March enrollment and attendance is less than November, due to reconcentration and closing of night schools. The enrollment in each case is for the year and is thus much higher than it would be for any one month alone. This also makes the attendance look low, while, in fact, the percentage of attendance was always up in the eighties. According to the requirements (one-third of school pupulation to be in school at any one time), this province needs only 7,487 pupils in attendance. This number has been exceeded throughout the year. The number of primary teachers to correspond is placed at 125 for the province, while in November there were 129 municipal teachers in addition to insular teachers. The people of this province are well supplied with schools. The following barrios are at present without schools, the reason being on account of reconcentration and lack of funds to pay teachers: Serviceable buildings of Spanish construction_ Buildings continued, brought forward__ Buildings constructed under American rule prior to June, 1904. Total buildings owned by municipalities-- In January, 1904, there were but 19 schoolhouses owned by the municipalities; the remainder of the schools were housed in rented buildings, in convents, and municipal buildings. At the present time school is held in but one rented building, and before long that one will not be wanted. In a large number of cases the buildings have been erected on municipal land. In some cases the land was bought by the municipality; in others the people subscribed and paid for the land. In the majority of cases the schools in the barrios have been placed on sites given by some person of the barrio who agreed to allow land to be used that way as long as the school remained there. Efforts have been made and are being continued to have sites deeded to municipalities; and since the land in a number of municipalities belongs to the friar estates, and consequently to the insular government, that body has been petitioned to reserve sites for all schools within the boundaries of the estates. The site of the intermediate school at Indang has been partly purchased by the municipality and partly donated by a large landowner of that neighborhood. The site comprises some 8 acres. Nearly every school in the division has done something toward beautifying the surroundings. A number have built fences around the school grounds and put gravel walks from the gates to the entrance. Many have planted trees, shrubs, and plants, and it is expected that permanent improvements will mark the grounds of every school before the end of the rainy season. The following estimate of value of contributions has been made: Land, $1,200; labor, 500; materials, P800; money, #500; total, P3,000. Little attempt has been made to furnish the barrio schools beyond bamboo benches and tables for the children, and bamboo or other table for the teacher. In nearly every town school at the present time there are desks for the children and chairs and tables for the teachers. One thousand four hundred and fifteen double desks have been made or bought the last year for the schools of this division at a cost of about 4,000. It can now be said that the pupils in the schools can sit on benches and write on desks, a statement that could not be made a year ago, when the usual thing was to find the pupil sitting on the floor. The province was divided into supervising districts over a year ago. The facts are shown in the following table: The finances for the calendar year 1904 were in good condition. The provincial treasurer had prepared to take up the land tax February, 1905, and matters seemed prosperous until the clouds of reconcentration and friar estates arose to darken the horizon. The finances of each municipality, as far as the expending of the school fund is concerned, are in the hands of the division superintendent, and it is not too much to say that not one peso was misspent or used for any purpose without his consent. The hearty cooperation of the provincial treasurer renders the matter of keeping accounts straight very easy and exact. The financial statement for the past fiscal year follows: Financial statement, July 1, 1904, to June 30, 1905. INTERMEDIATE SCHOOLS. During the year 1904-5 only one intermediate school was recognized, that in connection with the provincial school. With the opening of this year, however, there will be three intermediate schools, strictly up to grade. One of these is in Cavite, one in Imus, and one in Indang. There are at present 275 pupils in the intermediate grades. In Indang the first intermediate schoolhouse, built according to plans drawn by the bureau and paid for by the insular government, is nearing completion. The people gave the site, some 10 acres, the stone for the foundation, and an additional $1,000 was given by the province. The building will cost 11,000, and will be the first of a number of buildings to be erected on this site for an intermediate and agricultural school. PROVINCIAL SCHOOL. The provincial school situated in the town of Cavite has done excellent work. The corps of teachers are earnest and enthusiastic and have achieved excellent results. The provincial board has proven ready to assist in every way possible. There are now 240 pupils enrolled, as follows: In intermediate classes, 148 boys, 51 girls; in the high school classes, 32 boys, 9 