SEC. 7. A copy of the said instrument, certified by the chief of the division of archives, patents, copyrights, and trade-marks of the Executive Bureau, shall be of and have the same legal effect as the original.

SEC. 8. The public good requiring the speedy enactment of this bill, the passage of the same is hereby expedited in accordance with section two of "An Act prescribing the order of procedure by the Commission in the enactment of laws," passed September twentysixth, nineteen hundred.

SEC. 9. This Act shall take effect on its passage.
Enacted, September 3, 1907.

[No. 1711.]

AN ACT Providing for the apprehension, detention, segregation, and treatment of lepers in the Philippine Islands.

By authority of the United States, be it enacted by the Philippine Commission, that:

SECTION 1. The Director of Health and his authorized agents are hereby empowered to cause to be apprehended, and detained, isolated, segregated, or confined, all leprous persons in the Philippine Islands, and upon application of the Director of Health it shall be the duty of every Insular, provincial, or municipal official having police powers to cause to be arrested and delivered to the Director of Health, or his agents, any person alleged or believed to be a leper, and it shall be the duty of such officers to assist in the conveyance of any person so arrested to such place as the Director of Health or his agents may require, in order that such person may be subject to medical inspection, and such other procedure as may be necessary to establish a diagnosis, and thereafter to assist in removing such person to a place for detention, treatment, isolation, or segregation, if so required by the Director of Health or his agents: Provided, That all protests and petitions shall be given careful consideration and if the diagnosis is questioned, no person shall be permanently removed to Culion leper colony, or other place of segregation or detention, until the diagnosis of leprosy has been confirmed by bacteriological methods. Whenever the detention, treatment, isolation, or segregation of leprous persons shall involve the security of property and money belonging to or held by said leprous persons, the provincial treasurer, or such person as he may designate, shall act as guardian pending the appointment of a guardian by the Court of First Instance having jurisdiction in the province in which such person resides.

SEC. 2. Whoever shall knowingly detain or harbor on premises subject to his control, or shall in any manner conceal or secrete, or assist in concealing or secreting, any person afflicted with leprosy, with the intent that such person be not discovered or delivered to the Director of Health or his agents, or who shall support or assist in supporting any leper living in concealment, shall, upon conviction, be punished as hereinafter provided.

SEC. 3. It shall be the duty of every police officer or other peace officer having reason to believe that any person within his district is

afflicted with leprosy to report the fact forthwith to the district health officer of the district in which the case occurs. Any police officer or other peace officer who shall willfully fail to comply with the provisions of this section shall, upon conviction, be punished as hereinafter provided.

SEC. 4. The Director of Health is authorized to cause to be established hospitals and detention camps at such places as may be necessary, and where such hospitals and detention camps are established he may order the treatment of leprous patients in the incipient stage in order to attempt a cure, and he may discharge such patients as he shall deem cured or free from leprosy, and send to a place of segregation and isolation all such patients as shall be considered by him incurable or capable of spreading the disease of leprosy. The Director of Health may permit any duly qualified and reputable physician to engage in the treatment of lepers or any person supposed to have leprosy: Provided, That such treatment shall be under the conditions and regulations prescribed by the Director of Health. The Director of Health or his agents may require from patients such reasonable amount of labor as may be recommended by the attending physician and the Director of Health may further make and publish such rules and regulations as he may deem advisable for the amelioration of the condition of lepers.

SEC. 5. Voluntary helpers or friends living with lepers segregated under orders by the Director of Health or his agents shall be under the control of the Director of Health for a reasonable time and may be isolated from those free from the disease.

SEC. 6. Any person violating any section, or part thereof, of this Act shall, upon conviction, be punished by a fine not to exceed two hundred pesos, or imprisonment for not to exceed six months, or both, in the discretion of the court.

SEC. 7. The public good requiring the speedy enactment of this bill, the passage of the same is hereby expedited in accordance with section two of "An Act prescribing the order of precedure by the Commission in the enactment of laws," passed September twentysixth, nineteen hundred.

