The total shortage in area and value, as per these resurveys, is as follows:

$15,953.85

$597,564. 15

I. The Philippine Sugar Estates Development Company (Limited) ..

A statement of these shortages has already been submitted to the interested parties and preparations for a joint survey of the same, in accordance with the provisions of the contract dated December 22, 1903, are already in progress.

Mr. Charles H. Kendall, assistant engineer, was verbally directed to take immediate supervision of the ten field parties organized, to inspect field work whenever necessary, to keep the parties supplied with the necessary force, equipments, and subsistence, to receive and compile reports, and to direct the office computations and mapping. He performed these duties with energy and skill. Mr. Kendall's report is attached hereto, together with the various accompanying appendixes.

These appendixes show:

(1) Method of work and instructions to field parties.

(2) The Villegas maps and tabulations of valuations, with corrections to numerical results.

(3) Tracings, or blueprints, of original maps received from the firm of Del Pan, Ortigas & Fisher, and returned to them.

(4) The maps prepared by this bureau with full description of boundary lines, the titles and history submitted by the legal representatives, and comments by this bureau based on a comparison of these data with the Villegas data.

(5) Copies of contracts dated December 22, 1903, and various correspondence and documents bearing upon these surveys and not enumerated above.

Special attention is invited to the essential results of this survey contained in Table 3 of Mr. Kendall's report, which shows detailed comparisons of the results of the resurvey with the Villegas data; also to Table 5, which shows a summary of the cost of this resurvey, and to Appendix IV, which contains the maps and descriptions resulting therefrom. Respectfully submitted.

J. W. BEARDSLEY, Consulting Engineer to the Commission.

THE GOVERNMENT OF THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS,

EXECUTIVE BUREAU, Manila, P. I., January 20, 1904.

SIR: It is necessary that there shall be a resurvey of what is known as the "friar lands," aggregating about 400,000 acres and consisting of various estates in the provinces of Cavite, Laguna, Bulacan, Bataan, and Cebu. These lands have already been surveyed by a native civil engineer, Villegas by name, who is now employed in the city attorney's office. His field notes and report are in the office of the executive secretary and will be turned over to you whenever you desire. It is desired that these shall be verified in order that it may be known just how much land there is before payment is made.

It is my desire that you take up this matter at once, subordinating other surveying work in your bureau, as far as possible, to it, as we have only a limited time in which to make these surveys under the terms of the contract for the purchase of these lands.

It is suggested that it would be a good idea to have Señor Villegas transferred temporarily to your bureau while these surveys are being made, and I suggest that you see him with

that end in view.

Be kind enough to inform me, from time to time, of the progress you are making in forming surveying parties and in doing this work.

Very respectfully,

LUKE E. WRIGHT,

Acting Civil Governor.

Manila, P. I.

The CONSULTING ENGINEER TO THE COMMISSION,

EXHIBIT I.

REPORT ON EXAMINATIONS OF TITLES TO FRIARS' ESTATES.

(Series A.-Report No. 1.)

The CIVIL GOVERNOR OF THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS.

MANILA, P. I., July 22, 1904.

SIR: Having complied with your excellency's instructions with respect to the examination of the titles to the properties known as the "friar estates," which by the four preliminary contracts of December 22 last the government undertook to purchase, we have the honor to report to you concerning the manner in which your instructions have been carried out, and upon the present condition of the work.

It was early in February last that we were favored by your excellency with the commission above mentioned, and received from the executive secretary the preliminary contracts of December 22 last, by which the Philippines Sugar Estates Development Company (Limited); La Sociedad Agrícola de Ultramar; the Recoleto Order of the Philippine Islands, and the British-Manila Estates Company (Limited) agreed to sell to the government the twenty-five properties enumerated in the preliminary contracts for the consideration and upon the conditions therein specified. After examining the contracts referred to we could do nothing further before receiving from the vendors the title deeds to the properties in question, and accordingly the vendors were requested by us through the executive secretary to submit their deeds for examination.

The first of the vendors to respond to this request was La Sociedad Agrícola de Ultramar, which early in April delivered to us under inventory a large volume of title deeds concerning the eighteen properties which the company had undertaken to convey to the government. As to fourteen of the properties the deeds presented were comparatively speaking complete and satisfactory.

About the middle of the same month the Philippines Sugar Estates Development Company (Limited) furnished us with some documents relative to the properties offered for sale by them, but we having called the attention of the company's representative to the deficiencies of the papers presented for this purpose, he subsequently and from time to time produced, one by one, the original deeds to the properties and withdrew them from time to time in the course of our examination. This course of procedure on the part of this company has necessarily delayed our labors and made them more difficult.

