of 100 meters width and from 50 to 30 meters of depth. The production of asphalt yielded in these mines is estimated at from 1,000 to 1,300 tons per year.

In Bahía Honda there is the mine of Santa Elena, containing a very pure asphalt. In Sancti Spíritus there are several mines of asphalt, the most known being that of Pozo Colorado. The amount of this mineral which before the war was exported from the island was estimated to be about 3,000 tons per year.

MINES OF COPPER.

The most abundant beds of minerals in Cuba are those of copper, for there is scarcely any metalliferous locality in the island where this mineral is not to be found in more or less amount. Sometimes it can be seen out on the surface of the ground and also in great amounts which do uninterruptedly stretch along several kilometers. To this fact is the saying due that the island of Cuba seems to be set on a bank of copper and iron, since the mineral beds of these metals are to be found here in large amounts. Commencing with Pinar del Río, mention should be made of the mines of Buenas Aguas, Recompensa, Union, and Caridad.

In Habana province there are the old mines of Bacuranao and others in Guanabacoa, Jaruco, and other places.

In the province of Matanzas more than seventy copper mines have been located, and the locators thereof applied for the proper patent or concession.

In the province of Santa Clara there are also good many valuable beds of this metal, especially in the judicial districts of Cienfuegos and Santa Clara.

The most important, both by their extension and by the length of time during which they have been worked, are those known as San Fernando and Santa Rosa. They were found from 1822 to 1826, and they were commenced to be worked in 1827 by capitalists from Habana and Boston. In 1846 there was formed another corporation, with a capital coming from England, until 1851, when, on account of the conspiracies and revolutionary movements, which were headed by Gen. Narciso Lopez, some of the principal partners retired from the island. Then another concern took charge of the mine until it was taken in by a foreign corporation, which worked it with a result of 4,000 tons a year, which were exported from the island at a higher quotation than those of Chile and Río Tinto. Matters continued thus until 1868, when the outburst of the first Cuban revolution, commencing in that year, dispersed the 300 miners that were there employed. Engineers who have visited the mine report that its wealth will increase in proportion that it is further worked and deepened, and that the bed of the mine has about 6 kilometers from east to west, without any interruption. They also reported that the minerals obtained from this mine have in some localities some amount of gold and silver.

A

In the province of Puerto Príncipe there are the mines of Bayatabo, lying along the road from Puerto Príncipe to Nuevitas. They were begun to be worked from the preceding century, but in an informal manner, until in 1864 the North American, Mr. Ditson, undertook a more important working of the mine known as Marion and Messrs. Barreto & Silva undertook to work that of San Antonio del Cerro. corporation was also formed to work the mines of Cubillas, Hacienda Caunao. In all these mines the prevailing metal was the carbonate of copper, the extraction of which was comparatively easy by reason of its being found at no considerable depth. The mineral extracted from Bayatabo was mainly exported to Liverpool and Boston, there having been established in the latter city a foundry exclusively devoted to the working of the metal of this mine.

The most important province, however, for the working of mines of copper is that of Santiago de Cuba. Its beds are numerous and very extensive, and they were the first that were commenced to be worked in the mining business of this island. The town of Cobre has been built on very rich and extensive layers of this mineral, which is also found in other parts of the province, as Bayamo, Sierra Maestra, Las Tunas, Holguín, and Jiguaní.

These mines were first found in the sixteenth century, and the Crown reserved to itself their management and exploitation until 1718, when it was transferred to a corporation which had to supply, as a consideration for the leasing of the mine, a number of artillery guns made from the copper of the mine.

These mines have been worked for a long time, and formerly with great success. Lately the breaking out of the war and other causes have somewhat checked in Santiago the development of this industry. The competition from the mines of Chile and Rio Tinto, and specially of those of Lake Superior, has operated as a great drawback on our mining copper industry, which in this country has to labor under the great difficulty of lack of fuel. The amount of coal which is consumed in the working of the original mineral into copper is well known to be a very large one. In Swansea and Liverpool, for instance, there are needed from 16 to 18 tons of coal fuel for the production of every ton of copper.

MINES OF IRON.

Mines of iron and manganese are about the only ones of importance at present by reason of their being worked more regularly and in a larger scale in the province of Santiago de Cuba. In his work entitled Industrial Cuba, chapter 22, Mr. Robert P. Porter has furnished almost all the information possible about these mines. As this book can be said to be an official record, on account of the official representation of its author, it seems redundant to dwell on this matter any further than to refer for statistics and general information on these mines to that accurate and most reliable book.

GOLD MINES.

It is the province of Santa Clara that is mostly known as a gold-producing province. There are to be found in different localities of that portion of the island several beds of this mineral of more or less importance. That known as the Meloneras, near the village of Guaracabuya, in the municipal district of Placetas, is the most important of all.

