TUBLIC
། ཟ། ། ། །
PECORD OFFICE
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Prference
C.O.882/12
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE | BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-
| COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOI TO
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depredation should be easy under intelligent, experienced, and energetic guidance.
Actually the staff responsible for these divisions consists of three Rangers, fifteen Foresters, fifteen Guards and twelve Wood- men. We are not impressed with the value of the system of patrol which the Conservator has described to us, and we cannot therefore recommend reversion to the methods which Mr. Thompson was prepared to accept. We believe that it would be far more efficacious to retain the Conservator of Forests, and to give him the aid of eight Foresters on a pay of Rs.1,500-50-2,000. It would be reasonable to be guided by the Conservator in the selection for these posts of those members of his present staff who show some real aptitude for and interest in forests. We believe that there are a few excellent men available. So small a staff could not have the organization of a separate department. The Conservator him- self should be freed from office duties and should be attached, together with the Foresters, to the Department of Agriculture, of which he would be one of the technical members available for expert advice to the Government under the same conditions as the other officers of the department. The Assistant Conservator, who is now mainly employed on utilization, will no longer be needed when the Conservator is relieved of the management of a depart- ment. A clerk should be attached to the Department of Agriculture in view of the extra work given by the addition of the forest branch. An allotment totalling Rs.40,000 should be made annually for supply of forest produce, plantations, fire protection, and travelling. The areas of forest are so restricted, their situation so favour- able for protection, and the distances in the island are so small, that we are confident that an executive officer of real forestry experience, aided by eight Foresters specially selected by him and trained in forestry, could efficiently protect the forests against encroachment and carry out work within the restricted allotment.
The Department of Forest should therefore disappear, all other posts should be abolished, including those of one 3rd-class and one 6th-class clerk, one writer and one typist from the General Clerical Service, attached to the Forest Department, and the allot- ment for other charges should be reduced from Rs.136,488 to R8.40,000.
9. Fifty years ago Mr. Thompson laid much stress on the fact that most of the Forest staff were not employed in the forests. The same is true to-day, and no fact is more significant of the unreality of the new scheme for forest development. At a time when it might be expected that the staff would be concentrated on prepara- tory work in the forest divisions, the Chief Inspector and 40 other officers are entirely detached on other duties, leaving only 39 officers available to help the Conservator and his Assistant in real forest work.
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We must describe these other duties in order to show how little they justify the retention of special staff, whether under the Forest or any other Department.
The Chief Inspector of Forests, an officer drawing Rs.5,625, inspects the forests no more than the Government Surveyor, on Rs.10,000, surveys land. He is simply doing the work of a 2nd- class clerk and duplicates the duties of the Government Surveyor, being in charge of the semi-legal work connected with the leases of shooting rights. The leases of Crown Land in the pus géometriques usually contain more reference to timber and are therefore referred to the Forest Department. These leases follow rhe same course from year to year, and it is obvious that the work which the department does at its headquarters is formal and routine. Our recommendations for dealing with this work are set out in our chapter on the Public Works Department and do not contemplate that any action on the part of the forest staff will be necessary.
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Two Foresters are employed in the Port Louis office as clerks. One Inspector and one Ranger are serving under the Harbour Engineer and their posts in the department have not been filled up. The rest of the staff is employed in the five circles into which the island, other than the real forest area, is divided. Their duties are to protect the narrow strips of casuarina plantation, mostly on Government lands, which occupy the whole coast-line, to protect the mountain reserves which consist of a small belt of forest on the steep hillsides just above Port Louis and on the range of hills which separates Flacq from Grand Port, together with some forest land in the Black River district on the western edge of the main forest block, to protect the lines of trees which grow along the banks of the rivers and are called river reserves, and to look after the trees which grow along many of the roads. There are in addition two small woods in the northern circle adjacent to the botanical gardens, which used to be the headquarters of the Forest Department. There is also the duty of removing fallen trees from the Govern- ment cemeteries and the still more irrelevant task of cleaning The mountain and river vacant plots of land in Port Louis. reserves and the roadside trees are on private land and the obliga- tion on their owners to maintain them is imposed by the law. The Coast plantations named pas géometriques are for the most part leased to private owners; they are useful for the grazing of cattle and the supply of fuel; at certain favoured points these lands are much in demand for bathing bungalows, and are leased from year to year on leases which preserve the trees. To employ forest staff on the supervision of these lands is to detach them from their legitimate work; to expect 34 men to do more than the most nominal and routine work on these scattered strips is futility; to spend Rs.50,000 a year on doing so is sheer waste.