loss are more serious,' the poverty of the forests,' and' the paucity and want of organisation of establishments.' There had, however, been expenditure of an extraordinary kind, and the credit side had been reduced by the stoppage of felling, and by extensive free grants of timber to ryots and villages.

It is satisfactory to perceive that considerable progress has been made, and is being carried on in the formation of plantations and fuel reserves of various kinds. These are not only in themselves interesting experiments, but most important to the well-being of the country, as a means of keeping up the supply of timber and firewood, the demand for which has increased enormously, and is not likely to be diminished.

But whilst I give credit to the Administration on these grounds, it is evident, from the documents before me, that much more might be made out of the fine forests of your Presidency; and that of late years sound principles of conservancy have not made the progress which they should have done from the earlier start which they had here over the rest of India. The establishments are clearly not large enough for the increased duties devolving upon them in their several charges, and this weakness has been augmented by the unfortunate illness of several of the most energetic and able officers in charge of districts. Captain Gosling, Lieutenant Walker and Mr. Cadell have all been driven home by ill-health. Moreover, questions affecting the definition of the rights of the Government and those of 'zemindars' and 'ryots,' whether to timber and fuel or to the minor forest produce, are still unsettled; no progress has been made towards any legislative enactment, and there is an evident want of the cordial support which might be given by the Revenue officers to those of the Forest Department. This is a point which I regret to have to refer to again; as the effects of such a defect of cordiality in the cession of forest lands were noticed with regret by my predecessor and myself, in the Despatches, dated respectively 23rd July, 1868, No. 9, and the 11th February, 1869, No. 1. It is not possible that such want of co-operation should not be observed and taken advantage of, and that it should not