not by the city, shall not be deemed to be within the provisions of this section, but such contract shall be made in accordance with the subsequent provisions of this act."

SEC. 4. Section 23 of said act is hereby amended by adding at the end thereof the following words:

"The clerical force and assistants and laborers in the office of the City Superintendent of Schools shall be paid by the city of Manila, as well as the office expenses for supplies and material incident to carrying on said office.

SEC. 5. Section 24 of said act is hereby amended by striking out the last sentence thereof, which reads: "All construction or repairs of school houses ordered by the Municipal Board, subject to the limitations of Act No. 74, shall be carried on under the Department of Engineering and Public Works, and the care and custody of school buildings shall be under the Superintendent of Buildings and Illumination," and substituting therefor the following words:

"The Department of Engineering and Public Works shall have the care and custody of school buildings, and shall have charge of the construction and repair of school houses ordered by the Municipal Board, subject to the limitations of Act No. 74."

SEC. 6. Section 25 of said act is hereby amended by striking out the word "first" in the seventeenth line thereof and inserting in lieu thereof the word "tenth."

SEC. 7. Section 33 of said act is hereby amended by adding at the end thereof the following words:

"He shall supervise the laying of mains and connections for the purpose of supplying gas to the inhabitants of the city. He shall have power, subject to the approval of the Municipal Board, to cause buildings dangerous to the public to be made secure or torn down, and shall supervise and regulate the locations and use of engines, boilers, forges and other manufacturing and heating appliances in accordance with the law and ordinance relating thereto.'

SEC. 8. Section 34 of said act is hereby amended by adding at the end thereof the following words:

"In addition to the employés authorized in the office of the City Engineer by section 3 of Act No. 185, there may be employed in his office two building inspectors of class 9; one inspector of weights and measures, class I; one clerk for building inspection work, class H; one clerk for building inspection work, class I; one clerk for weights and measures, class I."

SEC. 9. Section 39 of said act is hereby amended by adding at the end thereof the following words:

"The Prosecuting Attorney shall cause to be investigated the causes of sudden deaths which have not been satisfactorily explained and when there is suspicion that the causes arose from the unlawful acts or omissions of other persons, or from foul play. For that purpose, he may cause autopsies to be made in case it is deemed necessary, and shall be entitled to demand and receive for purposes of such investigations or autopsies, the aid of all surgeons connected with the Police Force of Manila. In case the Prosecuting Attorney shall deem it necessary to have further assistance for the successful accomplishment of the purpose last above stated, he shall make application to the Commissioner of Public Health for the detail of the Chief Health Inspector to assist in such investigation, and the Commissioner of Public Health shall thereupon make such detail, and the Chief Health Inspector shall assist in the investigations herein provided.

"All laws and orders establishing a 'Medical-Legal Department' in the city of Manila are hereby repealed."

SEC. 10. Section 40 of said act is hereby amended by adding at the end thereof the following words:

"The Clerk of each Court shall execute a bond to the city of Manila in the penal sum of five thousand dollars ($5,000), with sufficient surety or sureties to be approved by the Judge of the Court, conditioned for the faithful performance of the duties of his office by himself and his deputies, and for the payment to the City Assessor and Collector of all sums of money officially received by him or them, in accordance with law. The bonds shall be lodged and filed in the office of the Insular Treasurer. Each clerk may require sufficient bonds of indemnity to be executed to him by his deputies.

"In case of a temporary vacancy in the office of Judge by reason of sickness or absence by the Judge, the Civil Governor, by and with the consent of the Commission, may appoint an acting judge to preside during the disability or absence of the regular judge, and such acting judge shall have all the powers given by law to the regular judge, and shall receive a compensation during the time that he shall act at the same rate as the regular judge. During the period when such acting judge is performing the duties of a regular judge, the regular judge shall receive no salary, except such as he might be entitled to by reason of an earned leave of absence under existing law.

"The limitations upon the criminal jurisdiction of the Municipal Courts herein before stated are subject, nevertheless, to the proviso that said courts shall also have concurrent jurisdiction with the Courts of First Instance over all criminal cases arising under the laws relating to gambling and management of lotteries, and to assaults where the intent to kill is not charged or evident upon the trial, to larceny and embezzlement where the amount of money or property stolen or embezzled does not exceed the sum or value of one hundred dollars ($100), to the sale of intoxicating liquors, to falsely impersonating an officer, to malicious mischief, to trespass on Government or private property, and threatening to take human life; but in all such cases an appeal to the Court of First Instance upon proper application shall be allowed as in other cases."

