144 



no money in his hands, In exceptional cases, however, the conservator can grant 

 orders for advances to the officers employed under him ; but in this case they 

 must, at the end of each month, adjust the advance by vouchers handed in to the 

 treasurer-general, along with any balance of cash that may remain unexpended in 

 their hands. The treasurer-general thus keeps all accounts, both of receipts and 

 expenditure of the department. 



Departmental staff'. Members of the forest department are ineligible for 

 any other office, either administrative or judicial ; they are prohibited from 

 engaging in trade, or in any industry connected with wood, and they must 

 be regularly sworn in before they can enter upon the exercise of their functions. 

 They have as regards forest offences, the powers of police, including the right 

 to make domiciliary visits for purposes of investigation and to arrest suspected 

 persons ; but these powers are exercised chiefly by the members of the surbordi- 

 nate staff. Officers of the superior staff act as public prosecutors in forest cases. 

 Superior staff. Candidates for the superior staff are, as a rule, trained at 

 the national forest school at Nancy ; but one-third of the appointments to the 

 lowest grade (Garde general) are reserved for the promotion of deserving 

 subordinates. A young forest officer on leaving the school is employed for a 

 time ; usually about a year, in learning his duties under an inspector ; and his 

 advancement from this probationary stage, as well as his further promotion 

 through the higher grades depends on his own qualifications and exertions, as 

 reported by his immediate superiors. 



A promotion list is drawn out every year by the council of administration 

 and published for general information. On it are inscribed the names of those 

 officers of each grade who are considered to be the most deserving of immediate 

 promotion, the number of names on the list being limited to three times the 

 number of the anticipated vacancies. 



The minister of agriculture makes all promotions up to and including 

 the grade of inspector, but the conservators, the inspectors-general, and the 

 director of the department are nominated by the president of the republic. No 

 officer can, however, be selected for promotion whose name is not found on the 

 list and who has not served at least two years in the lower grade. 

 The yearly pay of the various grades is as follows : 







Director of the forest department 800 



Inspectors-general, three classes 480 to 600 



Conservators, four classes 320 to 480 



Inspectors, four classes 160 to 1^40 



Assistant-inspectors, three classes 120 to 152 



Sub-assistant-inspectors, three classes 80 to 104 



Sub-assistant-inspectors, on probation 60 



In addition to their salaries, the officers receive travelling allowances, usually 

 a fixed sum per annum, at various rates according to local circumstances. 



A pension, at a rate which varies according to the grade of the retiring 

 officer, is obtainable after the age of sixty years ; but no inspector can become a 

 conservator after he has passed the age of fifty-five years. Conservators are 

 usually pensioned at the age of sixty-two and inspectors-general at sixty-five. 



Subordinate staff. All members of the subordinate staff must have served 

 in the army, and as a general rule, they must have attained the rank of non- 

 commissioned officers; they cannot be less than twenty-five or more than thirty-five 

 years of age at the time of their appointment. They receive their first nomination 

 from the minister of agriculture, who promotes them from a list similar to that 

 which is annually prepared for the superior staff. The scale of annual salaries 



