of salaries the importance of the position and the special conditions prevailing in the locality, such as those affecting the cost of living. etc., are taken into consideration. The person occupying the position is never considered, except in the case of very small offices, consisting of one or two men, where employees have no opportunity to secure promotion unless they be transferred to other offices. In such cases the special qualifications and aptitude of the persons filling the positions are considered; but a provision is always inserted to the effect that the extraordinary rate of salary allowed is for the present incumbent only. The work of the bureau in this connection, it is believed, is beneficial to the Provinces, inasmuch as in this way the personnel has been brought to a standard strength and the Provinces of equal rank have been placed, so far as is humanly possible, on an equal basis.

PRIVATE SECRETARIES TO PROVINCIAL GOVERNORS.

Under section 2007 of the Administrative Code provincial governors may now have private secretaries who are not required to be subject to the civil-service law, and it is expected that the provisions of this section will be taken advantage of by all provincial governors. It is hoped that with the employment of private secretaries to attend to matters of confidential and semiofficial nature the provincial secretaries will be relieved of duties heretofore required of them, which throw them into close relationship with the political friends of the governors, and thus serve to give their positions political color. The wholesome result, therefore, which may be expected of the employment of private secretaries is removal of these employees from a political atmosphere. A provincial governor need no longer judge the desirability and fitness of a prospective appointee to a provincial secretaryship on other than the merits of the person concerned. Heretofore it was necessary, to a certain extent, that the secretary of the provincial board be a man in whom the governor could place explicit confidence, not only in the discharge of his official but personal duties as well. For this reason men of the same political leanings were always preferred.

CADASTRAL SURVEY.

The following table gives the municipalities whose cadastral survey was authorized in 1915, with a statement of the approximate cost to the municipality, the Province, and the insular government:

The total number of municipalities authorized surveyed was 22. It is estimated the approximate cost of this work would be P68,200 for the municipality, P68,200 for the Province, and P68,200 for the insular government. If the surveys are completed within this estimate, the cost to the property owners would be approximately P477,400. Although this amount is considerable, if we take into consideration the fact that the property owners' portion is payable in five equal installments coincidently with the real property tax, the cost per property owner becomes almost insignificant as compared with the permanent benefit derived from such a survey.

TITLES TO LAND.

During the year 420 titles to land acquired by Provinces and municipalites and by the city of Manila were approved, of which 15 were submitted by the city of Manila.

HOMESTEAD, SALE, TOWN SITE, AND FREE PATENTS.

During the year 4,150 homestead, sale, town site, and free patents were submitted to the Governor General for execution.

CONDEMNATION PROCEEDINGS.

Twenty-eight authorizations for the institution of condemnation proceedings to acquire land under the provisions of Act No. 2249 were granted during the period covered by this report.

24426-WAR 1917--VOL. 3- 50

REVISION OF PROVINCIAL MINUTES.

The work of revising the minutes of provincial boards, which contain extracts of the minutes of the municipal and township councils under their jurisdiction, before filing them in the executive bureau, was continued during the year. If any irregularity, illegality, or defect of any kind is discovered, such irregularity, illegality, or defect is promptly brought to the attention of the provincial board concerned and the manner of remedying it suggested. It is, of course, realized that the power to approve or disapprove the act of a municipal or township council lies in the corresponding provincial board, hence the intervention of this bureau in this connection has been of purely advisory character. During the administration of the undersigned he had not received a single complaint against the executive bureau directed at this particular work. The manner in which it has been handled is, it is believed, the explanation for the apparent willingness of the provincial and municipal governments to cooperate with the bureau in securing for the people progressive and just legislation.

VOLUNTARY CONTRIBUTIONS.

Of the number of requests received during the year for authority to collect voluntary contributions for various public purposes, 163 were granted. Of this number, 109 were requests for authority to raise money by this process for school purposes, 12 for construction and repair of roads and bridges, 8 for health purposes, and 6 for installation of water-supply systems and drilling of artesian wells. The foregoing indicates the strong desire of the people to further the interest of the educational work in their localities. This showing is in keeping with the experiences of the past years.