SEC. 11. Section 42 of said act is hereby amended so as to read as follows:

"Appeals to Courts of First Instance.-An appeal shall lie to the Court of First Instance next to be held within the city, in all cases where fine or imprisonment is imposed by a Municipal Court. To perfect an appeal, the party desiring to appeal shall, within two hours after the rendition of the judgment by the Municipal Court, file with the Clerk of the Court a written statement that he appeals to the Court of First Instance. The filing of such statement shall perfect the appeal. The Judge of the Court from whose decision appeal is taken, shall, within five days after the appeal is taken, transmit to the Clerk of the Court of First Instance a certified copy of the record of proceedings and all the original papers and process in the case, and the Clerk of the Court of First Instance shall docket the appeal in that Court. A perfected appeal shall operate to vacate the judgment of the Municipal Court, and the action, when duly entered in the Court of First Instance, shall stand for the trial de novo upon its merits in accordance with the regular procedure in that Court, as though the same had never been tried and had been originally there commenced. Pending an appeal, the defendant shall remain in

custody unless released upon sufficient bail, in accordance with the rules and regulations now or hereafter in force, to await the judgment of the appellate court."

SEC. 12. Section 43 of said act, relating to the duties of the Sheriff of Manila, is hereby amended, by striking out the first four lines and substituting in lieu thereof the following words:

"The Sheriff of the city of Manila, appointed under section 25 of Act No. 136, providing for the organization of courts, shall receive a salary at the rate of three thousand dollars ($3,000) per year."

Said section 43 is also hereby further amended by adding at the end thereof the following words:

"All expenses incident to the repair and alteration of the buildings used by the Supreme Court in the city of Manila, and for the purchase of equipment and supplies of the Supreme Court, including the necessary books and stationery, shall be paid by the Insular Government, and the necessary estimates for repairs, furniture and equipment of that portion of the Supreme Court building occupied by the Supreme Court, shall be made by the Sheriff of the city of Manila. Estimates for the purchase of necessary stationery and books for the use of that Court shall be made by the Clerk of that Court. All that part of Act No. 152 relating to the custody of court houses that is inconsistent with this section is hereby repealed."

SEC. 13. Said act is hereby amended by inserting an additional section, between sections 44 and 45, and relating to the Law Department of the city of Manila. Said new section shall be numbered section 44a and shall read as follows:

"Assessors in Courts in Manila.-The aid of assessors in the trial of any civil or criminal action in Courts of Justices of the Peace, Municipal Courts, or Courts of First Instance, within the city of Manila, may be invoked in the manner provided in the Code of Civil Procedure. It shall be the duty of the Advisory Board to prepare one list of the names of twenty-five residents of the municipality, best fitted by education, natural ability and reputation for probity to sit as assessors in the trial of actions in the Municipal Courts and Courts of Justices of the Peace, and a like list of persons to sit as assessors in the trial of actions in the Courts of First Instance within the city. The Advisory Board may at any time strike any name from the list so prepared, by reason of the death, permanent disability or unfitness of the person named; and in case names are so striken out, other names shall be added in their place, to be selected as in this section provided. Parties desiring to avail themselves of the use of assessors in Courts of Justices of the Peace or Municipal Courts, shall proceed as provided in sections 58 to 62, inclusive, of the Code of Procedure in Civil Actions and Special Proceedings, in force October 1, 1901, and the method of summoning assessors and the compensation and oath and duties of assessors shall be as provided in those sections. Parties desiring to avail themselves of the use of assessors in Courts of First Instance shall proceed as provided in sections 154 to 161, inclusive, of said Code of Civil Procedure; and the method of summoning assessors, enforcing their attendance, excusing them from attendance, their compensation, oath, duties and effect of dissent from the opinion of the judge, shall be as provided in the last named sections."

