ACCOUNTS AUDITED: Treasurer's General Accounts of Receipts and Expenditures....... Total accounts and claims audited.......... 18 30 540 528 596 1712 Amount of collections involved in 540 Revenue accounts audited....................... $1,105,954.50 Amount of disbursements involved in 596 Disbursing accounts audited.......... 1,620,425.71 Amount of payments involved in 596 Miscellaneous Claims settled......... Transfer Warrants issued, registered and posted.... 143,079.59 47 Appropriation Warrants issued, registered and posted. 8 4789 ferred or filed......... 4709 200 226 filed....... 153 259 536 11 Letters, accounts and official papers received, registered and re Official Bonds received, examined and certified to the Treasurer. Receipts for Internal Revenue Stamps issued by the Treasurer received, posted and filed....... Reports of Internal Revenue Stamps sold, received, posted and Requisitions for stationery received, entered, filed and posted.... DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR. The office of Commissioner of the Interior of Porto Rico was created by an Act of the Congress of the United States entitled "An Act Temporarily to Provide Revenues and a Civil Government for Porto Rico, and for Other Purposes," approved April 12, 1900. Section 24 of the Act prescribes the duties of the Commissioner of the Interior as follows: "That the Commissioner of the Interior shall superintend all works of a public nature, and shall have charge of all public buildings, grounds, and lands, except those belonging to the United States, and shall execute such requirements as may be imposed by law with respect thereto, and shall perform such other duties as may be prescribed by law, and make such reports through the governor to the Secretary of the Interior of the United States as he may require, which shall annually be transmitted to Congress." General Orders No. 102, issued April 30, 1900, by command of Brigadier General George W. Davis, U. S. V., commanding the Department of Porto Rico, preparatory to the inauguration of civil goverment on May 1, 1900, established, among others, the Interior Department and designated Mr. Cayetano Coll y Toste as Acting Commissioner of the Interior. By the same order there were assigned to the Department of the Interior the duties, responsibilities and records pertaining to patents, trade-marks and labels, public lands and forests, agriculture, mines and minerals, public works (including the care of public buildings), health, charities, and archives of the insular government of date anterior to American occupation. By virtue of appointment by the "resident and at the direction of the Governor of Porto Rico, William H. Elliot, as Commissioner, entered upon the discharge of the duties of the Department on June 15, 1900. The organization of several boards, bureaus and divisions, and the distribution of duties thereto, was promptly made and economic methods of transacting the public business were introduced. The end of the first year under the new regime finds all branches of the Department in good working order, and each with a record of progress made in the right direction. By acts of the Legislative Assembly of Porto Rico the board of charities was reorganized and placed under the control of the Executive Council, and the divisions of patents, trade-marks and labels was transferred to the office of the Secretary of Porto Rico. On February 1, 1901, the telegraph system of the island was, by order of the Secretary of War, turned over to the Insular Government and, by order of the Governor, was lodged in the Department of the Interior and designated as the bureau of insular telegraph. The office of the Commissioner, as at present organized, embraces the Superior Board of Health, Board of Public Works, the Bureaus of Agriculture and Mines and Insular Telegraph, and the Divisions of Lands and Forests and Archives. Directly or through the health officers of the several municipalities, the sanitary affairs of the whole island are in charge of the Superior Board of Health. Its duties are numerous, burdensome and trying, but are being performed with watchful care for the health, cleanliness and physical betterment of the people. The Bureau of Public Works has charge of public buildings, matters relating to harbor-shores and lands, railroads, highways, bridges, streams, canals, irrigation, marsh lands and acqueducts, and the supervision and inspection of all works undertaken by the insular government, by provinces, by municipalities, and under private concessions which in any way affect the public domain. The all important question of roads, especially from the interior to the seacoast, claims the close attention of the board, and work is being pushed on numerous lines of communication. The Bureau of Agriculture and Mines exists, as to agriculture in name only, no appropriation having been made to enable much needed instruction to be imparted to or literature circulated among the people. The business of the bureau indicates a growing interest in mining possibilities. The Bureau of Insular Telegraph, established since Feb. 1, is proving good managements and satisfactory service by gradual increase of receipts. Experience and results under military control forbid hope that the service could be made self-sustaining, but the prospect is gradually changing, and there is reason to believe that, with returning prosperity, the service may pay its way. The divisions of lands and forests and archives have been chiefly engaged in rearranging, classifying and indexing the masses of papers and documents literally dumped into the keeping of the chiefs, and good progress is being made. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION. The Organic Act states in general that the Commissioner of Education shall supervise Education in Porto Rico. This general obligation has been partly specialized by the School Law passed by the current legislature. The Department licenses all teachers in the public schools, pays their salaries, maintains a normal school for their professional advancement, supplies all the schools with books and appliances for teaching, gathers statistics of the attendance and progress of pupils, the value of the teaching, the condition of the school-houses, the actions of the school boards in each municipality and has control of the disbursement of the old Spanish Pension Fund. The supervision of the schools is within the immediate control of the Commissioner of Education and the field supervisor. The island is divided into sixteen districts, and one district supervisor has charge of the schools in each district. Each supervisor receives from the Commissioner of Education, upon requisition, all books and supplies for the schools of his district. He keeps in his office a