passengers for the purpose of carriage in the coastwise trade and to fix the maximum rates to be charged thereunder for the transportation in the several classes of vessels of the various classes of merchandise and passengers from one point to another in the Philippine Islands. SEC. 28. Each member of the Coastwise Rate Commission who shall not be an official of the Insular Government shall receive for his services while actually engaged in the work of said Rate Commission a per diem of ten dollars per day, in money of the United States. The Civil Governor is authorized to designate from some one of the Bureaus of the Insular Government a stenographer to act as secretary of the said Rate Commission, during its sessions, to take the evidence and transcribe the same, and to keep the minutes of its proceedings. It shall be the duty of the Collector of Customs for the Philippine Archipelago to furnish rooms, furniture and the necessary stationery for the work of the Rate Commission and its secretary. The Rate Commission shall meet at the call of the Civil Governor and may be adjourned from time to time by his order. SEC. 29. It shall be the duty of the owner or master of any vessel engaged in the coastwise trade to comply with the requirements of the tariff of maximum rates fixed by the Coastwise Rate Commission as herein before provided, and in case of failure to provide transportation at the prescribed rate, the Collector of Customs for the Philippine Archipelago shall withdraw the license of the vessel to engage in the coast wise trade, and the offending vessel, if it thereafter engages in the coastwise trade, and its owner, master, and officers, shall be liable to the same penalties as those which are imposed upon any vessel, its owner, master, or officers, engaged in the coastwise trade without a license: Provided, however, That if an appeal be taken from the decision of the Coastwise Rate Commission and the tariff fixed by it to the Court of Customs Appeals, as hereinafter provided, and the Court of Customs Appeals shall modify or change the maximum rates fixed by the Coastwise Rate Commission, then the maximum rates as modified by the Court of Customs Appeals shall be observed and obeyed by all vessels engaged in the coastwise trade, subject to the penalties hereinbefore provided for violation of the rates of the Coastwise Rate Commission. SEC. 30. The maximum rates shall be reasonable, and shall not be fixed as hereinbefore provided, except after a public hearing of all persons or companies engaged as common carriers in the transportation of freight or passengers. SEC. 31. Any person deeming himself aggrieved by the order of the Coastwise Rate Commission fixing rates for transportation may appeal from the decision of the Coastwise Rate Commission to the Court of Customs Appeals, to which, upon notice of appeal, the Coastwise Rate Commission shall forward a record of the proceedings before it, including a transcript of all the evidence taken, and of its judgment thereon. The decision of the Court of Customs Appeals shall be final. SEC. 32. It shall not be obligatory upon the Civil Governor to appoint the Coastwise Rate Commission herein provided unless he shall deem the rates prescribed to be excessive and such regulation to be necessary. SEC. 33. All prosecutions for violations occurring under this Act shall be instituted in the Court of Customs Appeals in the manner provided in the Customs Administrative Act, and all appeals from penalties imposed by the Collector of Customs hereunder shall be taken to the Court of Customs Appeals as in that Act provided. SEC. 34. Copies of sections ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, and seventeen of this Act, printed in both English and Spanish in bold type, shall be conspicuously posted in such places aboard vessels operating under a special coastwise license and in such manner as the Collector of Customs for the Philippine Archipelago may direct. SEC. 35. On and after the first day of December, nineteen hundred and two, the Collector of Customs may, in his discretion, with the approval of the Civil Governor and whenever the public interest shall require, issue a regulation providing that no vessel of more than one hundred and fifty tons of registered tonnage shall be permitted to enter, berth, or moor within the Pasig River for the purpose of loading or discharging cargo, or for any other purpose than to make necessary repairs which could not be made in Manila Bay. SEC. 36. All existing decrees, laws, regulations, or orders, or parts thereof, inconsistent with the provisions of this Act, are hereby repealed. SEC. 37. This Act shall be known and referred to as the "Coastwise Trade Act." SEC. 38. This act shall take effect on its passage. [No. 521.] AN ACT authorizing the provincial board of any province organized under "The Provincial Government Act" to call special meetings of municipal presidents to consider matters of urgent importance to the province or the municipalities. By authority of the United States, be it enacted by the Philippine Commission, that: SECTION 1. The provincial board of any province organized under "The Provincial Government Act" is hereby authorized, when in its discretion