ABSTRACT
One of the departments of Government with which the interests of the mining community tend to clash is the Forest Department, on account of the wide tracts in the Federated Malay States that have been converted into forest reserves. Much of the forests of Malaya occupy mountainous and wild tracts, which are also those that are the least thickly inhabited and the least explored for minerals. It is evident that collaboration between the Forest Department, the Mines Department and the Geological Survey should enable problems of conflict between forest and mining interests to be readily settled. The Malayan rain forests are composed of a vast number of species, both inferior and useful, with the former largely predominating. Forestry in Malaya is in a strong financial position, particularly in the Federated Malay States and Johore, in the former mainly owing to the demand for forest produce by the mining industry, and in Johore to the proximity of the huge Singapore market.