girls. This is a gain of 55 over the end of last year. No one now attends who has not a primary certificate. The entering pupils are of a higher grade than before. All pupils returned this year who were attending at the close of last year except 16, and 9 of these were from the lowest class. In November, 1904, a boys' dormitory was established. There are now 27 boys, all that can be accommodated. The charge is 16 pesos a month, which includes washing. They have physical exercise daily and study five hours outside of school. Both parents and boys seem satisfied. This year a girls' dormitory was begun, which has 7 inmates. The following courses of study are given: Teachers', commercial, literature, manual training, and domestic science. This month three pupils, two boys and a girl, left for the United States, having qualified in the competitive examination. Inasmuch as only 38 went from the islands, Cavite made a very good showing. The appropriation made by the provincial board last year amounted to ₹1,200. Of this, P600 was for desks. This does not include the appropriation made for the coming year. Night schools were very successful in this province. In the month of November there were 15 schools with an enrollment of 976 and an average attendance of 735. In addition to these schools, a large number of private classes were organized, the teacher being paid by the class. This is most encouraging, since if the older and more influential people are interested enough in learning English to pay for instruction they will undoubtedly influence the children to attend school and get this advantage while young, free of cost. At the present there are many inquiries about these schools, and most certainly if English is to be the official language in 1906 the adults should be given an opportunity to make themselves proficient in that language. THE OUTLOOK. Cavite Province has always supported the schools well and at no period better than when ladronism was reported as at its worst. Now that reconcentration is over, it is believed that school finances will pick up. Further, it is still hoped that the insular government will see its way clear to support the schools in municipalities where the land all belongs to the government. With the financial question settled, all our troubles will vanish, and it will be a question of but a few weeks until we shall again be where we were in January of this present year, and then we shall be ready to continue the steady progress forward. I again take advantage of this opportunity to express the great appreciation I feel for the provincial board, collectively and individually, for the hearty cooperation and assistance that has been given at all times to myself personally and to the work. Very respectfully submitted. Governor D. C. SHANKS, S. A. CAMPBELL, Division Superintendent. Cavite, Cavite, P. I. Bureau of Engineering. [Extracts from H. F. Labelle's report on Cavite irrigation dams. June, 1905.] GENERAL GEOGRAPHICAL CONSIDERATIONS. The lower part of the province of Cavite, extending on the east coast of Manila Bay from Bacoor to Maragondong and stretching some 15 miles inland, is a section of flat, rolling country, rising gradually from the bay to elevations of from 600 to 900 feet above the sea. This whole area is cut by numerous rivers flowing from the highlands and running mostly all from south to north in such a way that they are parallel with each other. Between these rivers and arroyos the land is arable and appears to be of good quality. The soil in no part of the area considered attains a great thickness. In the vicinity of Imus the thickness seldom exceeds 2 feet. It is the same all along the coast. As we go up inland the thickness of the soil increases, the ground becomes more rolling, and there are places where thicknesses of soil as high as 35 feet are encountered. This, however, occurs only in knolls, and in the upper end of the district, notably in Indang, the country rock outcrops in many places. The country rock can be divided in two general classes. The familiar tuff," met almost everywhere in central Luzon, and a kind of halfbaked clay, which can not be traced to a volcanic origin. The rivers of Cavite offer exceptional facilities for the study of the “tuff” formation, for the beds of rivers have mostly all been formed by denudation, and therefore the stratification of the country rock can easily be read. Whether the "tuff" has been deposited as ashes in air or in water, which is a muchdebated question in the geology of Luzon, the "tuff" has acquired different degrees of hardness according to the conditions of heat, pressure, etc., to which it has been subjected. The same can be said of the soft clayey stone mentioned above. At the embarcadero dam the bed rock is so hard that water falling over the crest a height of 40 feet has not materially eroded this rock. The rock is composed of fine pebbles, and the matrix uniting them has acquired a great hardness. At other places, namely, at the Marcelo dam and at the Bucal dam, near Imus, the rock is so soft as to have been excavated in pockets several feet deep. Some of the dams have been built without any apron, and apparently, after many years of service, do not require any; others, owing to the softness of the bed rock and in spite of their aprons, have been more or less damaged. the dams visited by the writer