accounts have been kept in both kinds of money. In carrying forward the provincial balance ($25,562.79 gold) and the municipal balance ($1,635.89 gold) from October 31, 1902, to November 1, 1902, a distinction is made, the balance on hand being given in the different classes of money, to wit: Provincial balance, $1,912.40 gold and $58,179.96 Mexican, and the municipal balance, $4,024.29 Mexican.

Police of towns.

Number, salaries, arms, ammunition, and condition of the municipal police of Occidental

Condition of the wagon roads of the coast in the province of Occidental Negros.

Marriages, births, and deaths which occurred in the province of Occidental Negros during

the year 1902.a

ANNUAL REPORT OF THE PROVincial Governor of Negros ORIENTAL, 1902.

OFFICE PROVINCIAL GOVERNOR OF NEGROS ORIENTAL, Dumaguete, P. I., June 20, 1903. SIR: I respectfully submit my annual report for the year of 1902, and would beg your pardon for this delay, which is not due to my own will, but to the large amount of work which had to be performed in this office during the period from January to June of the present year, when I had to travel through almost the entire province on two occasions: First, in connection with the census, and the second time in connection with the revision of the assessment.

The relations of this office with the other departments of the provincial government have been cordial during the year ending last December, and the different departments have been aiding each other as much as necessary to assure a successful administration. The municipal governments have been constantly instructed, for the purpose of perfecting their organization under the provisions of the municipal code, and the presidents and councilors have been instructed in their duties, and have been kept informed of all the legislation affecting the province and the municipalities, a continuous correspondence having been maintained to this effect.

FINANCIAL CONDITION OF THE PROVINCE.

Notwithstanding the precarious condition of agriculture, which is due to the lack of work cattle, and to the loss of two-thirds of the crops of sugar cane, of rice and corn, the principal food of the inhabitants, the collection of both the provincial and the municipal taxes has been accompanied by satisfactory results. The total amount of receipts of the provincial treasury, from January to December, was $67,997.63 gold, and several municipalities, after paying all their expenses appertaining to the year of 1902, had a cash balance of several thousand dollars local currency, as the pueblos of Guiljungan, Bais, Dumaguete, Nueva Valencia, and Bacong. The prestige and the confidence which Treasurer Peed has gained for himself have contributed considerably to make the collection of taxes comparatively easy in this province, and to cause the municipal officers to cooperate with pleasure.

ROADS AND BRIDGES.

Nothing satisfactory can be reported in regard to the bridges and roads, as the system of the late supervisor was not practical, and caused the work to be deficient and costly. To be brief, we have made no progress as far as the ways of communication by land are concerned, excepting several bridges, which have been reconstructed of inferior timber, and four cement culverts.

The supervisor's department has met with such little sympathy on part of the pueblos that the majority desired to have the office of supervisor abolished, for the reason that it was burdensome to the provincial funds.

From January to December, 1902, $8,201.51 gold were invested in roads and bridges, and $4,578.65 Mexican in the cutting of timber in the forests of Bayanan. Although it is true that all this timber belonged to the first group, yet the expenses of cutting it, paid by the province, were five times or more what it would have cost any person well acquainted with this province.

SCHOOLS.

The province has now 69 schools, with 23 American teachers and 120 Filipino assistants. Middle of June, 1902, the secondary school was opened in this province, which is being frequented by the youth anxious to amplify their knowledge. This educational establishment is the first of its kind which has been opened in this province, as the Silman Institute only admits young men, for which reason the girls had to be satisfied with the education given in the public schools.

This institute has now a beautiful and spacious building, the property of its founders. Its organization, under noble and learned professors, has opened a brilliant future to the youth of the province of Negros Oriental and of the other Visayan provinces. Among its pupils there are several young men from Negros Occidental, from Iloilo and Cebu. Its doors are open to the poor and to the rich, who receive the same education and the same treatment, and unity, which was unknown under the Spanish régime, is to be found in it. This school has won such prestige that persons who were the most opposed to education and to the present sovereignty have taken pleasure in sending their sons to it.

The praiseworthy conduct of the American teachers distributed among the public schools of the pueblos has caused the attendance of children of both sexes to be rela

tively satisfactory in the majority of the schools during the last school year, notwithstanding the obstacles which the teachers encountered; some on account of the apathy and indifference of certain municipal authorities in regard to the schools, and others on account of the fanaticism of parents, who, influenced by certain elements, believe that to send their children to schools where they are not taught to pray is a sin against God. The daily attendance during the last school year was 7,000 children of both sexes, and it is very remarkable how English has progressed, as one can say without fearing to make a mistake that now 100 children know English against one who knows Spanish.

The desire expressed by the pueblos to have more American teachers, and the persistent requests of the pueblos who have no American teachers that such be stationed there, is the most evident proof of the prestige which they enjoy in the province.

PUBLIC HEALTH.

The destitute condition and the famine which prevail in the pueblos of this province, and the circumstance that the inhabitants are, as a rule, very averse to sanitary measures, and even opposed to and suspicious of the medicine and the prescriptions furnished by the provincial board of health, thereby causing serious obstacles to the good work of the board, are the joint causes for the persistency with which the cholera has continued in several places in this province. From middle of September, when the first cases appeared, until the 31st of December, 1902, the epidemic caused 1,895 deaths, making the total number of deaths in the entire province from January to December, 1902, 5,237, the majority being caused by the pernicious malarial fevers, which are almost endemic in several places in this province and demand many victims from among the pauper class.

Notwithstanding this, the cholera decreased considerably, thanks to the tireless and active work of the president of the provincial board of health, especially at the places where the American school-teachers acted as agents of the provincial board of health. These teachers are deserving of much praise for the self-denial displayed by them during the epidemic.

RINDERPEST.

Although the rinderpest presented itself in some of the northern pueblos in a mild form, it spread at the same time with such rapidity and became so destructive that from Guijulugan, the northernmost pueblo, as far as Siaton, the third pueblo in the south, the beef cattle were almost entirely exterminated, and nine-tenths of the carabaos succumbed to the epidemic. In November the pest appeared in the two southernmost pueblos of the province, but in a milder form, as the mortality caused by it among the beef cattle and the carabaos amounted to only 70 per cent.

The six pueblos situated on the island of Siquijor remained free from the terrible epidemic among the animals, and the wealthy planters therefore purchased a number of carabaos on said island at very high prices. The result was not very satisfactory, though, because the majority of these animals were attacked by the epidemic upon being transferred to this coast, and 50 per cent of them died.

AGRICULTURAL WEALTH.

As a natural consequence of the mortality among the beef cattle, and especially among the carabaos, the only work cattle, the maize and rice crops were nil, as the few crops planted by the natives without the use of animals, and those planted by several wealthy farmers, who purchased some cattle by dint of great sacrifices, were mostly destroyed by the locusts.

For the reasons aforementioned, and on account of the fall in the price of sugar and of the increase of the laborers' wages and of the prices of the principal articles of consumption, many of the sugar planters were compelled to suspend their work, and several of them left their crops unharvested. The exportation of this article was therefore considerably lower than usual during the present season.

The cultivation of hemp (abacá) is doubtless what has maintained the province, and the largest part of the money which has been in circulation in Negros Oriental since 1900 was derived from it. The following data demonstrate the development of the cultivation of hemp in this province: Exported in

1898..

1899.

1900.

1901.

1902.

Piculs. 37,000 to 40, 000 40,000 to 50, 000 50,000 to 60,000

70,000 to 80,000

90,000 to 100, 000