independently. Under existing conditions the question of attendance at the schools has been brought to the attention of many of the municipalities and they have had an opportunity to exert their local influence in the matter, thus stimulating their sense of local responsibility. This opportunity of the people of the town to act on a project in which they are vitally interested has furnished another occasion in which to develop the spirit of self-help, and this although the towns have not the legal authority to pass ordinances making education compulsory. However, the town has been, in some measure, able to reach and affect this question by the development of a local public opinion in favor of public education. In the course of time it will probably be found desirable, when schoolhouses shall have been constructed and a sufficient number of teachers trained, to pass a general law affecting this question, either making attendance at schools of a certain standard generally compulsory throughout the archipelago or authorizing the provinces or the municipalities to legislate on the subject.

NIGHT SCHOOLS.

The night schools were originally organized in Manila in September, 1900, for the instruction of persons who had passed beyond the age when they could be expected to attend the primary schools. These were chiefly young men who wished to learn English that they might use it in their business or in clerkships. Filipino teachers also attended these schools to prepare themselves for the contemplated change from Spanish to English as the language of instruction. When the pupils had acquired a sufficient knowledge of English to enable them to use it with some degree of facility in their studies the curriculum of the night school was made to embrace certain subjects that had a practical value for those in attendance. Some of the schools introduced bookkeeping, stenography, typewriting, and telegraphy, and more of them history, arithmetic, and geography. They have been attended by young men wishing to enter the civil service in order to acquire the necessary knowledge of English, and by persons already in the service to fit themselves for promotion to the higher grades.

The immediate and striking success of the night schools in Manila seemed to warrant their introduction into the towns in the provinces. In a large number of places therefore where American teachers were stationed night schools were established and taught by one or more of the day-school teachers. These schools were attended by members of all classes, including the municipal officers and sometimes the governors of provinces, as well as by young men and young women living in the town. They have exercised no little influence in giving the more influential classes ideas respecting the methods and purposes of American education. There have been employed in the Manila night schools many persons not otherwise engaged as teachers, such as persons with the requisite attainments regularly engaged in the civil service, while in the provinces the night schools have been almost exclusively taught by American teachers regularly engaged in the day schools. The demand for night schools, both in Manila and in the provinces, has been strong and constant, and the teachers have been willing to teach in them for a compensation of $15 a month for three nights in the week. During the past year nearly 500 teachers have taught in these schools, and nearly 20,000 pupils have been enrolled.

Two thousand and fifty-seven of these have been in attendance in the night schools of the city of Manila.

This

To correct what appeared to be an abuse of the system, the Commission provided by law that no night school should be maintained in the city of Manila or elsewhere at the public expense in which the average attendance was not at least 25 pupils over the age of 14 years. section was introduced into an appropriation bill passed on the 14th of July, 1902. This required average attendance was found, after a brief experience, to be too high, particularly in the provincial towns. Owing to the irregularity of attendance in the schools generally a large and unwieldy number had to be enrolled in order to secure the required average attendance. With this large number it was impossible to do as effective work as had been done in the schools with a limited number of pupils. Prior to the enactment the schools had been organized and carried on chiefly by administrative authority. When therefore the law of October 8, making extensive changes in the organization of the system, was passed, it was determined to give the night schools a proper legal status, and to fix the number of average attendance at what seemed to be generally feasible and not too great to interfere with the desired efficiency of the instruction. The provision of July 14 was therefore repealed and 15 fixed as the required average attendance. By this law the general superintendent of education was given authority to establish night schools, but it was required that no night-school class should be maintained at the expense of the city of Manila or the insular government at which the average nightly attendance in each school month under each teacher should not be at least 15 pupils over the age of 14 years. The salaries of the teachers in the night schools, except in the city of Manila, are paid by the insular government. In Manila the expenses of maintaining the night schools are borne by the city treasury.

NAUTICAL SCHOOL.

