Statement of work executed between July 1, 1903, and June 30, 1904-Continued. Nine topographical sheets showing surveys from Vigan to Claveria were traced for the provincial government of Ilocos Norte. One draftsman was employed for two weeks in the determination of the areas of the friars' land under the bureau of engineering. A number of projections were prepared for field parties, and some tracings were made for the army, constabulary, and treasury. The time of one draftsman is exclusively required to color lights, buoys, and beacons, and add newly confirmed dangers on published charts. MISCELLANEOUS DIVISION. Mr. W. II. MacDonald, chief clerk. Here the correspondence of the office is typewritten and copied; all the files are kept; copies are made of all accounts, reports, and descriptive sheets; the record of all party and office expenses is made; the inventories are checked, and direct supervision of repairs to and care of all government property is exercised. This clerk also has charge of the published charts and accounts with chart agents and attends to the distribution of all the Survey publications. The duties of the clerk have now outgrown the capacity of any one man to attend to them properly, and it is hoped that in the coming fiscal year additional help will be granted. The number of charts distributed for official use or disposed of by sale in the islands from July 1 to June 30 was 4,251. Number of charts received from the Coast and Geodetic Survey office in Washington from July 1, 1903, to June 30, 1904, 4,125. The number of charts printed in Manila July 1, 1903, to June 30, 1904, was 3,366. Between July 11 and February 2, besides duties in connection with chart verification, Mr. Charles C. Yates, assistant, was engaged in the preparation of preliminary plans and specifications for the construction of a launch and the Survey steamer which is now being constructed in Hongkong. The Survey is indebted for many favors to other bureaus and offices of the general and insular governments, but particular acknowledgment must be made for valuable information and material help to the bureau of coast guard and transportation, the chief quartermaster, the chief engineer officer, and the chief signal officer of the United States Army in the Philippines; the bureau of engineering, and to the masters of the merchant marine, who attest by their ready response to our request for cooperation their appreciation of the efforts being made to improve up to the requirements of modern standards the charts and sailing directions of the Philippine Islands. The cost of the survey, as in the past year, has been met by a division of expenses between the United States and the Philippine government. The United States has defrayed all the expenses for the field officers and experts detailed for service in the islands, the lithographing, engraving, and publishing of charts, and furnished the instrumental outfit and supplies from the United States. The Philippine government has defrayed the local field and office expenses, maintained the steamer Research, and is paying for the construction of the Survey vessel now building at Hongkong. Two sketches are submitted herewith, which show graphically the extent of the field work for the period of this report. Yours, respectfully, JOHN E. McGRATH, Assistant, Coast and Geodetic Survey, in charge of Office. The SECRETARY OF COMMERCE AND POLICE, Manila, P. I. REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF FINANCE AND JUSTICE. DEPARTMENT OF FINANCE AND JUSTICE, Manila, P. I., November 15, 1904. GENTLEMEN: I hereby submit a report on matters, legislative and executive, pertaining to the department of finance and justice in the Philippine Islands during the period from September 1, 1903, to September 1, 1904. Some of the data contained in this report are brought down to a date later than September 1, 1904, but unless otherwise stated this report will cover the year from September 1, 1903, to September 1, 1904. ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE. Prior to the date of the second annual report from this office to the Commission, November 6, 1903, new legislation had been enacted covering the subject of leaves of absence of judges, changing the times and places of holding the supreme court and rearranging the judicial districts and times and places of holding the court in each province, creating two additional judicial districts, revising certain provisions of law as to special terms of court, and making more adequate provision as to traveling expenses of judges, fiscals, and clerks. Under the partial reorganization of the courts, as above stated, the administration of justice has been conducted throughout the islands in a manner on the whole satisfactory. The larger number of judges authorized by the legislation referred to has enabled the courts substantially to keep abreast of all litigation. Indeed, in some of the districts the judges have not been fully occupied and have been available for temporary transfers to other fields of labor. The liberal provisions of law for leaves of absence for judges enabled six of the judges, after three years' continuous service, to be absent from the Philippine Islands, in the United States or elsewhere, for practically five months each, from May 1 until October 1. But by temporary assignment of judges at large to special districts and by detailing judges of the court of customs appeals for duty in the courts of first instance the regular July, August, and September terms of every court of first instance have been held at the proper time and the dockets finished. The return of the absent judges, together with the utilization of the judges at large, will enable the regular subsequent terms to be held at the times fixed by law. In the supreme court the situation has not been so fortunate. At the close of the court year, May 1, 1901, two of the judges of the |