Property Conditions. 329 
were defined, properties de-limited, and payment in 
kind changed into cash payments. 
After attempts to regulate these matters by local 
Tules, the first general Indian Fores’ Act, passed in 
1865, modified by the Forest Act of 1878, laid down the 
basis upon which the rights of forest property were to 
be settled. These acts divide the forests into three 
classes, namely, those in which the right of the State is 
absolute; those in which the State has property rights, 
but which are burdened with prescriptive or granted 
rights of user; and those which are private property, 
but on which the State reserves the right to cut certain 
kinds of trees for government use, Teak, Sandalwood, 
and in some parts Deodar, these being considered 
“royal trees.’’ The forest act being throughout ap- 
plicable only at the choice and under the construction 
of the provincial governments, modified acts, applicable 
to different parts of the Empire, and different in details, 
were passed from time to time, and many different 
local rules were issued by the provincial governments, 
but all agree in fixing one definite policy, namely 
declaration or demarcation of government forests, after 
inquiry into all existing rights, and division of the 
declared government forests into reserves and protected 
forests, and unclassed, the former as permanent govern- 
ment reserves, the latter still open to change in owner- 
ship, and adjustment in rights of user, etc. 
The absolute and relative areas of government prop- 
erty, therefore, are continuously changing. In 1900 
the reserve forests comprised 81,400 square miles, or 
8.6% of the total territory controlled by the British 
government; the protected forest 8800 square miles, 