The increasing number of pupils in the nautical school and the noteworthy record made by those who completed the course at the end of the last school year seem to justify the plans which have already been formed for the reorganization and enlargement of the institution. These plans involve giving it new and adequate quarters by the sea and providing for it dormitories so that the young men there enrolled may be constantly under the control and discipline of the superintendent of the school. They involve, moreover, erecting suitable buildings on the shore of Mariveles Bay, where advantage can be taken of the excellent water that has been brought from the mountains to the barracks near the town of Mariveles, and where such ships and boats as may be had for the use of the school can lie in perfect safety in all kinds of weather. They also involve giving authority to the several provinces to appoint a certain number of persons to become students in the nautical school, while certain other candidates may be appointed at large by the civil governor. The number to be appointed by each province and by the governor will depend upon the number it is desired to have enrolled and maintained in the school. This organization will entail on the government the expense not only of furnishing instruction, but also of providing quarters and subsistence for the students. Among the advantages, however, of such an organization

may be set down the fact that the young men will form a distinct corps under careful instruction and be subject to strict discipline, and be thus prepared for intelligent service in the bureau of coast guard and transportation as well as on ships engaged in the interisland trade. On October 4, 1902, the Commission, on the recommendation of the secretary of public instruction, adopted a resolution appointing Commissioner Moses a committee of one to confer with the commanding general on behalf of the Commission to learn whether it might be possible to secure a proper site for the nautical school at Mariveles within the lines of the military reservation if it should prove that the only land available for such purpose lay within the reservation. Under this resolution a conference between Maj. Gen. George W. Davis, commanding Division of the Philippines, and the secretary of public instruction was had, and steps taken toward selecting a site for the nautical school on the shore of Mariveles Bay. On the 15th of September Admiral Rodgers, in accordance with instructions from the Secretary of the Navy, detailed Lieut. Commander J. H. Glennon to become superintendent of the school in place of Lieut. Commander J. J. Knapp, who was recalled to the United States.

SCHOOL OF TELEGRAPHY.

With the establishment of peace and the withdrawal of the bulk of the soldiers from the islands, the military authorities are ready to transfer the telegraph lines to the civil government. In order to be able to undertake their operation the government has found it necessary to make special preparation for the training of a considerable number of Filipinos to become operators. For the purpose of providing this force a school of telegraphy, as a department of the trade school, was opened in Manila on February 12, 1902. The instruments were provided by the Signal Corps of the Army. The opportunities afforded to young men by this instruction were clearly seen, and a considerable number of pupils were enrolled at once. At present there are 74 in the school. Of this number 15 are already able to act as operators in offices. When brought into the service they will be enrolled in the constabulary, since the bureau of constabulary will have charge of the telegraph and telephone lines in the islands. The need very soon of a larger number of operators than will be provided by the Manila school has led to the establishment of two other schools, one at Vigan and one at Iloilo. The school at Vigan is expected to train Ilocanos who may become operators in northern Luzon, the school at Manila to train especially Tagalogs for service in central Luzon, while the school at Iloilo will provide instruction for Visayans who will be able to take charge of the stations in the southern islands of the archipelago.

MUNICIPAL, PROVINCIAL, AND INSULAR SUPPORT OF SCHOOLS.

While the public school system as at present organized provides for primary and secondary instruction and for certain special schools, as yet no important step has been taken to make provision for higher or university education. This form of instruction in a very short time will be imperatively needed, since the students from the provincial schools of secondary instruction will have completed their courses, and

many of them will require opportunity for further study and training. While it may be desirable to send considerable numbers to the United States, where, under the actual conditions of life, they may acquire a knowledge of American civilization, yet for the great body of Filipinos there must be provided in these islands all the opportunities for education which they will ever be able to enjoy. A university, therefore, organized to supplement the instruction given in the provincial schools will be demanded by the Filipino youth. They will need to be taught not only in those legal and historical subjects which will tend to enable them to comprehend and aid in the administration of the government under which they live, but also those practical sciences, such as civil and electrical engineering, chemistry and its numerous applications in manufacturing, and the various forms of mechanical work which lie at the basis of the material progress of the country, and such an institution it will be the duty of the government in the very near future to provide.

For further details concerning the public schools during the past year reference is made to the report of the general superintendent, annexed hereto as Exhibit A.

CONSTRUCTION AND REPAIR OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS.

