retary, and set forth the causes and purposes for which it is drawn, besides other necessary information.

In the majority, or all, of the special acts extending the provisions of this general act to particular provinces, the interesting provision is made that the "presidentes" or alcaldes of the municipalities of the province shall at certain dates assemble in convention for the purpose of considering and making recommendations to the provincial boards regarding improvements that should be made in the province. These conventions are called together by the provincial secretaries, who act as their secretaries, but elect their own chairmen. The number of such conventions is limited by an act passed July 2, 1902, to four in each year. A later act, passed November 17 of the same year, however, provides that the provincial board of any province organized under the general provincial act may, whenever it deems it desirable call a special meeting of any or all of the municipal presidentes of the province for the purpose of considering matters of urgency.

Provincial governments, it will be seen from the foregoing, do not exercise a very wide range of governmental powers. They, in fact, have but few really important duties. These may be recapitulated to be: (1) the execution of public works; (2) the collection of revenues, both provincial and municipal; (3) general control over the municipal police or constabulary that is vested in the hands of the provincial governors; and (4) the exercise of a general supervision over municipal officers. The provincial gov

ernments have in fact little or no power of legislation, properly speaking, and consequently have not been given a real legislative body. The provincial board is in reality little more than a board of trustees composed of the chief officers of the province. The provincial officers in turn, with the exception of the governor, are not only appointed by the commission, but are subject to rigid control by that body and by the insular officials. The whole scheme of provincial government is thus but a means of decentralizing to a certain extent that control over local governments which it was thought best should be reserved to the central authorities. Even in respect to the matter of raising revenues and the expenditure of provincial funds the power of provincial governors is strictly limited. Thus the tax levy upon real estate cannot exceed three-eighths of one per cent and of this at least one-eighth of one per cent, the levy of which is obligatory, must be devoted exclusively to the construction and repair of roads and bridges.

The secretary to the military governor, in his annual report for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1901, makes the following comparison of the new provincial government with that existing under Spanish rule. He says: "The provincial governor is elected by the people, instead of being appointed. The qualifications of the provincial governor are so reduced that almost any native of the islands, regardless of residence, is eligible for election to this office; the provincial board is charged with real governmental functions, and not merely with the duty of inspection

and supervision of municipalities; the influence of the church in provincial matters is completely eliminated; a land tax is authorized." From the standpoint of conferring self-government upon the people, the most important change is that by which the people of a province are given the privilege of electing their governor through their representatives, the councillors of the various municipalities.

Nueva Vizcaya Provincial Act. The general provincial law has been extended to the great majority of the provinces of the archipelago. There are a few provinces, however, which, as has been said, are so largely inhabited by tribes of a low degree of civilization, that it has been held unwise to give to them that degree of self-government which is granted by the general act that has been described. For these provinces, therefore, special provision has had to be made. The first province of this class to be legislated for was that of Benguet. An act to organize a civil government in the province was enacted by the commission November 23, 1900, or several months before the general provincial act was passed. Subsequent to the passage of the latter act a law was framed for the organization of a provincial government for the province of Nueva Vizcaya. This latter act follows in a general way the Benguet act, but provides for a much more complete system of government. It, instead of the Benguet act, has accordingly been used as a model in the subsequent organization of provincial governments in those provinces to which it has. not been thought wise to extend the provisions of the

general provincial act, and it is with its provisions therefore that we are here chiefly interested.

The Nueva Vizcaya act is directly modeled after the general provincial act, making use of the same language wherever practicable, and only departs from it where it is desired to restrict to a greater extent the grant of powers, or to reserve to the insular authorities a larger control. Thus, as in the general act, the provision is made that all governmental powers granted by the act shall be exercised by certain officers and by provincial boards composed of certain of them. These officers consist of a provincial governor, secretary-treasurer, supervisor and fiscal. It will be noted that the office of secretary and treasurer are held by one person instead of two, as under the general act. The three officers first named constitute the provincial board. The fundamental difference in the scheme of government thus provided for from that created by the general act lies in the manner of the selection of the provincial governor and the character of his powers, and in the extent of the authority of the provincial board. Instead of being elected by the members of the municipal councils of the province assembled in joint convention, the governor is directly appointed by the civil governor with the advice and consent of the commission in the same way as the other officials that have been named. Like them also, he holds office during the pleasure of the civil governor. As regards his duties, the governor not only possesses all the powers of civil governor under the general act, but in addition exercises a far greater authority over the administration of municipal affairs

than is provided for by that act. He thus has not only the duty of visiting at least once every six months each of the municipalities of the province and of suspending, pending final action by the commission, any municipal officer whom he believes to be guilty of maladministration of his office, but that of passing upon all ordinances enacted by a municipality. In performing the latter function he not only has the authority to veto any ordinance which he disapproves, but to suggest amendments or modifications in it, and if the council passing the ordinance does not return it in the shape that he desires, he may modify it so as to make it meet his wishes. He furthermore has the power on his own initiative to promulgate municipal ordinances where a municipality fails to act in regard to any of its essential duties. This prerogative of the provincial governor in respect to municipal affairs is so important that the wording of the act regarding it should be given in full. It reads: "He [the provincial governor] shall pass upon every ordinance or act of the several township councils of the province, approving it should he deem it satisfactory; should he deem it unsatisfactory, he shall return it to the council, suggesting suitable amendments; the council shall inform him of its action and he shall then approve the ordinance or act as demanded, or modify it, as he may deem necessary. Should the council of any township fail to fix the limits of the barrio of the township; to fix the salaries of duly authorized officers and employees; to make appropriations for lawful and necessary township expenditures; to regulate the sanitation of the township, and order the removal