SEC. 8. This Act shall take effect on its passage.
Enacted, September 12, 1907.

[No. 1712.]

AN ACT To increase the number of municipalities in the province of La Laguna from twenty-two to twenty-three, by separating from Luisiana the former municipality of Cavinti and giving to it the territory which it comprised prior to the passage of Act Numbered Nine hundred and thirty-nine.

By authority of the United States, be it enacted by the Philippine Commission, that:

SECTION 1. The twenty-two municipalities of the Province of La Laguna, as established by Act Numbered Nine hundred and thirtynine, as amended by Acts Numbered One thousand and eight, Twelve hundred and forty, Thirteen hundred and eight, Fifteen hundred and fifty-three, and Sixteen hundred and ninety, shall, in accordance

with the provisions of this Act, be increased to twenty-three, by separating the former municipality of Cavinti from the municipality of Luisiana. The municipality of Luisiana, with the seat of municipal government at Luisiana, shall consist of the territory which it comprised prior to the passage of Act Numbered Nine hundred and thirty-nine, and the municipality of Cavinti is hereby reconstituted with the seat of municipal government at Cavinti and shall consist of the territory which it comprised before the passage of said Act.

SEC. 2. The first municipal elections for the new municipality of Cavinti shall be held on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November, nineteen hundred and seven, and in accordance with the provisions of The Election Law relative to elections in new municipalities. Until the officials elected for the new municipality of Cavinti, as described in section one of this Act, shall have qualified, the present organization of the municipality of Luisiana shall continue: Provided, That the apportionment of assets resulting from the separation from Luisiana of the former municipality of Cavinti shall be made as of the date of the passage of this Act and in accordance with the provisions of Act Numbered Seven hundred and twenty-six.

SEC. 3. The public good requiring the speedy enactment of this bill, the passage of the same is hereby expedited in accordance with section two of "An Act prescribing the order of procedure by the Commission in the enactment of laws," passed September twentysixth, nineteen hundred.

SEC. 4. This Act shall take effect on its passage.
Enacted, September 12, 1907.

[No. 1713.]

AN ACT To authorize provincial boards organized under the provincial government act to remit the collection of the land tax in their respective provinces.

By authority of the United States, be it enacted by the Philippine Commission, that:

SECTION 1. With the approval of the Governor-General first had, the provincial board of any province organized under the provisions of Act Numbered Eighty-three may, by reason of general failure of crops or for other good and sufficient cause, remit by resolution the collection of the land tax in that province in whole or in part for a period not exceeding one year at a time, anything in the provisions of existing law to the contrary notwithstanding: Provided, That the Governor-General, in his discretion, may of his own motion remit the collection of the land tax in any province in which he deems the public interest demands such action. The resolution of the provincial board must clearly state the reasons for such remission and must be submitted to the Governor-General not later than the first day of December of the year preceding that for which such remission is sought.

SEC. 2. The public good requiring the speedy enactment of this bill, the passage of the same is hereby expedited in accordance with section two of "An Act prescribing the order of procedure by the Commis

sion in the enactment of laws," passed September twenty-sixth, nineteen hundred.

SEC. 3. This Act shall take effect on its passage.
Enacted, September 18, 1907.

[No. 1714.]

AN ACT To amend subdivision (d) of section one of Act Numbered Fifteen hundred and ten so as to authorize a change of the railroad route therein prescribed, and authorizing and providing for the construction of mileage equivalent to that of the route abandoned, and for other purposes.