limited number of all the various texts and supplies used in the schools and delivers them to each school as needed, taking receipt from the teacher in each case. By this method every child in the schools is fully aud promptly provided with all the equipments necessary to good work. The supervisors visit all schools monthly, inspect the buildings, supervise instruction, explain methods, and in general endeavor to help the school to perform its best service. They also co-operate with the school boards in the rent of buildings for schools, in the selection of teachers, and in the business administration of the system as locally applied. Examinations for teachers are held throughout the island: The questions are prepared in the office of the Commissioner, the supervisors conduct the examination, the Commissioner receives all papers, has them carefully examined, and issues to successful candidates a license to teach. There are more schools in Porto Rico than there are teachers. This is a most serious crisis for the country to face. The vital necessity of a normal school must be apparent. A normal school was opened a year ago at Fajardo. It will be discontinued at the close of this school year. The location made it impossible to accomplish what such an institution must do if the school system is to have normal and needed expansion. The necessary building for a complete normal school is now under process of construction at Rio Piedras on a site in every way calculated to be of most value to the teachers of the island. A pedagogical library has been founded and upwards of fifteen hundred volumes are now in constant circulation. This library has been most helpful to the teachers. A circulating department provides the best pedagogic literature to all teachers free of cost. The free public library of San Juan, although wholly separate in organization, is closely affiliated with the work of the Department of Education. An allotment of two hundred thousand dollars was made by the President of the United States for school extension in Porto Rico and eighteen rural school buildings are now in process of erection in Porto Rico. The first of these buildings to be completed, was dedicated at Carolina April 6th, 1901. The Acting Governor delivered an impressive address on this occasion. It is known as the "Columbus Rural School" and is the first school house now on the island. A second one, the “Lafayette Rural School" was on April 27th, 1901, dedicated at Gurabo. Others are almost completed. All will be ready for occupancy before October 1st, the opening of the new school year. All of these buildings are fully equipped with every appliance for educational and industrial activities. The ground for each site was donated to the People of Porto Rico by patriotic citizens or enterprising municipalities. The Department pays all teachers' salaries monthly, and no teacher has ever been obliged to wait a single day for his salary. The promptness of the disbursing department has been an educational influence of moment. The Commissioner has personally secured liberal concessions for many poor young men and women in many of the best schools of the United States. Already above fifty students have gone North. These students will receive in the aggregate assistance in their education worth at least $80,000. This is a tangible and specific expression of the concern of the educational public of the United States in the work of the Department here. The Legislature at a cost of $15,000, has provided to send fortyfive additional students to the United States in September. The Department has been obliged to create a system. There were no precedents, there was no organization. There were many traditions that did not favor progress in establishing a system of free education. The department has undertaken the entire burden of direction, and has, for that reason, been steadily overworked. The compensation appears in the fact that with central direction it was possible to mold the entire work into a harmonious system. The results amply justify the course pursued; and it may be said unreservedly that Porto Rico has now an established and working system of free public schools. Projected at Caguas, Porto Rico, October 11, 1898. First Annual Meeting of the National Commandery held at Columbus, Ohio, June 5, 1900. The society is composed of the participants in the Porto Rico Military and Naval Expeditions of 1898, and is divided into national, territorial and local commanderies. Officers: National-Commander, Lieut.-General Nelson A. Miles; First Vice-Commander, Major-General John R. Brooke; Second Vice-Commander, Rear-Admirai W. S. Schley, U. S. N.; Third Vice-Commander, Lieut.-Commander John C. Gilmore, U. S. N.; Fourth Vice-Commander, D. Jack Foster. National Corresponding Secretary, Brig.-General John C. Gilmore; National Recording and Financial Secretary, Col. George B. Donavin; National Treasurer, Major Fred. T. Jones; National Registrar, Major James Johnson, M. D.; National Chaplain, Rev. Dr. J. C. Schindel. SKETCHES OF THE PRINCIPAL CITIES, TOWNS AND VILLAGES. ADJUNTAS. No other town of the island excels this in location. It lies on the northern slope and on the head waters of the Rio Arecibo, amidst a charming hilly region some 2,400 feet above the coast level. It is a popular mountain retreat for those seeking rest and the joys of an invigorating climate. Ponce is but fifteen miles away and is reached by a good wagon road. The highest point of the Adjuntas district is the Guilarte peak, the altitude of which is 3,000 feet; it is the second mountain on the island in height, and from its summit a magnificent view is had of the surrounding landscape. Down its steep slopes run various streams, which form into cascades on account of their bowlder-strewn courses. It is one of the foremost coffee regions of the island. It has a gravity supply of water, piped to the houses from a neighboring stream. Its population has been estimated at 19,583 inhabitants. There are seven public schools, a Catholic church which occupies a small wooden building, owned by the city, and a Protestant mission. The preparation of coffee for exportation is the main industry, but other crops, such as bananas, vegetables and various cereals for domestic consumption, are also raised. AGUADA. This was the first town established in the island when Columbus made his first voyage. In the place called Espinal, at the mouth of the Culebrinas river, a monument has been erected in honor of the illustrious navigator. The township of Aguada has a population of 10,581 inhabitants, in its seventeen wards. The town itself has 1,000 inhabitants, and is situated on a hill, ten minutes walk from the ocean. There is a public school in town, conducted by three graduated teachers, among them one |