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The other forests should be all closed for the present. Their protection may 

 provisionally be entrusted to supervisors, as in the present system. These supervisors 

 should be paid about 24 a year ; their duties would consist in protecting the forests and 

 reporting and prosecuting forest offences. They should not be allowed to issue licenses 

 except for dry firewood. The following forests may be protected in that manner : 

 1. Mount Prospect. 2. Hlatikulu. 3. Fort Nottingham. 4. Lower Umzimkulu. 

 5. Dimbunkulu. 6. Alexandra County. The Hlatikulu forest contains much Hard 



Pear, which it might be profitable to cut for sleepers. In this case another forest guard 

 would be required there in place of a supervisor. 



Some of the remaining closed forests might be placed in charge of the Natal 

 Mounted Police. Detachments of this force are often stationed near the forests, and if 

 their services can be made available for the purpose, the forests would probably be better 

 protected than they could be by supervisors. The Natal Mounted Police have alreadv 

 charge of some forests near Ulundi. 



Generally, it should be the duty of every Magistrate, Justice of the Peace, Police 

 or Forest or other officer, to report and repress forest offences. 



GAME PROTECTION. Forest guards can afford valuable help in this respect. Game 

 should be protected in the reserves not only per se, but also on account of the damage 

 done to the forest by abusive hunting. Native hunting parties are especially destructive ; 

 they are often followed by forest fires and other offences. The Forest Department should 

 have control of the shooting within the forest boundaries, and none would be allowed 

 without permission. Forests which are demarkated and protected, constitute very useful 

 preserves for game, and it is instructive to see how at the Knysna, where the forests have 

 been protected longest of any in Sonth Africa, there are still elephants, buffaloes, and a 

 large variety of other game, to be found side by side with a considerable population. 

 Where protection has not extended, as in Kaffraria and Natal, elephants and buffaloes 

 have long since disappeared, and other game is becoming very scarce. The provisions of 

 the Forest Law relating to game need only apply to demarkated forest, as it is neither 

 expedient nor possible to enforce them elsewhere. 



PISCICULTURE. The Forest Department may sometimes be able to undertake, as in 

 France and Germany, fish culture in the forest streams. The forests are generally 

 distributed about the headwaters of the principal streams of the country, and specialists 

 give it that it is best to stock streams from their source. The introduction of trout and 

 salmon in some of the Cape rivers was lately contemplated by the Forest Department 

 there, and in the absence of a special staff, it is the most convenient and effective 

 arrangement. There is some reason to fear that in Natal, valuable species of cold 

 climates, such as salmon, cannot find a congenial home in the warm waters of the country, 

 but if they do, it will be in the cooler streams of the forests, where the temperature is 

 least, owing to the altitude and the shelter. 



