G8 TRANSACTIOXS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



in 182G, repeated, but at that time mostly ineffectual, attempts 

 had been made to secure the pi'otection of the Teak forests. All 

 these ai'e well-known facts, and they have on several occasions been 

 brought before your Society. What is not so well known is, that 

 when it became necessary to reduce these detached efforts to a 

 regular system, so as to secure lasting benefits to the country, the 

 main difficulty was the uncertainty that existed regarding the 

 proprietary rights over the forest i*anges of India. The solution 

 of this difficulty, yoxi will readily understand, lies at the root of 

 all good forest management. 



After Dr Cleghorn had for a series of years worked hard as 

 Conservator of Forests of the Madras Presidency, he was called to 

 report upon the forests in the Punjab, which province, as you know, 

 occupies the extreme north-west corner of India. While he was 

 engaged in finishing this duty, we were together at Simla during 

 the summer months of 1 8G3, and he then clearly and fully explained 

 to me the state of the forest business in the Madras Presidency. 

 After discussing the question in all its aspects, we came to the con- 

 clusion, that what was wanted there, as well as in other provinces, 

 was to demarcate the State and village forests ; that is, after 

 careful local inquiry, to define the boundaries of the forest areas 

 over which the State, the village communities, and private land- 

 owners held proprietary rights. Our views we embodied in a 

 joint-memorandum, and this document was submitted to the 

 Government of Madras. Active measures had at that time been 

 taken in this dii'ection in several provinces — foremost in the 

 Central Provinces, under Sir Richard Temjile, then the Chief 

 Commissioner of that territory, who, most of you will remember, 

 in October 1881, gave to your Society a most interesting account 

 of forest conservancy in India. In the Presidency of Madras, 

 however, unfortunately the necessity of action in this direction 

 was not at that time recognised; and it was not until 1882, 

 when, at the close of my Indian career, I was deputed to Madi'as 

 by the Government of India, that a Forest law was passed, and 

 that action in the right direction, on the lines of the joint- 

 memorandum submitted by Dr Cleghorn and myself in 1863, was 

 commenced on a sufficiently large scale. This happy result — the 

 importance of which for the welfare of the people of Southern India 

 cannot be overrated — was accomplished by your distinguished 

 countryman. Sir Mountstuart Elphinstone Grant Duff, who at 

 that time was the Governor of the Southern Presidency. 



