shall be authorized to seize his office, the books, papers, cash, and all records, and hold the same until the amounts due from him as such treasurer can be stated. In case of the decease of the district treasurer, the same procedure shall obtain. When the account shall be stated, the office, public papers, and records shall be turned over to his lawful successor. The district treasurer shall discharge such other duties as may be imposed upon him by act of the legislative council. The district treasurer shall give bond in a sum to be fixed by the provincial treasurer with the approval of the legislative council. SEC. 19. The Philippine Scouts may be employed in the aid of the Constabulary of the province under the terms and conditions prescribed in the Act of Congress approved the thirteenth day of January, nineteen hundred and three, entitled "An Act to promote the efficiency of the Philippine Constabulary, to establish the rank and pay of its commanding officers, and for other purposes."

SEC. 20. It shall be lawful for the governor of the province, or any district governor therein, to secure the enforcement of law and order in cases of resistance to lawful authority or disturbances of the peace which the Constabulary and municipal police are unable, or find it difficult to suppress, by requesting and obtaining the assistance of the. Army of the United States, by making application to the military commander of any district or the commander of the Department of Mindanao in any form and under any conditions prescribed in the general orders of the Commanding General of the Division of the Philippines.

SEC. 21. There is hereby created, in addition to the assistant chiefs of Constabulary now provided by law, an additional assistant chief, to be known as the seventh assistant chief, who shall be in charge of the Constabulary in the Moro Province, and who shall discharge his duties under the supervision of the Chief of Constabulary, subject to such special control by the governor of the Moro Province as has been herein before provided. He shall organize Constabulary in each of the districts from the natives, Christian or non-Christian, residents in such districts, not to exceed one hundred and fifty enlisted men in any district, unless duly authorized by law or resolution of the Commission. The laws and regulations governing the organization of the Constabulary shall apply to the Constabulary of the Moro Province, except as they may be hereinafter specially modified by act of the Commission to suit local conditions. It shall be the duty of the assistant chief of the Constabulary, and of the inspectors and subinspectors, to inspect the local police of municipalities and to recommend to the governors of the districts such changes, removals, and promotions as may seem to them wise. The Constabulary force shall be supported by funds appropriated from the Insular Treasury in like manner as the Constabulary force in the other parts of the Archipelago is supported. In cases of emergency the Constabulary of one district. may be used in another district. The Constabulary of the province may be used in any province of the Archipelago when so ordered by the Civil Governor of the Islands.

SEC. 22. No contract for construction of a road, bridge, a public building, or other public improvement shall be entered into by the provincial government until the provincial treasurer shall, in writing, certify to the governor that there is in the provincial treasury a sum which may be lawfully devoted to such purpose sufficient to meet the estimated cost of the construction of the improvement; and after such certificate shall be made and filed and the contract entered into, the

provincial treasurer shall treat the sum thus certified as not subject to warrant except to meet the obligations of the contract.

SEC. 23. All work of repair, construction, or equipment of roads, buildings, and public improvements involving a greater cost than one thousand dollars, in money of the United States, shall be let to the lowest responsible bidder, after ten days' public notice of the letting by advertisement in a paper of general circulation in the province, or if there is no such paper, by a notice posted for ten days at the main entrance of the engineer's office in the capital of the province, and at the door of the office of the secretary of the district in which the work is to be done. If the provincial legislative council shall regard the contract to be let and the work to be done of sufficient magnitude, it may direct the engineer, in addition to giving the public notice above required, to advertise for bids in a newspaper published in the city of Manila. The provincial engineer is authorized to reject any or all bids, and if the bids are too high, he may recommend to the council that he be allowed to purchase the material and hire the labor and himself supervise the work, and the legislative council may then authorize such a course.

