﻿ix. d, 2 Christie: Irrigation in Ilocos Norte 113 



to go around under the present haphazard way of distributing it. 



It is probable in the extreme that there are also considerable 

 possibilities of improvement in some cases in the line of coordina- 

 tion of the work of the various irrigation societies operating in 

 a given region. The societies have been organized independently 

 of each other at different times to meet the problems of groups 

 of cultivators who have had an eye solely to their own needs. 

 The consequence has been that some effort has been expended 

 and some work accomplished which might have been either 

 avoided altogether or made to pay greater returns by coordination 

 of effort with other groups. It is, however, a merely academic 

 wish to desire such coordination at the present time. No sub- 

 stantial improvement in this direction should be expected as long 

 as the irrigation societies carry on their activities without 

 supervision by the Insular Government. 



Finally, in cases where the Government takes action, such, 

 for example, as taking over existing systems of irrigation 

 during the process of creating new systems, it is necessary 

 to exercise great vigilance to protect the interests of the small 

 peasant. It is easily conceivable that in such cases a few 

 influential men might claim exclusive right to compensatory 

 water rights granted by the Government which ought in justice 

 to be divided among a large number of persons who helped 

 to build the old systems under a cooperative plan or whose 

 ascendants did so. The importance, in this connection, of a 

 scrutiny of the original papers organizing the local irrigation 

 societies is self-evident. 



