their supplementary provisions, but said excise tax shall be collected with an increase of 50 per cent on the articles included in the first five classifications, and 100 per cent on those included in the remaining classifications, payment to be made in United States money or its equivalent. The provincial branches of the department of finance shall forward to the municipalities located within their respective jurisdictions certified rolls of taxpayers of this class, and also a statement of those who have paid their taxes and of those who have not yet done so.

This system of taxation brings to the municipalities the revenues detailed in the following table, which indicates the necessary expenses according to the estimate for the fiscal year of 1899-1900, and evidences a large deficit in every one of them, Guane excepted:

In order to make a conscientious study of this system of taxation it would be necessary to examine the old tariffs and analyze the alterations that have been introduced, a work that I consider beyond the limits of this report.

I can, however, advance the statement that the decree of March 25 has caused a general discontent to all the ayuntamientos, and is far from solving the difficult economic problem of their subsistence.

I will make a slight criticism of paragraph 4 of the order transcribed above, relative to taxation on rural property, according to which those that in the tax rolls of the State paid taxes not exceeding $5 per annum are exempted from taxation.

Since the majority of the farms throughout the province are divided in small parcels, and therefore comprised in this exemption, and many of the large farms are being subdivided by their owners, who give to each part a different name, in order that their taxes may not exceed $5 a year, the result is that a very large part of the rural property, which constitutes the chief source of revenue in this province, pays no tax.

It is therefore proper and urgent to modify the order in this sense, abolishing the aforesaid exemption, so much the more as it is obvious that a tax of $1.33 every three months, which is the quarterly amount, can be easily paid by anybody who owns property, however small.

In this province, where a farm hand is paid 80 cents a day, and sometimes even $2, the owner of a farin can well afford to pay $5 a year divided in four parts, and since the small owners are very numerous, these taxes would swell considerably the revenue of the municipalities.

EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS CONDITION, PERSONNEL, AND SALARIES.

The educational institutions in this province are in a deplorable condition. In matters of public instruction it is no exaggeration to say that everything is to be done. As the teachers had not been paid for many months when they commenced to receive their salaries last April, and nothing had been spent for years in the houses or material for the schools, the first are unfit and the second utterly worthless; but even if the houses were repaired and refurnished most of them would be inadequate for their purpose.

Article 203 of the law of public instruction, which allows the teachers to receive remuneration from well-to-do parents, if excusable or even necessary when the

instructors were not paid and had often to pay the schoolhouse rent out of their own pockets, should now be derogated as pernicious, for evident reasons, stated by this government to the secretary of justice and public instruction in a recent communication on this subject.

After the 1st of August several free night schools have been started in the municipal schools, and one for adults of both sexes, with especial funds derived from the hygiene section. Besides these, a new school for boys and girls has been established in the asylum for destitute children.

The following table shows the personnel, salaries, expenses for stationery, and house rent in all the schools of this province:

PRESERVATION OF ORDER-LOCAL POLICE, RURAL GUARDS-NUMBER OF TROOPS REQUIRED.

Public order has been vastly improved during the last three months, but it is not quite perfect yet, owing in great part to the fact that the special municipal police, divided in many different bodies under the direction of the various alcaldes, men, for the most part, of insufficient capacity for this arduous task, meets with numerous difficulties, costs much, as will be shown by the table given below, and fails to give the satisfaction that was expected.

This is an eminently rural province, a vast tract of land with a population scattered over many villages and hamlets without any solution of continuity, and, therefore, the chief requisite in its police force should be unity of action and organization. For this reason it is wise and urgent to reform it, fusing into one body these different sections, by the creation of the rural police, as planned by General Davis and approved by General Brooke, which, being commanded by one chief and under the control of the civil governor, would possess the necessary unity, cost much less, and produce better results.

The municipal police that was on duty in this province previous to the organization of the special police, which is considered a rural force because it is mainly composed of cavalry, is the following:

The special municipal police organized during the months of June and July last draw the following salaries:

Monthly cost of municipal police at the present moment
Government police...

Total...

$450.00

1,880.00

8,050.00.

930.00

11, 310. 00

12, 792.92 2,258.00

15,050.92

The government police is the most efficacious of all; it is distributed throughout the province in the following way:

It was the only force to maintain order and peace in the province during the first six months of the present year, and it was equal, in its efficiency, to the difficult task. From Artemisa to the extreme west, and from La Palma (Consolación del Norte) to the south coast, law was obeyed and order was nearly perfect.

I earnestly request the department commander not to abolish this organization, which can not be bettered by any other, and is, besides, composed of the most worthy sons of this region.

Very respectfully,

PINAR DEL Río, September 13, 1899.

Maj. Gen. JOHN BROOKE,

GUILLERMO Dolz,
Civil Governor.

CIVIL GOVERNMENT OF THE PROVINCE OF HABANA,
Habana, September 15, 1899.

Governor-General, Habana.

SIR: With the present information, I have the honor to forward to you a detailed statement of the data requested from this civil government by Generals Lee and Ludlow, in their respective communications of the 18th and 21st of August, and to whom I also gave an account for what it refers to territories of this province, which are comprised in their military departments.

From the comparative study of the summaries of said statement it is deducted that the general situation of this province has been notably improved from January 1 to August 31 in all branches of its industry, agriculture, commerce, public instruction, beneficence, means of communication, etc., notwithstanding the scarcity of resources felt and which is still to be contended with, together with the lack of confidence prevailing until lately, in the fear that public order, the basis of the reconstruction and development of public wealth, could be altered.

The state of disorganization and pauperism, in which all the municipalities of the WAR 99-VOL 1, PT 6—23