PROGRESS OF FOREST ADMINISTRATION 51 



the assembling of this commission, and is due almost wholly 

 to Governor Jonnart's wise personal direction of its activities. 

 For to the governor's influence, more than to any other one 

 thing, may be traced the extent and the excellence of the sweep- 

 ing reforms subsequently introduced and carried out. 



In his address 4 to the commission Governor Jonnart spoke 

 highly of the Forest Service and at the same time severely criti- 

 cised the methods' too often employed in the past : 



"In a country like this," he said, "the forest plays such 

 an important role that any one who has a position of the 

 slightest authority should be zealous in the defense of the 

 Forest Service. I know of no administrative body composed 

 of more meritorious, better trained or more honest agents 

 than those of the forest service. I give them willingly this 

 praise, but I blame them for keeping a little too much apart 

 from the other Algerian service, for applying the regulations 

 too uniformly, and for not having developed the flexibility 

 and the means of adaptation so indispensable to an adminis- 

 trative organization, in a colony where it is unpolitic and 

 often dangerous to try to follow at all times, in the footsteps 

 of the fatherland. 



"This forest question has held my attention for some 

 time, and I can say that I have been everywhere in Algeria; 

 I have been able to assure myself that the Forest Service has 

 been too often bound by the letter of the laws and regulations, 

 that it has not sufficiently fathomed their spirit nor the higher 

 interests of Algerian policy. My desire is that a permanent 

 "entente cordiale" be established between the Forest Service 

 and the prefects, assistant prefects, and administrators of 

 mixed communes, so that they may work together for the 

 special needs of the population, the preventive measures to 

 be adopted in view of the conflagrations, and the fight against 

 the floods. I wish moreover that formalities and administra- 

 tive red tape should not complicate things, as if for the sake 

 of mere convention. 



"I wish finally that the Forest Service should never lose 

 sight of the fact that the surest way to avoid fires is still to 

 interest the natives in the existence of the forests, and to 

 associate them in their conservation, either by showing a 

 greater leniency, so far as the pasturage of their flocks is 



4 Commission d'Etudes Forestires, 1904, pp. 9-10. 