To provide against any abuse of the authority granted Provinces and municipalities to collect voluntary contributions and to insure that the money is contributed voluntarily, the work of supervision is intrusted to the provincial board concerned. In case of projects which may continue indefinitely, such as repair of roads, the authorization is issued for a limited period, usually about a year. For the maintenance of schools the period within which contribution may be collected is limited to a school year. The activities of the manicipalities to raise funds for public purposes on their own account are wholesome indications that they possess civic spirit to a high degree.

LIBRARY OF THE PHILIPPINE COMMISSION.

One hundred and seven thousand five hundred and thirty bound volumes and pamphlets were received from the United States and other countries during the year 1916 for the library of the Philippine Commission. Of this number, 33,301 were transferred to the Philippine Assembly, and 35,843 to the Philippine Library and Museum. There were added to the library 129 copies of different official publications of bureaus and offices of the insular government, all of which were received from the bureau of printing.

DISTRIBUTION OF PUBLIC DOCUMENTS.

The following table gives the number of public documents received and distributed during the year to government officials, ecclesiastical authorities, consular representatives, universities, colleges, libraries in and outside the Islands, and to the public in general:

The executive bureau cooperated with the bureau of education to secure the assistance of the Provinces and municipalities in observing garden days and conducting food demonstrations on a greatly increased scale. Garden days and food demonstrations are the logical outcome of the corn campaign inaugurated by the bureau of education in 1912. In a like manner, assistance was extended to the Philippine health service in its efforts to popularize home vegetable gardens by calling upon the provincial and the municipal officials to work with the health authorities and to provide such reasonable appropriations as may be considered necessary to give impetus to this movement. Requests were also issued to provincial and municipal officials to help the bureau of agriculture employees stationed in the Provinces in supervising the selection of rice seed. Another instance in which the executive bureau has been of valuable assistance to another branch of the government is furnished by the cooperation extended to the bureau of agriculture employees by provincial and municipal officials urging of the executive bureau in stamping out rinderpest and locusts, the two greatest enemies at present of Philippine agriculture.

GOVERNMENT OFFICIAL TRANSLATION.

The translating division of the executive bureau is the central translation office of the government. It furnishes translations into English or Spanish, or into native dialects, not only for the bureau, the office of the Governor General and the different departments of the government, but for the entire government. For work rendered by this division to other bureaus a fee of P0.75 per folio is charged. It also furnishes interpreters to offices and officers of the government.

During the year the following number of folios (a folio consists of 100 words) of translations was made:

Of the total number of folios 6,538 were for the Philippine Assembly, senate and house of representatives, and various government bureaus.

KEEPING OF RECORDS.

The records division of the bureau is and has been the archive not only of the executive bureau but of the office of the Governor General and of the departments of the government, as well. It is also charged with the keeping of the records of the former military government.

During the period covered by this report 174,631 papers of all kinds, exclusive of printed documents, were mailed by this division, as compared with 151,202 papers during the previous year. tion to the above 5.204 printed documents were mailed through the division.

NEW LEGISLATION.

In addi

On August 29, 1916, the so-called Jones bill, which provides for a more autonomous government for the Philippine Islands, was enacted into law. This new organic act affects this office in many ways. As a result of the organization of the Philippine Senate in lieu of the Philippine Commission, nominations theretofore for the commission to act upon have to be submitted to and confirmed by the Philippine Senate. Upon the constitution of the form of government provided for in said organic act, the Governor General and secretaries of departments ceased to be members of the Philippine Legislature, being now only executive and administrative officials of the government, except in so far as the veto power of the Governor General is concerned. On that account this office, at the last session of the legislature, was not called upon to prepare and examine bills and attend to various other legislative matters.

That law provides for the holding of an election to elect senators on the first Tuesday of October, 1916, unless postponed by the Governor General. As in the case of other elections, this office assumed general supervision over the senatorial election. A brief account of that election is given elsewhere in this report.

It should also be stated, as indirectly affecting the work of this office, that the new organic act provides for the holding of elections