Most of the local authorities whom we have consulted concerning this matter have urged the necessity of placing the Forest Department on a more satisfactory footing, so as to afford to all persons entering it fair, and, as far as practicable, uniform prospects of advancement.

Under the existing organisation, Forest Officers entering the Service have very unequal chances of promotion, according to the vacancies which may happen to arise in the Province in which they are serving. Transfers, it is true, have occasionally been made from one Province to another, but the action in this respect of the Government of India has been necessarily limited by the rules for the management of forest business, which we issued in March, 1864, and which were approved in your predecessor's Despatch, No. 16, of 9th June of that year.

Under those rules, the forests in the Bombay and Madras Presidencies, and in the Lieutenant-Governorships of Bengal, the Punjab and the North-West Provinces, were placed altogether under the management of their respective Governors and Lieutenant-Governors. All appointments and promotions of Forest Officers have accordingly been made by them without any reference to the Government of India.

This may have been the correct course to pursue at the outset, but it is now evident to us that the number of appointments in each Province is far too small to make possible a satisfactory organisation of separate departments in the different provinces. We would draw your attention to the data given in Mr. Brandis' Report regarding the number of Forest Officers in the different provinces, from which you will observe that they stand as follows:

Burma, 12 officers; Madras, II; Bombay, II; the Punjab, 9; North-West Provinces, 9; Central Provinces, 7; Mysore and Coorg, 4; Bengal, 3; Oudh, 3; Berar, 2.

Under these circumstances it appears to us necessary to consolidate all appointments in the Bengal Presidency in one general list, which will not, however, include the Presidencies of Madras and Bombay. According to the scale of establishments as sanctioned at present, this list will comprise :

and to these will be added, by the end of 1869, seven assistants now under training on a salary of Rs.250 per mensem. Total, 56 officers. In some provinces a few additional appointments will probably before long be required.

If the formation of a general list of Forest Officers for the Bengal Presidency is accepted, all first appointments will be made, either by the Home Government-in the case of the trained officers to be sent out annually-or by the Government of India of suitable persons selected in this country.

All promotions from Assistant to Deputy Conservators from grade to grade within their respective classes, however, we propose to leave to Local Governments, subject to certain rules, which, together with other arrangements of detail, will be considered after the whole scheme shall have received your sanction.

All promotions from Assistant to Deputy Conservator, and from Deputy to Conservator, will be made by the Government of India on the recommendation of Local Governments. The promotion of Conservators will be entirely in the hands of the Government of India.

The promotion of Assistant and Deputy Conservators from grade to grade within their respective classes, however, we propose to leave to Local Governments, subject to certain rules, which, together with other arrangements of detail, will be considered after the whole scheme shall have received your sanction.

The grades and classes of these appointments we propose to arrange in accordance with the following schedule, which, in this peculiar case, we have thought it best to submit for your sanction in this Department :

I. CONSERVATORS.-I first class Conservator at Rs.1,600 per mensem; I second class at Rs.1,400; 2 third class at Rs.1,200; 3 fourth class at Rs.1,000.

At present the pay of these officers, as shown above, ranges from Rs.700 to Rs.1,200. But the lower rates of pay at Rs.700 and Rs.800 can, we believe, hardly be considered adequate remuneration for the heads of departments in their provinces, though they may suffice for the present, while these appointments are held by comparatively young officers. It is therefore proposed on the promotion of these officers to absorb the lowest class of Conservator on Rs.700 and Rs. 800 per

mensem.

And the pay of the first and second class has been fixed

at Rs.1,600 and Rs.1,400 respectively, to hold out a suitable prospect of advancement for faithful and efficient service.

II. DEPUTY CONSERVATORS.-First grade at Rs.900 per mensem; second grade at Rs.700; third grade at Rs.500.

The number of Conservators is fixed, because one is required for each Province. The number of Deputies is at present 14, but, as explained above, some additions may hereafter become necessary. The proportion of the different grades cannot be determined without interfering with the right of promotion from grade to grade by Local Governments, which it is proposed to give them. The pay of the first class has been raised from Rs.800 per mensem to Rs.900, with the view of affording a reasonable prospect of attaining a fair competency to such officers who, either from scarcity of vacancies or for other reasons, cannot look forward to obtain an appointment of Conservator.