The necessity of repairing many of the public buildings which had been neglected for several years, of enlarging others, and of erecting new ones induced the Commission to send a cablegram, dated May 11, 1901, to the Secretary of War, asking him to appoint a competent architect to become the chief of the bureau of architecture to be created by the Commission. In accordance with this request the Secretary appointed Mr. Edgar K. Bourne, who arrived in Manila October 10, 1901. A few days later, October 18, an act was passed creating a bureau of architecture and construction of public buildings. It was provided that this bureau should have charge of the constructing and repairing of public buildings belonging to the insular government and such other buildings or proposed buildings as might be assigned to it by the civil governor. Mr. Edgar K. Bourne was made the chief of this bureau and charged with the duty of making all necessary plans and specifications for the construction and repair of public buildings. He was also charged with the further duty of providing, in cases where it is required that work shall be done under contract, all means necessary for obtaining bids for the work to be done, and he was authorized to accept bids and award contracts subject to the approval of the civil governor, and to superintend, either in person or through an officer of the bureau appointed for that purpose, all the work of constructing and repairing public buildings authorized by the insular government. The increase in the work required of the architect led to the gradual enlargement of the personnel of his office and the difficulty of finding draftsmen among the Filipinos who were more than excellent copyists led to the necessity of securing American draftsmen by application to the Civil Service Commission in Washington. Immediately after his arrival the architect was requested by the secretary of public instruction to undertake the reconstruction of the building in which it was proposed to install the printing plant. After delays that seem unavoidable in connection with the processes of building in the Philippines, the structure was so far advanced toward completion that the printers

were able to occupy some part of it in May of the present year. Standing isolated in a large lot with the amplest opportunity for the free circulation of air around it and through it, it offers as favorable conditions for work as exist in Manila.

The two most important buildings at present under construction are the addition to the custom-house and the building for the government laboratories. The increase in the shipping of the port of Manila has made necessary a further enlargement of the facilities for receiving and storing goods. By extending the present building some distance down the river the available frontage for receiving goods from the cascoes and lighters will be increased from 250 to 406 feet, and the crowding and delays which have hitherto been an annoyance both to the merchants and the officers of the customs service will be set aside. The building for the government laboratories is in process of construction on the southeast corner of the exposition grounds. This large tract, extending from Calle Faura to Calle Herran, if existing plans are carried out, will become the center of a number of special schools and laboratories, including the normal school, trade school, and ultimately a university. By ranging the necessary buildings for the several schools, laboratories, and libraries around a great court extending from Calle Faura to Calle Herran, not only the maximum convenience will be attained, but also the minimum cost of furnishing water, light, and power to the group of institutions here established.

In the immediate future, in carrying out the plans for the nautical school, it will become necessary to construct buildings suitable for class exercises, for dormitories, and for other purposes incidental to the maintenance of this school.

Whenever the government of the Philippine Islands shall be empowered to meet the imperative necessity of a stable coinage by coining the proposed Filipino peso and the requisite subsidiary coins, it will be necessary either to remodel the existing mint building or to provide an entirely new structure. The existing building stands in the Walled City, which for many years to come will be a less desirable place for either residence or for carrying on any kind of work than the more open parts of the city outside of the walls.

But for some time to come the construction of schoolhouses, both in Manila and in the provinces, will be the most important work in the line of public buildings. This work, however, devolves largely on the municipal or the provincial authorities. The chief of the bureau of architecture and construction of public buildings may be required, however, to furnish plans for schoolhouses to be constructed by either the provinces or the municipalities. These structures will be necessarily simple and will be designed to meet two essential conditions. They will be constructed to keep out the rain and to let in as much fresh air as possible. The problem of heating may be ignored, so that there will be no chimneys to construct, and consequently the danger to the crowds of children assembled from fire will be reduced to the minimum. A provision of the law bearing on this subject is that the general superintendent of education shall approve plans made by the chief of the bureau of architecture for the construction of schoolhouses to be built by the municipalities or provinces.

Under the old régime, when the church and state were closely allied, some of the functions of the government were performed by the ecclesiastical authorities, and thus certain buildings now belonging to the