Apart from the question of safeguarding the rights of the people of the land, our wards, the necessity of forest conservation in the interest of the public weal has been taught by bitter experience, and experience has also shown that scientific forestry can only be profitably undertaken by the Government or by bodies whose first obligation is the interest and protection of the community. The Forestry Department of Southern Nigeria, short as its existence has been, is already a revenue-making Department, for in the last ten years it has either planted, or induced the natives to plant, trees (some of which, like the rubber trees in Benin, are now beginning to bear) whose present estimated value is £287,526, and has thus added over a quarter of a million to the value of the capital stock of the forests without taking into account the indirect effects of the steps taken to help their natural regeneration. The Department has many local difficulties to contend with, especially in the Western province, which I shall have occasion to discuss in connection with the general administrative problem facing the administration in that section of the Protectorate.
The character of its work necessitates that, in addition to scientific training in forest lore, those responsible for its direction shall be possessed of knowledge of native customs and of considerable tact in conducting negotiations with native authorities, always suspicious of European interference in anything which touches the question of tenure and use of land. The Administration is fortunate in possessing in the Conservator and Deputy-Conservator two men who combine in a rare degree these dual qualifications. It is but the barest statement of fact to say that Mr. H. N. Thompson, the Conservator who went to Southern Nigeria after many years in Burma, enjoys an international reputation. As an expert in tropical forestry he stands second to none in the world. His colleague, Mr. R. E. Dennett, has contributed more than any other European living to our knowledge of Nigerian folklore, and he understands the native mind as few men of his generation do. In view of its immense importance to the future of the country it is very regrettable to have to state that the Forestry Department is greatly undermanned and its labours curtailed in many directions by the insufficiency of the funds at its disposal. No wiser course could be taken by the administration than that of setting aside a sum of borrowed money to be used, as in the case of the railways, as capital expenditure on productive forestry work.