1072
THE NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE.
[No. 48

(4.) Applicants who have passed the medical examination and the physical test will be permitted to undergo an examination before the Civil Service Commissioners in the following subjects* (Classes I. and II.), marks being assigned as follows:—

Class I.†
Marks.
Mathematics I. (including arithmetic) .. 3,000
German‡ (300 for colloquial) .. 2,000
Botany .. 2,000
English composition .. 1,000
Geometrical drawing .. 500
Freehand drawing .. 500
Geography .. 500

Class II.
Mathematics II. .. 2,000
Latin .. 2,000
French .. 2,000
Greek .. 2,000
English history .. 2,000
Chemistry and heat .. 2,000
Physics .. 2,000
Physiography and geology .. 2,000

Candidates must obtain such an aggregate of marks in the examination as a whole as may indicate in the judgment of the Civil Service Commissioners a competent amount of general proficiency.

(5.) The Secretary of State will nominate as probationers such competitors as attain the highest aggregate of marks (provided they obtain the aggregate referred to above, and satisfy the requisite conditions in other respects). These probationers will then enter the College, where they will be further trained for the Forest Service of India.

(6.) If the full number of competent probationers required in any year cannot be obtained from the persons so examined, the Secretary of State reserves a discretion to fill up the deficiency by selecting any other person or persons whom, after consulting the authorities of the College, he may consider properly qualified to become probationers for the Forest Service.

6. The course of study for candidates for the India Forest Service extends over about three years. For about six terms the candidates will prosecute their studies mainly at the College, and during the period of foreign study, which will occupy the remainder of the course, they will visit, under suitable supervision, such continental forests as may be selected for the purpose. Excursions may also be made for purposes of instruction, both during term-time and during part of the vacations.

7. Each annual session begins in September, and is divided into three terms, with vacations of about four weeks at Christmas, two weeks at Easter, and eight weeks in the summer.

8. A charge of £61 is made for each of the six terms spent at the College; for the period of foreign study the charge is £70 for each of the three terms: the amounts must be paid terminally in advance to the Bank of England. Receivable orders, with full directions as to the mode of payment, will be forwarded from the India Office to the parents or guardians shortly before the fees fall due. A student will not be allowed to come into residence or to start for or continue his study of foreign forests until his fee for the term has been paid.

9. A deposit of £5 is required to be paid by each student on admission to the College as caution-money, to cover charges incurred by him for damage to books, instruments, &c., or any College bills outstanding on leaving the College. Any balance over and above such charges will be repaid. This deposit is to be paid with the fee for the first term, making the total payment on that occasion £66.

10. The foregoing payments cover all charges for tuition, board according to the College tariff, lodging, with washing up to a cost of 2s. a week, and ordinary medical attendance while in residence at the College. When students are on tour, and during the course of practical instruction, whether in Great Britain or on the Continent, the Secretary of State will defray the expenses of (1) board, lodging, and washing (the aggregate maximum expenditure under these heads being 10s. per diem), (2) travelling-expenses, and (3) fees to local forest officers, &c.

Students are required to provide their own class-books and drawing-instruments. Drawing-paper, drawing-boards, and surveying-instruments are provided by the College.

11. The prescribed course of study comprises the following subjects:—I. Auxiliary subjects: (1) geometrical drawing, (2) freehand drawing, (3) surveying, (4) forest engineering, (5) accounts, (6) German, (7) physics, (8) chemistry, (9) geology and mineralogy, (10) entomology, (11) botany, (12) drill and gymnastics. II. Forestry, theoretical and practical, in all its branches.

12. Every student is required to conform to the College rules, to exhibit due diligence in his studies throughout the course, and to give evidence of satisfactory progress in such manner as may be required, failing which, or in the event of serious misconduct, he will be liable to be removed from the College, or to be sent back from the foreign study, which may entail the loss of his appointment.

13. During the course of study the proficiency of the students will be tested by periodical examinations, and on the termination of their studies there will be a final examination. Each student may also, at the discretion of the Secretary of State for India, be required from time to time to appear before the Medical Board, and should the result be unsatisfactory he cannot claim to be allowed to complete the course.

14. The subjects enumerated in paragraph 11 are grouped in certain main branches of study,* and a fixed minimum of qualification is required in each branch and in the subjects taught during the forest tours, as well as a certain minimum for all branches taken together. Students who obtain these minima will receive the College diploma in forestry.

15. Candidates who have obtained this diploma, and are found to be of sound constitution and free from physical defects which would render them unsuitable for employment in the Forest Department (the final decision on which points will rest with the Secretary of State for India), will be appointed Assistant Conservators in the Forest Department of India in the order of their standing at the end of the final examination. They will be allowed before leaving the College to state their preference in respect to the provinces to which they desire to be allotted; but the distribution will be made to the several provinces according to the needs of the public service, at the discretion of the Secretary of State for India after consulting the President of the College. Officers are, however, at all times liable to be transferred from one province to another at the pleasure of the Government of India.

16. Within a month of his nomination as Assistant Conservator, each nominee must sign articles of agreement describing the terms and conditions of his appointment; he must embark for India when required to do so by the Secretary of State, and will be provided with a free passage. Failure to embark at the stated time will, in the absence of satisfactory explanation, lead to forfeiture of appointment.

17. The pay of an Assistant Conservator of Forests will begin from the date of reporting arrival in India. Probationers who acquit themselves creditably during their course at Cooper’s Hill College will begin on a salary of Rs. 350 a month. It will, however, rest with the President of the College to decide whether any of the probationers, though they have obtained the College diploma in forestry, have failed to deserve that rate of initial salary. Such probationers, if any, will begin on a salary of Rs. 250 a month; and this difference of salary will continue until the first departmental examination is passed in India. Officers entering the forest service will be required to contribute a subscription ranging from a compulsory minimum of 5 per cent. up to a voluntary maximum of 10 per cent. of their salary to the Forest Officers’ Provident Fund. Such contributions, with compound interest, will accumulate till the date of retirement, when the total sum will be paid to the contributor, or, in the event of death before retirement, to his legal representative.

18. Promotion, leave, and pension will be governed by the regulations laid down by the Government of India and made applicable to Forest officers, such regulations being subject to any modifications or alterations which may be made in them from time to time by the Government of India, and their interpretation in case of any doubt arising being left to that Government. The pension rules applicable to Public Works and Telegraph officers appointed from Cooper’s Hill College have been extended to Forest officers appointed from England; and the Inspector-General of Forests and Conservators of the first grade are now eligible for the extra pension of Rs. 1,000 per annum admissible to an officer after at least three years of approved service as a head of a department in any province, if considered deserving of the special concession. A copy of the regulations relative to these matters can be seen on application either at the Library or the Record Department of the India Office; the

• Reprints of the papers set at previous examinations, together with tables of the marks assigned to the candidates, are published by the Civil Service Commissioners, and can be obtained through any bookseller from the following agents:—Eyre and Spottiswoode, East Harding Street, Fleet Street, London, E.C.; John Menzies and Co., Rose Street, Edinburgh, and 90, West Nile Street, Glasgow; and Hodges, Figgis, and Co., Limited, 104, Grafton Street, Dublin. The price is one shilling.

† All the subjects of Class I. may be taken up. Only two of the subjects of Class II. may be taken up.

‡ Candidates must qualify in German.

• For details, see Royal Indian Engineering College Calendar.