it seems necessary, to call special meetings of all or any number of the municipal presidents of the province for the purpose of considering matters of urgent importance to the province or the municipalities, said special meetings to be in addition to the regular convention of municipal presidents as provided in the special acts organizing the several provincial governments and .by Act Numbered Four hundred and twenty-five. Such special meetings may be convened at the capital of the province, or, when some other point is more centrally located with reference to the municipalities affected, at such other places as may be fixed by the provincial board. The special meetings of municipal presidents authorized by this section may be called only upon the unanimous vote of the provincial board. SEC. 2. In case of a special meeting of municipal presidents as provided in section one hereof, the provincial board is authorized to pay from provincial funds the actual and necessary traveling expenses of the municipal presidents so convened from their respective munici palities to the place of meeting and return: Provided, That the expense so paid shall not exceed the maximum limitation imposed by law upon the traveling expenses of the provincial officers of the province. SEC. 3. This Act shall be retroactive in so far as necessary to authorize the provincial board of the Province of Capiz to pay the traveling expenses to the municipal presidents of that province convened during the month of October, nineteen hundred and two, for the purpose of considering the question of reorganizing the municipalities of the province. SEC. 4. The public good requiring the speedy enactment of this bill, the passage of the same is hereby expedited in accordance with section two of "An Act prescribing the order of procedure by the Commission in the enactment of laws," passed September twenty-sixth, nineteen hundred. SEC. 5. This act shall take effect on its pssage. [No. 522.] AN ACT empowering the Civil Governor to authorize any provincial governor or the Chief of the Philippines Constabulary to offer a reward of any sum not exceeding two thousand five hundred dollars, local currency, for information leading to the capture and conviction of the perpetrators of any murder or robbery or of the members of any band of brigands in the Archipelago. By authority of the United States, be it enacted by the Philippine Commission, that: SECTION 1. The Civil Governor is hereby empowered himself to offer, or to grant authority to the provincial governor of any province, or the Chief of the Constabulary to offer, a reward not exceeding two thousand five hundred dollars, local currency, for information leading to the capture and conviction of a member of a band of brigands, or of the perpetrator of any murder or robbery or any other crime, or for information leading to the capture of an escaped convict. SEC. 2. The rewards the offer of which are authorized in the preceding section, shall be paid out of the Insular Treasury upon appropriation duly made. The officer offering the reward is authorized to incur the expense of properly advertising the same, and such expense shall be paid out of the Treasury of the Islands from appropriation duly made. SEC. 3. The public good requiring the speedy enactment of this bill, the passage of the same is hereby expedited in accordance with section two of "An Act prescribing the order of procedure by the Commission in the enactment of laws," passed September twenty-sixth, nineteen hundred. SEC. 4. This act shall take effect on its passage. [No. 523.] AN ACT repealing section forty-four of Act Numbered One hundred and thirty-six, amending section forty-five of said Act by providing for the publication of the opinions of the Attorney-General, and amending section forty-seven of said Act, as amended by acts numbered three hundred and twenty-five and three hundred and seventy-eight, by providing for five assistant attorneys and for special assistant attorneys and counselors-at-law in the office of the Attorney-General. By authority of the United States, be it enacted by the Philippine Commission, that: SECTION 1. Section forty-four of Act Numbered One hundred and thirty-six, entitled "An Act providing for the organization of courts in the Philippine Islands," is hereby repealed. SEC. 2. Section forty-five, subsection (i), of said Act Numbered One hundred and thirty-six is hereby amended so as to read as follows: 66 "() The Attorney-General shall give his opinion in writing to the legislative body of the Islands, the Chief Executive, the heads of the four Executive Departments, and the Chiefs of the Bureaus organized thereunder, the trustee of any Government institution, and any provincial fiscal, when requested in writing, upon any question of law relating to their respective offices. All opinions rendered by the Solicitor-General shall be signed by him and approved by the AttorneyGeneral, and shall have the same force and effect as opinions signed by the Attorney-General. All other opinions shall be signed by the Attorney-General. The Attorney-General shall, under the supervision of the Secretary of Finance and Justice, from time to time, edit or cause to be edited, such