obtain ; and if I might be allowed to offer a sugges- 

 tion, I would strongly urge upon Her Majesty's 

 Secretary of State for India, and the Indian Govern- 

 ment, the advisability of selecting from their Forest 

 Department a few officers who have shewn a special 

 fitness for the development of other natural forest 

 products than timber, and forming them into a corps 

 under the direction of a duly qualified officer, known 

 to have a special taste in this direction. The details 

 of such a scheme would, of course, have to be elabor- 

 ated with care, and if the Government wished it, I 

 would very gladly draw up for approval a plan, 

 by which the work could be done with little or no 

 increase of present expenditure. Having given the 

 s!SgtSs s matter much earnest attention, it would be 

 a pleasure to me to be of any service in enabling the 

 Government to come to a conclusion as to the ad- 

 visability of taking steps in the matter. I have 

 already drafted a scheme which might, I venture to 

 think, be carried out with advantage to the Govern- 

 ment, and I shall gladly submit it for the consider- 

 ation of the authorities should I be permitted to do 

 so. In my humble opinion, the development of 

 the fibre trade of India is a matter of sufficient 

 importance to justify the creation of a new branch 

 of the Department of Agriculture, Revenue and 

 Commerce ; and that there is ample work to occupy 

 the attention of such a Department will not, I think, 

 be denied. Probably the Government would feel 

 that it would be more satisfactory to detach, if 

 possible, a small body of men from the Forest Depart- 



