1 82 SCIENCE IN AFRICA 



Stellenbosch University, while there is a training school for sub- 

 ordinates at Saasveld, George, G.P. 



In the Colonial Forest Service in Africa very few officers are en- 

 gaged solely in research, but in a sense most forest officers are 

 potentially research workers in that they gather data in stock- 

 taking and similar duties. Their activities are, however, devoted 

 largely to administrative work. Nigeria appears to be the only 

 territory where a permanent research branch of four officers is 

 maintained. All African departments have recognized the irre- 

 vocable consequences of the destruction of forest and their atten- 

 tion is accordingly devoted mainly to the reservation of forest 

 areas and the collection of revenue. 



Some 90 per cent of forest officers entering the colonial service 

 as probationers are university graduates who have had a year's 

 special training at the Imperial Forestry Institute. As some autho- 

 rities have maintained that in spite of this training only a small 

 proportion have the ability and qualifications for fundamental 

 scientific research, it has been decided that the post-graduate 

 training should be given to the probationer after, rather than 

 before, his first tour of a colony, when he has some experience of 

 the type of problem confronting him. For specialist research, the 

 organization of workers under the Imperial Forestry Institute, as 

 suggested above, appears to offer the best prospects, particularly 

 for the use of the smaller colonies. 



In no colonial territory does the forest department regularly 

 undertake the extraction of timber: this is handed over to private 

 enterprise, which, as a rule, can carry it out more economically 

 than a government department. There are a few exceptions to 

 this rule, but usually only as temporary expedients. Consequently 

 forest officers are not specially trained for executive work in utiliza- 

 tion; they are given a sound knowledge of production, including 

 stocktaking, silviculture and working plans, and enough knowledge 

 of utilization to enable them to maintain contacts with the timber 

 industry. There is little doubt however, that forest engineers 

 specially trained in utilization would, if available, have plenty of 

 scope in advising and assisting the industry. This idea has been 

 developed with special reference to West Africa in an article by 

 J. N. Oliphant (1937). 