By authority of the United States, be it enacted by the Philippine Commission, that:

SECTION 1. Subdivision (d) of section one of Act Numbered Fifteen hundred and ten, entitled "An Act granting to the Manila Railroad Company a concession for railway lines in the Island of Luzon, and providing in respect of proceedings for condemnation of land by public-service corporations," is hereby amended so as to read as follows:

"(d) A concession for a line from Nueva Caceres to Tabaco by way of Legaspi, an estimated distance of eighty miles; and for branches from such line from Pili to Lagonoy, an estimated distance of thirtyone miles, and from Ligao toward Tabaco, an estimated distance of four miles, and from Tabaco toward Ligao, an estimated distance of four miles, and from Nueva Caceres, in either a northerly or westerly direction as may be determined by the Governor-General, a further distance of seven miles, with the right, at the option of the grantee, of extending said line to a point on the west coast of the Island of Luzon, to be approved by the Governor-General.”

SEC. 2. The public good requiring the speedy enactment of this bill, the passage of the same is hereby expedited in accordance with section two of "An Act prescribing the order of procedure by the Commission in the enactment of laws" passed September twenty-sixth, nineteen hundred.

SEC. 3. This Act shall take effect upon its approval by the Secretary of War and upon the filing by the Manila Railroad Company with the Executive Secretary of its acceptance, duly executed in writing, of the terms of Act Numbered Fifteen hundred and ten as hereby amended.

Enacted, September 18, 1907.

[No. 1715.]

AN ACT To authorize a continuing annual and reimbursable appropriation to meet the obligations of the Insular Government incurred by reason of contracts authorized by Act Numbered Thirteen hundred and ten, and of other similar contracts herein provided for.

By authority of the United States, be it enacted by the Philippine Commission, that:

SECTION 1. A continuing annual appropriation of two hundred and thirty thousand pesos is hereby made, from any funds in the Insular Treasury not otherwise appropriated, for the purpose of paying obligations of the Insular Government incurred by reason of contracts

authorized by Act Numbered Thirteen hundred and ten, and defined by resolutions of the Philippine Commission dated April thirtieth, May fifteenth, July eleventh, and July twenty-first, nineteen hundred and six, and August fourteenth, nineteen hundred and seven, and such other contracts as are authorized by this Act: Provided, however, That this appropriation shall terminate at the expiration of five years after the execution of the contract authorized and executed July twenty-sixth, nineteen hundred and six, under Act Numbered Thirteen hundred and ten.

SEC. 2. The Secretary of Commerce and Police is hereby authorized to modify or renew the aforesaid contracts when necessary, or to enter into new contracts at any time on the general terms and conditions set forth in section one of Act Numbered Thirteen hundred and ten: Provided, however, That

(a) Bids therefor need not be advertised for in the United States; (b) Such contracts shall be approved by the Governor-General in place of the Philippine Commission;

(c) No contract shall be entered into or renewed for a period extending beyond July twenty-sixth, nineteen hundred and eleven.

Such contracts may contain a provision for the payment of subsidies from this appropriation to the contracting steamship companies: Provided, however, That the total subsidy payments called for by the terms of the contracts entered into under the authority of Act Numbered Thirteen hundred and ten and the resolutions mentioned in the first section of this Act, and the contracts authorized by this section, shall in no year exceed the funds available under the provisions of this Act.

SEC. 3. This appropriation shall be disbursed in accordance with the general provisions of law governing the disbursement of Insular funds and Act Numbered Thirteen hundred and ten, and shall be a reimbursable appropriation to the credit of which shall be deposited all fines or payments to be made by the contractors under the terms and conditions of the contracts; and the unexpended balance in any year shall be credited to the appropriation for the following year.

SEC. 4. The public good requiring the speedy enactment of this bill, the passage of the same is hereby expedited in accordance with section two of "An Act prescribing the order of procedure by the Commission in the enactment of laws," passed September twenty-sixth, nineteen hundred.

SEC. 5. This Act shall take effect on its passage.
Enacted, September 18, 1907.

[No. 1716.]

AN ACT To amend Acts numbered Fifteen hundred and eighty-one, as amended, and Seventeen hundred and one, by advancing the government of the Province of Batangas from the third to the second class.

By authority of the United States, be it enacted by the Philippine Commission, that:

SECTION 1. Section one of Act Numbered Fifteen hundred and eighty-one, entitled "An Act to equalize and secure uniformity in