Messrs. Fernandez de Castro and Salterain, engineers, have reported on the probable existence of more than three veins of this precious metal, and they recommend that soundings and examinations be practiced in all the extension of the mine already known there. From 1868 some work has been carried out there in search of further veins, but no capital and no available scientific direction have been on hand to carry it on, and, besides this, the two wars that have broken out in the island since that year have caused the interruption and discontinuance of work.

Mention is also made of gold mines in the district of Holguin, where traces of very old workings are yet to be seen in the place to a more considerable extent than those of Guaracabuya. Some people have ascribed these works to the aboriginal Indians, but nothing certain can be elicited, from the confusion and darkness in which the origin of these works and the cause of their abandonment are involved. These beds of Holguin are in the district of Guajabales, and the fact is that the geological structure of the soil there is the same as that of other auriferous localities.

Mr. Robert P. Porter in the above-quoted work, and Mr. James Clarke, in his book Commercial Cuba, edited by Charles Scribner, have set forth all the information that it has been possible to record on the existence of beds of coal, lead, silver, and other minerals.

In the geographical dictionary of the island of Cuba, by Pezuela, mention is made under the heading "Isla de Pinos" of the existence of marbles and of granitic rocks in that small island. It is to be regretted, however, that good statistical information should be as deficient in this matter of mines as it is in all other subjects. I am not aware that any continuous and regular system of statistics has been kept, and if any has been so kept it has not been given to the public.

MINING LEGISLATION.

There is in Cuba, as in all civilized countries, a thorough system of laws regulating the subject of mines. There is in this matter, as is frequently the case in Cuba, a great bulk of mazy and confused legislation in regard to mining concerns, for, besides the fundamental laws on the subject, there are the rules and instructions which generally follow in Spain the enactment of all fundamental laws, and besides there must be added to this the extensive number of royal orders, royal decrees, and orders from the colonial authorities, which official formality and the system of red tape and bureaucratic legislation have always brought about, with the result of causing the greatest confusion in regard to the good and substantial laws originally regulating the whole subject. This, of course, is a defect which can be easily done away with by simply revising the enormous bulk of legislation with a view to set aside all that is of a mere red tape and formal character and to condense the substantial part of the legislation in one single law.

The law here in force is that of the 6th of July, 1859, with the modifications introduced on the 4th of March, 1868. These laws were those in force in Spain and declared in force in this island by the decree issued on the 10th of October, 1883. There are also in force here the rules and instructions of the 24th of July, 1868, and the law containing the new bases on which all legislation on mines was to rest in the future.

We all know what have been the different systems which have prevailed in the civilized countries of the world in regard to the legal status of mines. Some countries have continually adhered to the conclusion that mines partook of a social nature and were, therefore, concerned with the general interests of the people, on which ground the state has very generally asserted thereon its sovereign right of eminent

domain and declared that mines were to be considered as state property, with no other right on the part of the owner of the surface of the soil containing the mine than to claim an indemnity for the condemnation of his surface property.

Other countries, and this is the general drift of legislation, have looked on mines nearly the same as on other territorial property and vested the owner of the surface with the title and ownership of the mine under certain prescriptions generally tending to secure the supervision of the state, the safety of the miners, and the operating of the mine itself, so that it may not be left idle and in an unproductive condition.

In other cases there has been a sort of compromise between these two extreme views, and while the state has continued to assert its right on mines it has allowed the right of private persons a larger scope, so large that it almost nears the right of complete ownership in the possession and enjoyment of mining concerns. This subject has besides a twofold aspect, since besides that concerning the rights of the state in the subsoil or mineral stratum of earth lying beneath the surface of the ground there is also that sometimes conflicting rights of the owner of the surface and the discoverer or first claimer of the mine.

The Spanish, and therefore the Cuban, legislation has adopted the view generally held by those nations favoring the compromise system. Thus while its cardinal principle on the subject is that the property of all mines belongs to the State in its right of sovereignty, ample provisions have been made to mitigate the rigor of this principle. On this ground the State has assumed, as a constitutional power pertaining to it, without any limitation whatever, to regulate the subject of mines with such allowances and concessions to and also with such restrictions of the private individual as it has considered convenient to the interest of the people.

