Til  E 
Vol.  XII.]  COLOMBO,  NOVEMBER  i st,  1892.  [No.  5. 
THE  CEYLON  FOREST  CONSERVANCY : 
REPORT  OF  1891. 
ERE  are  some  droll  features 
in  this  grave  offioial  report. 
It  bears  on  its  title-page  that 
it  is  the  “ Report  of  Mr.  A, 
M.  Walker,  acting  Conservator 
of  Forests,”  it  is  signed  by 
him,  and  in  a portion  of  it 
he  expresses  gratitude  for  a personal  allowanoe 
of  R2,000  per  annum  added  to  his  salary  of  R6,000. 
And  yet  Captain  Walker  is  repeatedly  mentioned  in 
the  third  person  as  aoting  for  Mr.  BrouD,  or  giving 
over  oharge  to  the  latter,  who  is  really  the  “I” 
of  the  report.  The  explanation  is  that  the  report 
wbiQh  has  been  only  now  produced  in  a complete 
form  was  prepared  by  Mr.  Broun  before  he  went 
on  leave  six  months  ago,  all  but  a portion  which 
he  was  unable  to  complete  because  of  the  culpable 
delay  in  the  sending  in  of  reports  by  some  of  his 
subordinates,  whose  conduct  is  severely  reprehended. 
The  voice  is  the  voice  of  Mr.  Broun  though  the 
hand  which  signs  may  be  that  of  Captain  Walker. 
Another  amusing  statement,  although  to  Mr.  Broun 
himself  it  was  no  joke,  relates  to  the  slowness 
with  whioh  Government  forests  are  demarcated. 
At  the  present  rate  of  procedure  he  calculates  it 
will  take  four  oenturies  to  complete  the  work. 
Then  we  do  not  know  whether  Mr,  Broun  was 
‘‘  kinder  sarkastio  ” when  he  indicated  that  the 
members  of  his  department  had  not  done  heavy 
work  during  1891  ; but  he  was  oertainly  serious 
enough  and  correct  enough  in  stating  that  “there 
is  do  department  in  the  island  which  has  to  work 
at  all  times  in  more  unhealthy  localities.”  But 
insalubrity  will  be  modified,  and  it  is  to  be  hoped 
ultimately  banished  as  boundaries,  roads  and  paths 
are  cut  by  the  officers  and  areas  of  forest  oleared 
of  creepers  and  parasitical  growths  and  thinned  of 
superfluous  trees, — although  in  many  cases  these 
latter  have  long  ago  disappeared  under  the  de- 
structive systems  which  prevailed  prior  to  the 
establishment  of  a regular  forest  conservancy  depart- 
ment. During  1891  only  one  reserve  forest  of 
782  acres  was  proclaimed  in  the  Kurunegala  district 
including  whioh  the  acreage  of  reserved  forest  was 
at  the  end  of  the  year  26,680  acres.  It  is  on 
these  unsatisfactory  figures  that  Mr.  Broun  found 
his  estimate  of  400  years  as  necessary  for  the 
completion  of  the  work.  The  number  of  forests 
taken  in  hand  during  the  last  three  years*  but 
not  proclaimed,  was  53.  Details  are  given;  and 
from  the  report  of  the  Assistant  Conservator  of 
Sabaragamuwa  we  quote  a few  significant  para- 
graphs : — 
The  Weywilla  forest  was  the  subject  of  some  litiga- 
tion  in  1891,  with  results  so  far  quite  unsatisfactory. 
It  will  be  remembered  that  one  Jayasundara  Kirelle 
Monika  claimed  upon  a sittu  certain  lands  in  the 
village  of  Weywilla,  and  that  she  objeoted  to  the  find* 
ing  of  the  Forest  Settlement  Offioer  and  carried  her 
appeal  to  the  Supreme  Court,  with  the  result  that  the 
Forest  Settlement  Officer’s  proceedings  were  quashed. 
Liter,  a case  was  brought  against  her  for  felling 
certain  trees  in  Weywilla  in  primeval  forest,  and  the 
lower  court  found  in  favour  of  the  Crown,  but  upon 
an  appeal  being  made  to  the  Supreme  Court  the  case 
was  again  reversed  in  favour  of  the  claimant,  with  the 
distinct  implication  that  no  proof  of  trespass  was  dis- 
closed by  the  prosecution. 
The  result  of  so  unfavourable  a finding  by  the 
Supreme  Court,  added  to  its  first  finding  upon  the 
judgment  of  the  Forest  Settlement  Officer,  tends  to 
strengthen  the  claimant’s  claim  upon  Weywilla  as  a 
whole,  while  her  rights  to  a part  is  only  admitted. 
The  orown  is  deprived  by  this  of  one  of  the  best 
pieces  of  forest  in  the  Kuruwiti  korale,  at  a place 
where  not  only  is  forest  scarce,  but  highly  important 
as  being  part  of  the  reserves  situated  round  the  Labu* 
gama  reservoir  that,  I need  hardly  remark,  demand 
the  greatest  care  and  preservation. 
The  proposed  reserve  at  Weoya,  in  the  Kegalla  Dis- 
trict mentioned  in  the  annual  report  for  the  Province 
of  Sabaragamuwa  for  1890,  remains  still  unsettled, 
as  no  further  surveys  have  been  made  with  this  end 
in  view. 
The  importance  of  establishing  a reserve  here  is 
very  great  as  the  tea  industry  in  the  Kelani  Valley 
will  in  time  bring  a large  demand  upon  the  Forest 
Department  to  supply  fuel,  upon  which  it  depends 
entirely  for  its  existence. 
A rough  estimate  of  the  extent  of  forest  in  the 
island  which  it  will  be  necessary  to  reserve  is 
represented  by  the  figures  lor  square  miles,  2,974, 
but  as  no  information  oame  from  Uva  we  may 
safely  increase  the  area  to  over  8,000  miles.  This 
seems  a small  proportion  out  of  a total  of  25,000 
square  miles  for  the  surfaoe  of  the  whole  island, 
Multiplied  by  640  for  aores,  however,  the  area 
looks  respectable.  Mr.  Broun  contends  that 
In  order  to  show  some  marked  progress  in  the  re- 
servation of  forests,  it  will  be  neoessary  to  take  in  hand 
large  stretches  of  forest  in  which  there  are  not  large 
numbers  of  claims  to  stay  the  work  of  the  Settle- 
ment Officer.  Excepting  in  the  densely  populated 
Provinces,  and  within  easy  reach  of  the  railway,  it 
will  as  a rule  not  be  desirable  to  take  in  hand  small 