are founded on the "tuff" previously described. They have been built with the rock available nearby. The dams have been built against the walls of the canyon, and when the surface of the rock was reached buttresses were continued on the bed rock until sufficient elevation of ground was met. GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS REGARDING DAMS. All The dams of Cavite offer a great variety of profiles. The section, at least in the larger dams, is always generous. With the exception of the Tres Cruces dam, where the batter is very steep, probably a little over one-fourth to one, and which is reenforced by heavy buttresses, the downstream slope of the dams is invariable one-half to one or over. The downstream face is either stepped, straight, or with the ogee profile, or rather a straight face with a curve at the top and another forming an apron at the bottom. In the stepped profile the courses are laid horizontally and with the same thickness of bed from bottom to top. This thickness of bed never exceeds 2 feet and is more commonly nearer 15 inches. Even in the dams with straight profile, the face stones are generally laid with horizontal joints, the required bevel being given to the face. In the curved profiles the face masonry is generally laid normally to the curve. Lime mortar seems to have been used exclusively, but hydraulic lime mortar is seldom met. Only in exceptional cases is Roman cement mortar seen. Notwithstanding the general use of common lime mortar in the dams of Cavite, leakage through the dams seldom exists, and the leaks met may have been caused by dislocations by earthquakes. These earthquakes, however, never caused any considerable damage to the dams in the district. Only one dam, the Marcelo dam, has developed any crack, and this may have been caused by a settlement of the masonry just over the cave excavated under the dam by the falling water, for the crack mentioned above is in that part of the dam just above the cave. There is, however, no leakage through the crack, and it may be a superficial one only. The experience with Cavite dams shows that there is nothing to fear for their stability on account of earthquakes, and that it will not be necessary to adopt an additional factor of safety on that account. There is a marked difference in the condition of dams in the different estates of the district. In the Imus estate, which has the greater number of dams, the works are in a great deal better shape than those of the neighboring estates. The Recoletos, the former owners of the Imus estate, seem to have taken better care of their property; the repairs seem to have been made diligently, and both the designing and construction of their works show more intelligence. The works in San Francisco and Santa Cruz show a sad state of neglect, and this may be due to the earlier abandonment of the lands in these estates due to the greater activity of the insurgents in these parts. The main deterioration in the dams the writer has seen appears to be met in the aprons of dams with curved profiles; in fact, there are very few aprons which will not require considerable repairs. TUNNELS AND CANALS. Above each dam and in close proximity to it there issues a tunnel or canal which conveys the water to the main irrigation ditch, usually located by the side of the main roads and invariably located on the west side of the same. These main ditches are generally supplied by more than one river, as is exemplified in the Cancaan-Sabuing-Camarin system near Dazmariñas. Another way of conducting water across the country is as exemplified in the Bancod-Palauit system, where water from one river is taken over several other rivers by means of aqueducts to the point of distribution, the water of the rivers spanned being used farther down the country and running into other dams. From the main ditches mentioned above start both secondary canals and laterals in different directions. There are also main ditches not in close proximity to roads, but they are of minor importance. In the building of their dams and canals the irrigators of Cavite have given first importance to the elevation of these canals in order that they might reach more lands, and they have generally neglected the question of storage. The bottom of the tunnels and canals are in most cases not more than 4 feet below the top of the corresponding dam, and in the majority of cases much less. The water stored below the canal bottom can not be used, and the reservoir is liable to silt up to that level. In attempting to save head in their tunnels the irrigators of Cavite have often given too little slope to these structures. In some places the want of velocity resulting from these slopes has caused sediment to deposit itself in the tunnels in greater and lesser quantity, the average thickness being less than 1 foot. Besides this silting and vegetable growths in canals, the waterways are in good order. The tunnels examined resemble closely one another in section. They are from 4 to 7 feet wide and from 5 to 7 feet high. They are cut through the country rock and have no lining, but are generally provided with a cut-stone arch at the portals. The form of the tunnel arch is either circular, elliptical, and in one instance (at the Molino dam tunnels) the Gothic arch has been used. These arches are, for the most part, in good condition. |