Under the Spanish law in force in Cuba minerals are, for the purposes of the law, classified in three different kinds. The first consists of mineral products of terreous nature, silicious rock, slate sandstone, granites, basalt, limestone, chalk sands, marls, and generally all other used as building materials and extracted from quarries. The second section embraces the metalliferous sands and alluviums, iron minerals, emery, ocher and almagra, the metalliferous soils proceeding from former concessions, pyritic, allumish, and magnesian soils, saltpeter, lime phosphates, sulphate of baryte, fluor spar, steatite, kaolin, and all sorts of clay. The third section includes seams of metalliferous substances, anthracite, pit coal, lignite, asphalt, mineral tars, petroleum and mineral oils, graphite, saline substances, including all the alkaline and terreous alkaline salts either found in solid form or dissolved in water, sulphates of iron, sulphur, and precious stones. Subterranean waters are also included in this group. Minerals of the first section are of common use when found in the public lands. When in private lands the title to said mineral is granted by the State to the owner of the surface, who is at liberty to work them or not as it may be convenient to him. Those minerals included in the second section are placed by the law on the same footing as the preceding ones, but the State may condemn the surface, indemnify the owners thereof, and grant the possession and enjoyment of the mineral to a third person in case that the owner of the surface does not operate the mine. Those of the third class, which are the most important as being what is generally understood as mines, properly speaking, can be operated by grant made by the Government and according to the provisions of the law. In this case the property of the surface and that of the subsoil become different properties, and when one of them must subserve the ends of the other condemnation and indemnity therefor ensue.

Concessions of mines are made by the Government, not for a limited term of years, but ad perpetuam. Everyone has the right to make in the public lands belonging to the State excavations not exceeding 10 meters in length or depth in order to discover minerals. No permit is required for this, but notice should be given to the proper local authority. In lands belonging to private persons no such trial pits or excavations shall be made without previously obtaining the consent of the owner thereof. The unity of measure for the concession of mines of the second and third class is called a pertenencia, and it shall have a length on the surface of 100 meters on each side of the square, with no limitation as to the depth thereof as far as minerals of the third class are concerned. Private persons may obtain any number of these pertenencias through one single concession, provided they exceed the number of four.

In order to acquire the property of four of these pertenencias, which is the least number that must be included under one concession, a written application must be made to the civil governor of the province, with a full statement and particulars, and thereupon said governor, after complying with the formalities and requirements of the rules and instructions in force on the subject, and after having made such publications as are provided by the law, shall direct the demarcation of the concession and grant it within the legal period. This demarcation shall be made though no mineral shall have been yet discovered or any work operated. Priority in the filing

of the application for the concession determines the preferent right of the petitioner, with the exception of those cases in which the minerals shall be those belonging to the second class, in which case the owner of the surface shall be preferred if he undertakes to commence to operate the mine himself within a period of time which the Government must fix, and which shall not be more than thirty days.

When it shall be necessary to build tunnels or headways or openings and other similar important works for the purpose of examining or for the purpose of transportation or drainage, the proper concession shall be applied for. In case the owners of other contiguous concessions through which these works shall have to pass should object to the execution thereof they shall not be carried out until the proper decision is obtained as to the utility of the work and, if necessary, the condemnation of the other mines.

These are, sir, the principal provisions concerning the legislation of mines in this country.

As to the financial provisions concerning this subject, there are two imposts on mines in the island-the impost called the surface annuity and the 2 per cent on the gross proceeds of mines in operation.

There have been issued in this matter, as was generally the case here with the Spanish Government, so many different and contradictory orders and royal decrees that this taxation legislation on mines may be said to be in a very unsettled and confused condition. A thorough revision of the laws is, therefore, in these matters, of pressing necessity, and a plan is being now taken into consideration to fix and determine this financial legislation on the matter. For the present, the most that can be said is that the annual surface impost is $30 in some cases and $20 in others. The slags and terrier pay annually $1 for each 1,000 square meters of surface extension. Incomplete pertenencias, as well as those exceeding the legal unity, pay in proportion to the extent of their surfaces. Permits for investigation pay $20 every year. As to the 2 per cent to be paid from the gross proceeds of the mine, adequate provisions are in force in order to secure the rights of the State.

With this I bring this report to a close, submitting it to your consideration. As before stated, reform, more than radical change of the laws, is the most pressing need of the moment and such that without it no general plan can be devised for the establishment in Cuba of a stable civil government. In my opinion it is not a difficult task to bring about that reform so as to adapt the laws to the present régime and to the new order of things created here by the withdrawal of the Spanish rule.

Your obedient servant,

PABLO DESVERNINE,
Secretary of Finance.

REPORT OF MR. J. A. GONZALEZ LANUZA, SECRETARY OF JUSTICE AND PUBLIC INSTRUCTION, ISLAND OF CUBA.

Maj. Gen. JoHN R. BROOKE,

DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE AND PUBLIC INSTRUCTION,
Habana, September 16, 1899.

Military Governor of Cuba.

