﻿108 The Philippine Journal of Science wu 



A provision sometimes seen in the constitutions of irrigation 

 societies in Ilocos Norte is that disputes arising from the work 

 or the shares must be submitted for adjustment to a meeting 

 of the society, recourse to the courts being punished by expulsion. 



Money for the purchase of building material, such as timber 

 or lime, is raised by a levy on all the members, or the material 

 may be furnished by members in lieu of work. 



An omission which strikes one forcibly in reading the agree- 

 ments is the lack of any definite provision for dividing the 

 water supplies. This omission corresponds to one seen in the 

 irrigation works ; namely, the almost, though not quite, universal 

 lack of any system by which a definite amount of water can 

 be drawn from the main canals to the small ditches of the 

 individual fields. It seems to be assumed that there will be 

 water enough for all. If there is any system to insure rotation 

 and equality of supply, I am not aware of it. Doubtless, the 

 question of a square deal in this matter comes up and is acted 

 upon in meetings of the society. 



These meetings take place in some societies at regular intervals. 

 In others, they are called from time to time by the chief. 



As may be supposed, something is required to hold slack 

 members of the society to their work. For this reason, in 

 most agreements a definite fine is levied for each day's absence 

 from work when a call has been issued by the head of the 

 society. This fine is expressed in the agreements in terms of 

 money, but in fact is collected in kind at harvest time. It is 

 the principal duty of the secretary-treasurer to keep a record 

 of the number of day's absence of each man and to collect 

 the corresponding amount of fines. These go into the common 

 fund, which is mainly expended for food and drink for the 

 members. 



There is a good deal of difference between societies in the 

 degree of strictness with which the payment of fines is enforced. 

 Some societies are evidently very slack in this regard ; in others, 

 there is a businesslike strictness. 



I have heard of one or two cases of embezzlement on the 

 part of the treasurers, but the circumstances of the collection 

 of fines, namely, that it takes place under the eyes of so many 

 members of the society and that the fines are collected not 

 in money but in the form of bundles of rice, easily noted in 

 amount and rather difficult to get rid of secretly, serve as 

 deterrents to breach of trust. 



Besides the ordinary irrigation societies composed of land- 