of the opinions of his office as the Secretary of Finance and Justice may deem valuable for preservation in volumes, and cause to be printed by the Public Printer of the Philippine Islands, in the English and Spanish languages, an edition of five hundred copies thereof, which volumes shall contain not less than seven hundred and fifty pages of printed matter, and, as to quality of paper, printing, and binding, shall be uniform in style and appearance with the "Philippine Reports," and shall be numbered in the order of the volumes published. Each volume shall contain proper headnotes, a full and complete index, and such footnotes as the Attorney-General may approve. The volumes, when printed, shall be delivered to the Librarian of the Philippine Commission, who shall deliver one copy to the Chief Executive of the Islands, to the head of each of the four Executive Departments of the Government of the Philippine Islands, to the Chief of each Bureau organized thereunder, to each judge of a Court of First Instance, to each provincial secretary, to the clerk of the Supreme Court, to each provincial fiscal, to the City Attorney of the city of Manila, to the Prosecuting Attorney of the city of Manila, and two copies to the Supreme Court Library, which volumes shall not be sold or disposed of by the officials to whom they are delivered, but shall be public property appertaining to the several offices named, and remain as a part of the public documents thereof for the use of the successors of the officials named and of the public. At least ten copies shall be retained at all times in the Library of the Philippine Commission, and five copies shall be sent to the Congressional Library at Washington. The remaining volumes above the number herein provided for distribution shall be kept for exchange and for sale by the Librarian. The price per copy shall be fixed by the Secretary of Finance and Justice, and the proceeds from the sale of such remaining volumes shall be covered into the general funds of the Insular Treasury." SEC. 3. Subsections (b) and (d) of section forty-seven of Act Numbered One hundred and thirty-six, as amended by section one of Act Numbered Three hundred and twenty-five and by section one of Act Numbered Three hundred and seventy-eight, are hereby amended, respectively, to read as follows: (b) There shall be five assistant attorneys, who shall be appointed by the Civil Governor, with the advice and consent of the Philippine Commission, whose salaries shall be as follows: One at two thousand four hundred dollars per annum, one at two thousand two hundred and fifty dollars per annum, two at one thousand eight hundred dollars per annum, each, and one at one thousand six hundred dollars per annum. It shall be their duty to render such services in the performance of the duties of the Attorney-General as may be assigned to them. 66 "(d) The Attorney-General shall, whenever in his opinion the public interest requires it, upon the approval of the Secretary of Finance and Justice, employ and retain in the name of the Philippine Islands such attorneys and counselors-at-law as he may deem necessary to assist in the discharge of his duties, and shall stipulate with such assistant counsel with regard to their compensation, and shall have supervision of their conduct and proceedings. In addition to the compensation provided for by agreement with the Attorney-General, such special attorneys and counselors shall receive their actual and necessary traveling expenses incurred when in the performance of their duties." SEC. 4. The salary provided for one employee of class four in the office of the Attorney-General by Act Numbered Four hundred and ninety shall be payable to the assistant attorney herein provided for whose salary is fixed at two thousand two hundred and fifty dollars per annum, and after the appointment of such assistant attorney the Attorney-General shall not have authority to employ the employee of class four provided for in said Act Numbered Four hundred and ninety. SEC. 5. The public good requiring the speedy enactment of this bill, the passage of the same is hereby expedited in accordance with section two of "An Act prescribing the order of procedure by the Commission in the enactment of laws," passed September twenty-sixth, nineteen hundred. SEC. 6. This act shall take effect on its passage. [No. 524.] AN ACT amending section twelve of Act Numbered Fifty-nine regulating the sale of intoxicating liquors within the city of Manila and its adjacent barrios. By authority of the United States, be it enacted by the Philippine Commission, that: SECTION 1. Section twelve of Act Numbered Fifty-nine, regulating the sale of intoxicating liquors within the city of Manila and its adjacent barrios, is hereby amended by substituting in line eight thereof the words "five pesos" for the words "one and one-half pesos." SEC. 2. The public good requiring the speedy enactment of this bill, the passage of the same is hereby expedited in accordance with section two of "An Act prescribing the order of procedure by the Commission in the enactment of laws," passed September twenty-sixth, nineteen hundred. SEC. 3. This act shall take effect on its passage. WAR 1903-VOL 8- -15 |