SIR: Pursuant to orders from you I herewith draw up a report of the work done by the department in my charge during the first six months of the present year. The half year is actually reduced to five months for this office. Immediately after my arrival from the United States I had the honor of being presented to you the 31st of January. The same day I made oath, and took possession of my office the 1st of February. From that date to the 30th of June the department of justice and public instruction has accomplished what I hereinafter explain.

When the departments of this military government were created and when the secretaries, then present in Habana, took possession of their respective offices January 12, the branch of justice continued under the direction of Lieut. Col. Edgar S. Dudley, judge-advocate, Division of Cuba, and the bureau of public instruction remained under Captain McKenna. During their brief tenure of office neither of these gentlemen found it possible to carry out any systematic plan of work or effect any reorganization or reform. The time was indeed insufficient for them to even become acquainted with current affairs, the régime, and the laws actually in force in Cuba.

For these weighty reasons the undersigned found his department in the same position as when the American officers, by your orders, took charge on the 1st of January of all the Spanish offices.

The first work to be undertaken was the organization of the department. A communication from you, transmitted by your chief of staff, warned me that said organization had to be carried out with the greatest economy possible, and also that, with regard to the personnel, some of the old employees should be retained wherever their qualifications showed them to be deserving of this distinction.

The old autonomist department of public instruction was divided into two sections; one, the subsecretary's office, with its subordinate personnel; the other, the bureau of pensions and retired pay for primary teachers, also with its personnel. Each of these had at their disposition some $1,500 for material (office expenses, etc.); thus, without including the branch of justice, the total material allowance of the department of public instruction, reached the sum of $3,000 a year. Taking into account that the secretary received $10,000, that the subsecretary's office expended $18,000 in salaries and the bureau of pensions $10,300, it may be fair to say that, even omitting the $4,000 of the higher board of public instruction and the $15,500 of the so-called corps of inspectors of secondary teaching (which was not created), the department of public instruction spent annually $41,300.

The branch of justice formed part of a department called "grace, justice, and government." For expenses of material and incidentals this department has been assigned $2,000, from which we may infer that $1,000, more or less, was applied to the branch of justice. There was also some $500 assigned for expenses of criminal statistics, belonging to this branch; for publication of laws, purchase of books, and cost of binding, $2,000, of which $1,000 may be assigned to the first, as something also belonging to justice; and finally, the section de los registros y del notariado disposed of $1,500. This section belongs to the existing department of justice and public instruction. The branch of justice thus spent in material $4,000, which, added to the $3,000 of public instruction, made $7,000. The expenses for material is at present only $1,000. Experience has shown that this figure is barely sufficient, and it entails parsimonious economy; but even were it increased by $500 (more would not be necessary) there would be still quite a considerable economy in our favor, even taking into account the difference between American and Spanish gold.

With regard to the personnel and their expenses we do not include the salaries of the secretary and subsecretary, as they are accounted for in the branch of public instruction. The section of registers used to cost alone annually $11,500 for personnel, and the employees of what might properly be called "section of justice" received $12,800 a year. All these sums added, including public instruction, gave a grand total of $69,600, Spanish gold.

According to the budget which you approved February 1, the whole expenses of this department were reduced to $39,160, American currency. To this was added later the salary of an interpreter, a position that had also been added to the other departments-namely, $1,200 a year. The wages of the porter and messengers were increased to $300, to put them on a par with similar positions in the other departments; and later on two men were employed to settle the pension accounts of the bureau of pensions for primary teachers whose board has been suppressed. Each of these received $800 a year, and they have now finished their auditing. All that remains in order to bring this matter to a conclusion and to proceed to payment is for the Banco Español to place at the disposal of the government the sums that are deposited there and which belong to those funds. These amounts of $1,200, $300, and $1,600 brought the total expenses up to $42,260. That figure represents our actual budget. The recommendation of economy was, as one may see, strictly followed in the organization of our work.

There remained also in the office several employees of the former departments among these a chief of the office of third class, a second clerk, and two fourth clerks (the ones charged with settling the accounts of the bureau of pensions, and which were selected from the former employees of the suppressed board). In addition to these, several minor clerks and the porter of the department of public instruction were retained. Further on I shall take up again the question of personnel and expenses of the office.

The business connected with the department may be divided into two groups, namely: The first, representing the legal decrees emanating from this office, and submitted to your approval, and published, after their approval, as orders of this military government. The second represents the daily dispatch of business in the department in its two principal branches and in the third (also a very important one), constituted by the sección de los "registros y del notariado" (section of registers and matters concerning notaries public).

We shall take up the first decree relating to the branch properly called justice. When the department was organized the whole attention of the secretary was directed, with regard to what refers to the publication of necessary legal decrées, to