SEC. 14. Section 45 of said act is hereby amended so as to read as follows:

"Duties of Chief of Fire Department.-There shall be, under the

Board, a Chief of the Fire Department. He shall have the management and control of all matters relating to the administration of the department as herein provided, and the organization, government, discipline and disposition of the fire force; shall have charge of fire engine houses, fire engines, hose carts, hooks and ladders, trucks and all other fire apparatus; shall have full police powers in the vicinity of fires; shall have authority to remove any building or other property whenever it shall become necessary to prevent the spreading of fire or to protect adjacent property; shall investigate and report upon the origin and cause of all fires occurring within the city. He shall inspect all buildings erected or under construction or repair within the city and determine whether they provide sufficient protection against fire and comply with the ordinances relating thereto; shall have charge of the city telegraph, telephone and fire alarm service; shall supervise and regulate the stringing, grounding and installation of wires for all electrical connections with a view to avoiding conflagrations, interference with public traffic or safety, or the necessary operations of the fire department; shall supervise, and regulate the manufacture, storage and use of petroleum, gas, acetylene, gunpowder and other highly combustible matter and explosives, and shall see that the ordinances relating to these subjects are enforced."

SEC. 15. Section 60 is hereby amended by adding at the end thereof the following words:

"The cedula tax for the year 1901 shall be due and payable on the first day of December, 1901, and the cedula tax for 1902 and succeeding years shall be due and payable as other taxes, within three months prior to July 1st of each year."

SEC. 16. Section 64 is hereby amended by adding at the end thereof the following words:

"The urbana and frontage taxes for the years 1899 and 1900 referred to in this section, are hereby declared to be the urbana and frontage taxes for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1899, and for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1900, respectively."

SEC. 17. All sections of Act No. 183 and of Act No. 185, and of other acts relating to the city of Manila wherever the words "Department of Fires and Building Inspection" appear, are so amended that the words "Fire Department" shall be substituted in lieu thereof."

SEC. 18. The public good requiring the speedy enactment of this bill, the passage of the same is hereby expedited in accordance with section 2 of "An Act Prescribing the Order of Procedure by the Commission in the Enactment of Laws," passed September 26, 1900. SEC. 19. This act shall take effect on its passage. Enacted, October 17, 1901.

[No. 268.]

AN ACT creating a bureau of architecture and construction of public buildings.

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

SECTION 1. There is hereby created, under the Department of Public Instruction, a Bureau of Architecture and Construction of Public Buildings, which shall have charge of the construction and repair of public buildings belonging to the Insular Government, and of such 10613-02- -3

other buildings or proposed buildings as may be assigned to it by the Civil Governor.

SEC. 2. There shall be a Chief of the Bureau of Architecture and Construction of Public Buildings, who shall receive an annual salary of four thousand dollars ($4,000), payable monthly in money of the United States.

SEC. 3. The duties of the Chief of the Bureau of Architecture and Construction of Public Buildings shall be:

1. To make all necessary plans and specifications for the construction and repair of public buildings and to send these plans and specifications, with estimate of cost, through the Secretary of Public Instruction, to the Civil Governor for his approval, and when approved by the Governor they shall be presented to the Commission with a requisition for an appropriation or appropriations for their execution. 2. To provide, 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 to accept bids and award contracts, subject to the approval of the Civil Governor.

3. 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.

SEC. 4. The following employés of the Bureau of Architecture and Construction, in addition to the Chief of the Bureau, are hereby authorized: One superintendent of construction, class 7; one chief clerk, class 8; two clerks, class 9; three draftsmen, class D; and one messenger, class I.

SEC. 5. The public good requiring the speedy enactment of this bill, the passage of the same is hereby expedited in accordance with section 2 of "An Act Prescribing the Order of Procedure by the Commission in the Enactment of Laws," passed September 26, 1900. SEC. 6. This act shall take effect on its passage.

Enacted, October 18, 1901.

[No. 269.]

AN ACT amending Act No. 140 so as to provide that sessions of the Court of First Instance for the provinces of Lepanto and Bontoc shall be held at Cervantes instead of at Cayan.

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

SECTION 1. That portion of section 3 of Act No. 140, entitled "An Act Defining the Judicial Districts of the Philippine Islands, Prescribing the Salaries of the Judges Thereof, and the Time When and the Place Where Terms of Court of First Instance shall be Held in the Several Provinces," which relates to the time and place of holding Courts of First Instance for the Provinces of Lepanto and Bontoc in the Second District, is hereby amended by striking out the word "Cayan" and inserting in lieu thereof the word "Cervantes."

SEC. 2. The public good requiring the speedy enactment of this bill, the passage of the same is hereby expedited in accordance with section 2 of "An Act Prescribing the Order of Procedure by the Commission in the Enactment of Laws," passed September 26, 1900. SEC. 3. This act shall take effect on its passage.

Enacted, October 18, 1901.