III. ASSISTANT CONSERVATORS.-First grade at Rs.450 per mensem; second grade at Rs.350; third grade at Rs.250.

These rates of pay are in accordance with existing arrangements. Young men will ordinarily enter the Department at the lowest rate, and be promoted to the second grade on passing an examination in the languages, and on attaining a certain standard of efficiency.

Their promotion to the first grade would generally take place after three years' approved service in the next lower grade. Under these and similar rules, promotion from grade to grade would be left to Local Governments. You will observe that, under these arrangements, the proportion of assistants of the different grades cannot be fixed, sometimes there may be an excess in the upper and sometimes in the lower grades. If it were decided to fix and determine the number of appointments of each grade, all promotions from grade to grade, as well as from class to class, would have to be made by the Government of India.

The adoption of the scheme here proposed will involve an additional expenditure of Rs.63,800 per annum. This includes the estimated cost of training and sending out four probationers annually, after deducting the share of this outlay to be borne by the Governments of Madras and Bombay. The details are shown in paragraph 48 of Mr. Brandis' Report submitted with this Despatch, and we need not here specially refer to them. Suffice it to say that this increased outlay will

only be worked up to gradually, unless forest establishments should expand more rapidly than is anticipated at present.

This increase is considerable, but it appears necessary, and the examination of details will show that there has been no extravagance in the proposals. The additional expenditure, we feel assured, will be well laid out to secure an efficient administration of the forests, which will ultimately produce a steady and considerable growth of the revenue derived from them.

Nor do we think there need be any hesitation in accepting the present proposals on the score of over-centralisation or interference with the control and patronage of Local Governments.

This difficulty is not felt in the case of the minor administrations, in which the Government of India has always retained a power of control and patronage sufficient for the present objects. But the difficulty is felt as regards the Governments of Bengal, the Punjab, and the North-West Provinces, where all appointments and promotions have hitherto been in the hands of the Lieutenant-Governors.

Nevertheless, we do not hesitate to propose the change, as we feel convinced that a satisfactory organisation of a number of separate and small departments is impossible, and that we cannot hope to secure and retain the services of competent men for the administration of the forests without consolidating the Service in the Bengal Presidency, and thus affording its officers more certain and uniform prospects of promotion.

In adopting this course, and thus assuming a closer control over forest administration in the three LieutenantGovernorships, we believe to act in accordance with the views expressed in your Despatch, No. 36, of the 16th December, 1867, in which you suggest, with regard to the Department of the North-West Provinces, whether it would not be expedient to consolidate it with that under the charge of our own Inspector-General of Forests, and add: 'It might perhaps also tend to superior efficiency by affording facilities for selecting men of more experience, and affording them a greater field for promotion.'

In this Despatch, indeed, you appear to assume that the management of forests under the minor administrations has been consolidated into one Department under the InspectorGeneral of Forests. Such a measure has not been carried out,

and is not at present contemplated; but so much is evident from your Despatch, that you do not consider it necessary that all appointments and promotions in the Forest Department of the North-West Provinces should be made by the LieutenantGovernor.

We have even considered the expediency of extending the scheme now proposed to the Presidencies of Madras and Bombay. We have no doubt that the administration of forests in the minor Presidencies would benefit by such a measure; they cannot, we fear, make any satisfactory organisation for themselves on account of the small number of offices which they have at their disposal. And we would strongly express our dissent from the opinions advanced by the Bombay Government and their Conservator of forests, which amount to this, that, for the management of forests, special training is not ordinarily necessary. As long as such views are maintained, we believe that satisfactory progress in rational forest administration is impossible.

But considering all circumstances, we have come to the conclusion that it will be better at the outset to limit the new organisation to the Bengal Presidency, and not to disturb the arrangements already established in Madras and Bombay.

As explained above, however, a proportion of the probationers specially trained in Europe for forest service in India should always be available for employment in the minor Presidencies."

In a Despatch (Rev. For., No. 27), dated 24th November, 1868, the Secretary of State gave his formal agreement to the proposals of the Government of India above described, stating, with reference to Madras and Bombay which were excluded from the proposals, that "the same reasons which have called for an improvement in the prospects of the officers in other parts of India will necessitate a similar concession to the Departments of those Presidencies, including Sind." The Despatch continued: "Before I close this review of this most important Despatch, I must observe, with reference to the eighteenth paragraph of it, in which you state that you do not at present contemplate the consolidation of the ' management of forests under the minor administrations' into one Department, under the Inspector-General of Forests, that I think it very important that he should now possess the general direction and superintendence of the amalgamated Department