Annual. Report on the Forest Department, Straits 
Settlements, for the year 1886. 
Introductory Remarks. 
1 
Before detailing what has been accomplished during the past year, I would most 
respectfully beg to point out that all the recommendations contained in my prelimi- 
nary Forest Report and approved of by His Excellency Governor Sir Frederick A. 
Weld, G.C.M.G., in the beginning in 1883, have now been carried out to a greater or 
less extent. 
2. The recommendations then made comprised such items as were considered 
mot.; urgent at the time, and which, as will be seen, have proved capable of 
practical application, and have met the end in view. The Government forests were, 
at that time, being recklessly cut down and fast disappearing ; measures to check such 
fellings and encroachments were consequently the first to be considered and acted 
upon, and have occupied the attention of the Department almost up to date. 
3. What has been accomplished will appear from the maps appended, which 
detail the restrictions pk i on felling and the distribution of the Reserves established 
throughout the colony S 
For the sake of clearness the original recommendations are briefly sketched in 
the margin, and the following will show what has been done to carry them out, viz. ; — - 
4. Details shewing the internal organization of the De- 
partment and the duties apportioned to each Officer will be 
found in paragraph 3 of my Forest Report for 1884. Since 
then, however, another Officer has been appointed to the posi- 
tion of Assistant Superintendent, and the Qyerseersh ip in 
Malacca has been abolished. 
Mr. Derry reported his arrival from British Guiana on 
the 8th August of the year under review, and after a brief 
initiatory stay in Penang, assumed charge of the Forest De- 
partment in Malacca in the following September. 
Origin al Recom mendatio ns . 
R. 1st 
The establishment of a 
Forest Department to take 
charge of all Crown Forests 
whether proclaimed Re- 
serves or otherwise. 
5. A body of Forest Police who work under special rules, 
and who are assisted in their duties by an open boundary line, 
have worked well and have entirely prevented any serious 
encroachment on the Reserves. 
R. 2nd and 3rd 
Preventing the felling of 
forests and clearing of forest 
lands. 
.The appointment of a bo- 
dy of Forest Police for pro- 
tective purposes, to be quar- 
tered in the country districts 
throughout the Settlements. 
6- The whole of the Reserves throughout the colony 
have now been demarcated by an 8-foot path, mostly by sur- 
vey, except the Jus Reserve in Malacca, and some undeter- 
mined Reserves in Province Wellesley. Separate maps of all 
the Reserves have been procured, but are as yet of a tempo- 
rary nature. 
R. 4th 
The survey and demarca- 
tion of such Crown Forest 
lands as are still undeter- 
mined and the preparation 
of good and reliable maps 
shewing the forests and the 
topographical features ofthe 
country. 
