Paper to be laid before the Legislative Council by Command of 
His Excellency the Governor. 
REPORT ON THE FOREST RESERVES, SINGAPORE, 
FOR THE YEAR 1895. 
1. The Forest Reserves in the Island of Singapore were, from the 1st January, 
1895, handed over from the charge of the Forest Department to the Land Office. 
The vote for the maintenance of the Reserves was reduced from $1,400 to $1,000, 
so that nothing beyond the protection of the existing reserves and the keeping open 
of their boundaries could be attempted. Indeed this is ail that has been done during 
the last few years {vide paragraph 28 of the Forest Department Report for 1894), 
nor does it seem that, in view of the poor soil of Singapore Island and its limited area, 
any considerable outlay would be attended with satisfactory results. I have been 
struck with the difference in the fertility of the soil in Singapore and Malacca. In 
the latter Settlement, the lalang that is left upon the land after the abandonment of 
a gambier or tapioca plantation rapidly gives way to brush-wood, and often in the space 
of five or six. years disappears entirely. In Singapore, this absorption takes place 
much more gradually, and many large stretches of lalang have remained unchanged 
for more than ten years. 
2. Everything possible has been done during the year to protect the Reserves, 
and I have reason to believe that the prosecutions that were instituted in the Police 
Courts had a most wholesome effect. 
3. During the year, there were six cases of cutting timber in the Reserves or 
taking Government property therefrom, in which fines were inflicted. The fines 
amounted to $76.50, as against $30 in 1894 for three cases. 
4. Several petty offences of this nature were dealt with, in some cases after 
summonses had been issued, by allowing the offenders to take out passes at double 
the ordinary rates. These payments have not been classed as fines. 
5. The Revenue derived from the Reserves by passes amounted to $462, as 
against $982 in 1894. I found that holders of passes to cut bakau were cutting the 
young trees in the swamps in a most extravagant fashion, and as cautions had very 
little effect, I stopped the issue of passes for several months. This has, I believe, had 
a salutory effect, as most of the Malays who are engaged in the fire-wood business 
were obliged, on the closing of the Singapore Reserves, to resort to Johore. Passes 
are now freely issued, and such precautions as are within the power of the limited 
staff of the Department are taken to obviate the evil referred to. 
6. During the year there were two large .fires at Jurong and West Bukit Timah, 
by which about 300 acres of lalang and small brush-wood were burnt. There were 
small fires in the Changi and North Selitar Reserves, but in these cases no serious 
damage was done. 
Land Office, 
Singapore, 2 $th February , iSq6 
J. R. INNES, 
Acting Collector of Land Revenue , 