SEC. 24. The Insular Treasurer shall prescribe the method of keeping the ledgers and records of the provincial treasurer and the district treasurers, and shall prepare such rules and regulations relating to the administration of the affairs of these offices as may be necessary. The Insular Auditor shall prescribe the form and manner in which the provincial treasurer and the district treasurers shall render accounts for settlement, as provided by rule twelve of Act Numbered Ninety, and issue instructions relative to the rendition of such accounts as provided in rules twelve and forty-four of said Act. The necessary books and forms for the provincial and district treasurers shall be prepared under the direction of the Insular Treasurer, and shall be furnished by him to the provincial treasurer at cost. The monthly accounts-current of the provincial treasurer shall be audited by the Insular Auditor. For assistance in such audit the provincial treasurer shall forward to the Insular Auditor certified copies of all acts or resolutions of the legislative council authorizing the appointment of assistants, deputies, and other employees, and fixing their salaries. At least once in six months the office of the provincial treasurer shall be examined by a traveling examiner of the Insular Treasurer. In case such an examination discloses a defalcation of the provincial treasurer, it shall be the duty of the examining officer to report the fact to the provincial governor, and to seize the office and its contents and to notify the Insular Treasurer forthwith, who shall thereupon, by himself or deputy, at once take possession of the office, the books, papers, vouchers, and cash of such provincial treasurer, and shall at once notify the Insular Auditor of the fact, and shall temporarily continue such public business as is necessary until the amount due from the provincial treasurer shall be exactly determined by the Insular Auditor or his deputies, and a correct account stated, when, upon proper certificate from the Auditor, the examining officer shall transfer the office and its contents to the provincial treasurer then lawfully entitled. The same procedure shall be pursued in case of the death of the provincial treasurer. Upon the seizure the sureties of the defaulting or deceased officer shall be at once notified thereof by the Insular Treasurer. The Auditor shall forward to the provincial attorney a statement of the account of the defaulting or deceased officer, and request suit to be brought for any balance which may be

due upon the official bond of the defaulting or deceased officer, and in such suit the account stated by the Insular Auditor shall be prima facie evidence of the amount due on the bond. In case of a defaulting provincial treasurer or district treasurer, criminal proceedings shall be instituted against the offender. In case of a deceased provincial treasurer, if no balance is found to be due from him, the Auditor shall settle his account and furnish his legal representatives with a certified copy of the settlement.

SEC. 25. Collections derived for the timber cut and forestry products on Government lands under the Forestry Regulations shall be collected by the district treasurers, and shall be forwarded through the provincial treasurer to the Insular Treasurer; he shall deposit the same in the Insular Treasury to the credit of the Forestry Bureau. At the end of each quarter it shall be the duty of the Insular Auditor to determine the ratio of the total expenditures in the Archipelago in the collection of forestry dues to the total collections thereof in the Archipelago; he shall then reduce the total proceeds of forestry collections for the quarter from the Moro Province by the proper percentage thereof for expense of collection as above determined, and shall issue a warrant on the Insular Treasurer for the remainder of the amount collected in the Moro Province in favor of the provincial treasurer of that province. So long as the internal-revenue tax laws shall apply in the Moro Province, the stamps required by law in the collection of such taxes shall be furnished to the provincial treasury of the Moro Province by the Insular Treasurer, who shall obtain the same from the Collector of Internal Revenue of the Islands in sufficient quantities for the purpose of this section, giving a proper receipt therefor. The provincial treasurer receiving the stamps shall receipt. for the same to the Insular Treasurer and the same method shall be followed in the distribution of stamps by the provincial treasurer to the treasurers of the districts. The Insular Treasurer shall render a monthly account-current of the stamps furnished by him to the provincial treasurer supporting the same by proper vouchers. provincial treasurer for each month shall render a report of stamps sold and stamps on hand to the Insular Treasurer and to the Insular Auditor.

The

SEC. 26. The gross amount of customs receipts from whatever source collected within the Moro Province, less the cost of collection of the same therein, shall constitute a special fund to be expended in the discretion of the legislative council for provincial, district, and municipal purposes in that province; and for this purpose such funds. shall be deposited by the collectors of customs in the Moro Province directly with the treasurer of the province, taking receipts therefor and forwarding one copy thereof to the Insular Collector of Customs and one to the Insular Treasurer.

SEC. 27. Courts of First Instance and justices of the peace in the Moro Province shall not have jurisdiction to try civil or criminal actions arising between Moros or arising between non-Christians, or, except as otherwise provided by the legislative council, actions arising between Moros and other non-Christians, and the existing laws of the Philippine Islands are hereby amended accordingly: Provided, however, That in accordance with paragraph (k) of section thirteen of this Act, the legislative council may by law vest jurisdiction to try cases between Moros and other non-Christians in such courts: And provided further, That the Court of First Instance shall have jurisdiction in all habeas corpus cases, no matter between whom arising,

to take cognizance of the petition for the release of any person within its territorial jurisdiction, to issue process, to hear the evidence, and to discharge the prisoner or to remand him to custody in accordance with the provisions of the chapter on habeas corpus in the Code of Civil Procedure.

SEC. 28. The legislative council shall have power to insure the gradual transition from military to civil control in those districts in which in its judgment it would not be wise immediately to establish complete civil government by providing that the powers herein conferred upon district officers shall be exercised and performed in any district under the general supervision of the military commander of the United States troops serving in that district for any period which it may deem wise, and such period of transition may be decreased or lengthened in the discretion of the legislative council by subsequent act.

