38 



by no means complete, has made commendable progress, often in the face of 

 considerable difficulties : fire-protection, though not fully organized, is being 

 taken in hand seriously. Among the more important branches of work which 

 still require to be developed are forest surveys and working plans, improved 

 systems of management, and research. It is perhaps insufficiently realized 

 that the Forest Department has always been shorthanded, that it has often 

 worked in the face of great difficulties, and that progressive work had to be 

 curtailed during the war. The officers of the Department will themselves be 

 the first to admit that much remains to be done before the organization of 

 work is in any way complete : but on the other hand they are to be congratu- 

 lated on the amount they have accomplished during the comparatively short 

 period of the Department's existence. 



47. FINANCIAL POSITION OF THE DEPARTMENT. Judged from a finan- 

 cial standpoint the Forest Department has not yet come into its own. The 

 following statement shows the annual revenue, expenditure and surplus or 

 deficit for the five years 1916-17 to 1920-21 : 



The large deficit in 1920-21 was due partly to the prevailing depression 

 in trade, resulting in a marked decline in sales of timber, and partly to a 

 considerable but necessary increase in the staff, which has not yet had time 

 to take effect in the direction of a corresponding increase of revenue. 



Strictly speaking, the Forest Department should not be judged wholly 

 from its financial results. Forests are not maintained entirely for the pro- 

 duction of revenue : in certain cases their conservation may be necessary for 

 other purposes, such as the maintenance of the water supply, the prevention 

 of denudation, the mitigation of the extremes of climate, or the supply of 

 produce to meet local requirements. Nevertheless, however important the 

 conservation of forests may be on such grounds, the fact remains that the 

 work of the Forest Department will in practice be judged mainly by its 

 financial results, and with reason, since the forests of Kenya Colony are 

 sufficiently valuable to produce, when fully brought under systematic manage- 

 ment, a very considerable surplus. But this will not be possible unless the 

 Department is run strictly as a business concern, as in the case of the Indian 

 Forest Department, which is officially designated a "quasi-commercial 

 department" and produces a net surplus of over 1,000,000 per annum 

 exclusive of the value of produce given free to right-holders. The acceptance 

 of this principle will mean that the Forest Department should charge full 

 royalties or market prices for all timber and other produce supplied to other 

 Government departments, whether Civil or Military. This procedure is not 

 followed at present, the practice being for Government departments to 

 receive forest produce free. It has been said that as the forests are the gift 

 of Nature and cost the Forest Department nothing, there should be no charge 

 to other departments for produce removed from them. This argument is 

 fundamentally unsound, for the forests cost a very considerable sum to 

 reserve, survey, demarcate, protect, bring under systematic management, and 

 regenerate. There is no reason why the Forest Department should furnish 

 produce free to other departments any more than the railway should carry 