The British-Manila Estates Company (Limited) and the Recoleto Order of the Philippine Islands subsequently presented the documents necessary to complete, in part, those which about the end of February were transmitted to us by them through the executive secretary. As soon as we received the respective deeds, the first thing done by us was to select from among them such of the descriptions of the properties as seemed to be the best and most exact from a legal standpoint.

These descriptions were at once forwarded to the consulting engineer of the Commission so that he might use them as a basis for the work confided to him in the examination and survey of the properties through the other engineers and surveyors working under him. In addition to this, as fast as our examination would permit we forwarded to the consulting engineer a complete history of the properties showing the derivation of title, the surveys and fixing of monuments upon the boundaries and the ancient descriptions thereof, this with a view to the placing at his disposal all the possible data and information which might be of assistance to him in the field work.

On April 12 we forwarded to the engineers the first description, and have continued to furnish such descriptions from time to time, until recently, as fast as we have been able to do so. We have given preferential attention to this part of the work, as it was evident that upon the exactitude of the field work must depend the identification of the properties in question, and this exactitude would be, of course, the best guaranty of the government in the proposed purchase of the friar lands.

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We have also endeavored to promptly respond to all requests coming to us from the engineers for explanations concerning the contents of the title deeds, and in several cases, as, for instance, in the case of the hacienda of Muntinlupa, the skillful and conscientious work done by the engineers in the field by verifying upon the ground the legal data furnished them has made it possible to reconstruct a correct description of the property. The descriptions in the old deeds were very exact, but in the more modern ones very erroneous, on account of the lamentable lack of care displayed on the part of the owners.

Finally, we have furnished the consulting engineer of the Commission all the maps and old plans of the haciendas which we have been able to obtain from the vendors, with the same object in view.

On account of the fact that some of the haciendas are connected with others, either because formerly constituting one porperty or because they were formerly owned by the same person, it has frequently occurred that we have been obliged to modify in some respects statements and descriptions furnished, or to augment them by furnishing new data and references which came to our knowledge in the course of the examination of other deeds. have, of course, always furnished the consulting engineer with information concerning such modifications or further information discovered.

We

For the purpose of carrying out our work methodically and to assist the work of the government engineers, we have prepared a special report upon each one of the estates or properties mentioned in the preliminary agreements. In such reports we have included the most complete description found in the title deeds, together with a history in full of the derivation of the title, and an opinion as to the validity of the deeds presented.

Your excellency will have occasion to observe upon reading these reports that a separate opinion has been given with respect of each one of the estates mentioned in the preliminary agreement. Consequently there is a report upon the hacienda of Imus, offered for sale by the British-Manila Estates Company (Limited); another upon the hacienda of San José, offered by the Recoletos Order of the Philippine Islands; 8 upon the estates offered by the Philippines Sugar Estates Development Company (Limited), and 13 upon the 18 properties offered by La Sociedad Agrícola de Ultramar, 6 of the latter having been included in one report, as they constitute one hacienda.

For the purpose of having a ready reference, each one of the last two sets of reports is preceded by a methodical résumé of the contents of the partial reports. We believe that by following this method we have not only facilitated whatever examination your excellency may see fit to make of our reports, but also made it possible to close the agreement as to the final sale of any particular property of any one of the vendor companies, without the necessity of reference to any of the reports concerning the other properties.

Your excellency will also observe from a perusal of our opinions, the character of our work and the system we have adopted from the beginning

A careful perusal of all the original title deeds whenever available has been the first step in each case. In this part of the work we have encountered certain material difficulties, owing to the fact that the documents are in the majority of great antiquity, written upon a poor quality of paper in ink, which has faded by the passage of time, and in characters now obsolete. As a characteristic example we may state that in one of the documents pertaining to the title deeds of the hacienda of Biñan we have found signatures which date back to the earliest days of the Spanish dominion, written in Filipino characters of the indigenous system of writing used in these islands, of which, by the way, but very few authentic specimens exist.

After determining the origin of the title to the estates we have carefully followed through the deeds the vicissitudes through which they have passed down to modern times, the conveyances by which they have been transmitted to the present owners, the incumbrances imposed upon them, the discharge of such incumbrances, or if this did not appear, whether they still existed, even if no record appeared in the property register, the litigations had concerning the properties and the judgments rendered therein. We have also endeavored to determine the exact extent and boundaries, the various descriptions contained in the deeds, and the connection between the ancient documents and the modern, comparing these descriptions with whatever maps, ancient or modern, that were available, and determining what surveys have been made from time to time. In fine, we have left nothing undone which could in any way tend to more clearly establish the ownership of the vendors or those from whom they derived title, or to identify the properties.

