September, 1910.] 



261 



Miscellaneous. 



Another direction in which the energy 

 of the government can be profitably 

 employed is in checking the infant 

 mortality, which continues at a most 

 alarming rate. Care of infants will re- 

 sult in an increase in the numbers of 

 the population and the physique of the 

 children, which cannot fail to be most 

 beneficial to the Islands. 



Ownership of Land, 



There is no agency more potent in 

 creating good citizenship than is the 

 ownership of land. It is necessary that 

 the owners of land should be provided 

 with registered titles, to use as security 

 for loans, or that they may be able to 

 sell without there being the probability 

 that the purchaser has acquired only a 

 lawsuit. It is my purpose to provide 

 for a complete survey of all the parcels 

 of land in each municipality. I should 

 like to so arrange matters that a judge 

 of the Court of Laud Registration may 

 be at hand to fix the ownership to each 

 parcel as surveyed, and when fixed the 

 Government will give title to the land 

 on the basis of division of expense of the 

 same, the owner repaying somewhere 

 from 60 to 80 per cent, of the cost in easy 

 instalments. This will save much of 

 the travelling of surveyors and greatly 

 reduce the cost. The Agricultural Bank 

 and Postal Savings Bank will then be 

 able to make advantageous loans and 

 greatly assist agriculture. 



It is my intention to make the appoint- 

 ments to the vacant authorised positions 

 in the Court of Land Registration in the 

 near future. 



The Government will adopt the policy 

 of not entering objection to the issue of 

 titles to land to its occupants where it is 

 clear that the interest of the public will 

 not suffer. I believe that these measures 

 will end the present stagnant condition 

 in the matter of land registration. 



Irrigation Work. 

 In the matter of irrigation, it is the 

 plan of the Government to continue the 

 active work of surveys and the gathering 

 of data until we have a complete irriga- 

 tion survey of the Islands, and know each 

 area capable of irrigation, the flow of 

 each river, even at the driest times, the 

 works necessary for its control in time 

 of floods, the cost of the inteuded irriga- 

 tion works, and the cost per hectare of 



gutting water on the land to be improved. 

 Laving due regard to distributing the 

 benefits from the irrigation works so as 

 not to concentrate them all in one pro- 

 vince or island, it is the policy of the 

 Government to develop those areas first 

 where the cost of the construction of 



the system per hectare is least. It is 

 expected to collect from the land bene- 

 fitted the cost of maintenance of the 

 system, the interest on the money in- 

 vested, and something besides, which is 

 to be added to the original fund, and 

 which, with the continuing annual 

 appropriation of P750,000 voted by the 

 Legislature, should roll up into a sum 

 which will in the course of time supply 

 the Islands with irrigation systems 

 wherever it can be done with profit. 



Post-Offices, Post Roads, and 

 Telegraphs. 



The establishment of post-offices and 

 extensiou of the rural delivery of letters 

 should be continued as fast as funds will 

 permit, until at least every municipality 

 has its post-office. 



It is hoped to establish and maintain 

 wire or wireless telegraphic communi- 

 cation with every provincial capital, and 

 to extend the system of telephone 

 connection between the municipalities 

 throughout the provinces. The general 

 dissemination of knowledge as to prices, 

 movements of ships, availability of 

 cargo, and so forth, is of the greatest im- 

 portance in stimulating production. 



Education. 

 I want to see emphasis laid upon the 

 importance of the practical side of 

 industrial and agricultural education. 

 Success in agriculture and industry are 

 the things sought, and they can be best 

 taught, and one might say only taught, 

 by those who have themselves achieved 

 success. Our agricultural schools should 

 be made self-supporting, so that the 

 products should pay the cost of the 

 labour which is done on them, and some- 

 thing more. 



I should like to see every one of the 

 two million children of school age in 

 these Islands receiving an education. 

 The thought is grievous that any 

 boy or girl in the Philippine Is- 

 lands wanting to get an education 

 should be unable to do so because of 

 failure of the Government to provide 

 facilities, and yet the resources of 

 the Islands have not developed to a 

 point where I feel that we are justified 

 in largely increasing the appropriation 

 for education. When the time comes 

 that facilities can be available, I shall 

 not be opposed to a law providing for 

 compulsory education. The amount of 

 education we shall be able to accom- 

 plish in ten years will be much greater 

 if we devote our first money toward 

 increasing the wealth of the people, and 

 later use the resulting increase of re- 

 venue for extending our educational 