SEC. 29. The provincial government established under this Act shall be a body corporate with power to sue and be sued, to have and use a corporate seal, to hold property, real and personal, to make contracts for labor and material needed in the construction of duly authorized public works, and to incur such other obligations as are authorized by law.

SEC. 30. The legislative council shall have power, in its discretion, to make the government of a district a corporation, with power to sue and be sued, to have and use a corporate seal, to hold property, real and personal, to make contracts for labor and material needed for district purposes, and to incur such other obligations as may be expressly authorized by law, and, if it deems wise, to constitute a district board to consist of the governor, the secretary, and the treasurer, who shall be the governing board of the district. It shall not be necessary that such law shall uniformly apply to all districts, but differing provisions may be made applicable to different districts as the legislative council shall determine.

SEC. 31. The carving out of the subdistrict of Dapitan and the creation of the office of lieutenant-governor of that subdistrict are hereby declared to be for the purpose of providing a form of provincial government for the people of the town of Dapitan and the towns lying in its neighborhood, who are not sufficiently numerous to justify the expense of a provincial government. The legislative council shall have power to declare the duties of the lieutenant-governor, to provide a deputy district treasurer, whose office shall be at Dapitan, and to furnish such subordinate employees and make such provision for the quasi-independent government of the subdistrict as local conditions may require.

SEC. 32. Laws passed by the legislative council shall take effect at the time fixed by the legislative council in the Act, subject to annulment or amendment by the Commission. It shall be the duty of the secretary of the council to forward a certified copy of each act of the legislative council by registered mail to the Recorder of the Commission immediately after its passage.

SEC. 33. 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. 34. This act shall take effect upon the fifteenth day of July, nineteen hundred and three.

Enacted, June 1, 1903.

[No. 788.]

AN ACT authorizing the construction of a fourteen-hundred-ton marine railway and repair shops on Engineer Island, and authorizing the expenditure of the sum of one hundred and forty thousand dollars, United States currency, therefor.

By authority of the United States, be it enacted by the Philippine Commission, that:

SECTION 1. The effective service of the Coast Guard boats requiring that some adequate place be prepared where they can be properly docked and repaired, the Chief of Coast Guard and Transportation is hereby authorized to have constructed, under his direction, a fourteen-hundred-ton marine railway, with the necessary machine or repair shops, for the use of the Coast Guard vessels and other vessels belonging to the Insular Government. Said marine railway shall be located on the small island known as Engineer Island, lying immediately south of the Pasig River between the canal leading from the Pasig River to what is known as the Inner Basin and the west breakwater in Manila Bay, in accordance with the plans to be furnished by the Chief of Coast Guard and Transportation and approved by the Secretary of Commerce and Police.

SEC. 2. Such part of Engineer Island as is necessary for the use of the Coast Guard fleet and for the construction of the marine railway and repair shops as authorized by this Act is hereby assigned, subject to regulation by the Secretary of Commerce and Police, to the Bureau of Coast Guard and Transportation, together with all the wharfage front about the island and the anchorage space in what is known as the Inner Basin and inside of a line drawn from the southeast corner of Engineer Island to the end of the pier on which the breakwater light is now located, and also the canal leading to the proposed marine railway, with the necessary entrance thereto.

SEC. 3. The Chief of Coast Guard and Transportation in constructing said marine railway shall procure the building of same and of the repair shop as far as practicable by contract or contracts by private individuals or corporations. Advertisements for bids for doing such work shall be inserted for at least ten days in at least two newspapers of general circulation published in the city of Manila, one of which shall be published in the English language, and one in the Spanish language, and contracts for performing the work shall be awarded to the lowest bidder or bidders, except as hereinafter provided. At the time and place fixed in the advertisement all bids for doing the work or parts thereof shall be opened by the Chief of Coast Guard and Transportation, who shall award the contract for doing the same to the lowest responsible bidder, provided the Chief of Coast Guard and Transportation deems the bid reasonable. If he considers the lowest responsible bid to be excessive, he is hereby authorized to reject same and may again advertise one or more times for new bids and open the same and award the contract, as in the first instance, to the lowest responsible bidder, if in his judgment the same is reasonable, and if not, he shall reject same: Provided, however, That after one advertisement without obtaining a satisfactory bid, the Chief of Coast Guard and Transportation, if he considers it more economical and advantageous to the public interests, shall report the fact to the Secretary of Commerce and Police, who shall, if he deems further advertising undesirable, order the work done directly by the Chief of Coast