This study on many occasions has been very difficult. Some of the haciendas have been formed by the aggregation of several properties. Others have been divided and subdivided on account of their great extent and to facilitate their management and control, or else on account of the evidently constant endeavor to adapt them to the political divisions of the township. On other occasions a difficulty has arisen from a diversity of hereditary titles by which the property has been divided into numerous aliquot parts which were subsequently reunited by the purchase of these separate interests. Some of the estates have been sold in bankruptcy proceedings and have been the object of disputes of every kind,

WAR 1904-VOL 11-48

which in the course of three centuries have filled their history with numerous incidents. All these changes and many others which it would be tiresome to enumerate it has been necessary to follow with the greatest of care, in order to foresee future contingencies and to discover whether the deeds were subject to any legal defect.

Two historical events which were largely influential in the distribution of rustic property in the Philippines have been particularly considered, as they have concurred in the more expressly defining the extent and boundaries of a large number of the properties in question. The first of these historical events was the appointment of a special commission of land grants and composition of titles, created by royal e dula of October 30, 1692. The purpose of the creation of this commission was to collect whatever might be found due the Crown of Spain on account of purchase of property belonging to the royal exchequer or by reason of the unlawful appropriation of Crown lands. For this purpose the magistrate who performed this duty was clothed with extraordinary power, not only to compel the payment of whatever might be found due, but also to make grants to the proprietors of the so-called "demasias" (overplus), that is, all appropriations of land in excess of that warranted by the title deeds, in consideration of the payment of such sum as he might deem equitable.

This commission was carried out in the Philippines, by delegation of the judges appointed for Peru and New Spain, first by Don Juan de la Sierra Ossorio and Don Juan Ozacta y Oro, auditors or justices of the audiencia of Manila, who at the close of the seventeenth century revised many of the titles of the haciendas which the government now contemplates purchasing, and had them surveyed and the boundaries marked by monuments. Subsequently the work was continued during the eighteenth century by Don Pedro Calderon Henriquez and Don Mariano Cubells, also justices of the audiencia of Manila. The extensive work performed by the first two justices mentioned was done in a most conscientious manner. It included almost all the large haciendas of Luzon, and their labors have left an indelible stamp upon the history of rustic property in the Philippines.

The other historical event, which in the nature of things was of far-reaching consequence, was the expulsion of the Jesuits from all the Spanish dominions and the seizure of their property by the state, decreed by King Charles III, by royal edict of the 2d of April, 1767, and which by decree of May 1 of the same year was extended to these islands.

The Jesuits at that time were probably the richest landholders in the islands, and consequently it is not surprising that the decree expelling them should affect some of the estates comprised in the preliminary contract of December 22, including the haciendas of Calamba, Naic, Piedad, and others. Possession was taken of these properties by a board appointed for the purpose under the title of board of temporalities, which after surveying and appraising them sold them at public auction in compliance with the royal order of May 12, 1792. As a general rule it may be stated that the title deeds to the estates offered for sale to the government are full and authentic. The principal difficulty which we have encountered has been the identification of the properties; that is to say, to determine precisely their situation, boundaries, and area, so that these matters might be verified on the ground in such a way as to leave no room for doubt and future litigation or controversy. In some instances identification has been difficult on account of the meagerness of the descriptions, added to the circumstances of the disappearance of the monuments long ago erected upon the boundaries when surveyed. The disappearance of these monuments is doubtless attributable to the impulse of the revolutionary fever of the last few years, as it is well known that the agrarian question was one of the principal factors in the Philippine revolution. In other cases, however, it has been possible to make a complete identification by uniting the data to be found in the ancient and modern descriptions and authentic maps, judicial decisions concerning the boundaries of the properties, monuments found in the field, and the approximation between the results of the ancient and modern surveys, and trustworthy statements of the tenants, all of which data the government engineers and surveyors have made use of in the work which they have just completed by your excellency's instructions.

It is unnecessary to state that we have taken into account the results of these recent surveys accordingly as they serve to better identify the properties or to make this identification more doubtful, and have in view thereof modified our first impressions with respect to the validity and weight of the title deeds examined.

The discovery of the ancient monuments, as well as the verification of the ancient maps, descriptions, and measures by the data recently obtained by the government engineers and surveyors, constitute the best means of identifying the haciendas, and one of the best proofs of the legality of the titles.

With respect to some of the properties we have had to deal with some difficult legal problems concerning the validity of certain conveyances, the existence of ancient incumbrances, and the performance of doubtful conditions, all of which we have studied and upon which we have expressed our humble but sincere opinion for the benefit of the government.

In addition to the study and revision of the title deeds which have been submitted to