Report of the governor general of the Philippine Islands. [1908]

REPORT OF THE PHILIPPINE COMMISSION.

entire field work of the survey of provincial roads and municipalities of the
province of Bulacan had been finished. In the province of Palawan 51 kilometers of accurate road survey have been completed on the islands of Cuyo and
Busuanga. These provincial road surveys will definitely locate provincial,
municipal, and, ultimately, barrio boundaries in the various provinces, and will
also be of value to the different divisions of the government as well as to this
bureau in the location of permanent monuments, to which all surveys will in
future be referred. They will be platted upon polyconic projection sheets, to
a scale of 1: 50,000, and as fast as surveys of private properties are executed
in the provinces, they will also be transferred to the polyconic sheets. This
will eventually result in a map showing definitely the boundaries and areas
of public lands by process of elimination, and while the completion of such
plans will be the work of years, yet in some provinces the work should be
finished in the near future. These surveys, however, are not interfering with
those made under the provisions of sections 58 and 66 of Act No. 926, but on
the contrary are made when surveyors are not engaged in this work. The
surveys of the streets in poblaciones will be executed and platted upon a scale
of 1: 2,000. These maps will serve as base maps for this office and will be
available for the court of land registration and provincial and municipal officials, not only for the purpose of registration of titles and determination of
the location of property, but also for the purpose of tax assessments. It is
expected that this bureau will be reimbursed to some extent for the expense
of making these surveys by the sale of plans to provinces and municipalities.
COMPUTATIONS.
The work of computing increased to such an extent during the year that it
was found necessary to make a separate computing section with a technical
surveyor in charge thereof, in order to push the work, particularly on friar
lands survey computations. Four different employees were tried as chief of
this section, but none appeared to possess the executive ability or the faculty
of handling such a large amount of detail as is required, and the result has
been that less work has been accomplished in this line than was expected.
However, in the last three months a chief has been found who appears satisfactory, and the work is now progressing. The installation of "Millionaire"
computing machines early this year was found to greatly facilitate the work,
and at present there are 4 of these machines in use, it being estimated that 2
men working with the computing machine can accomplish the work of 6 men
making the same computations by the use of logarithmic tables. It is estimated that it will require at least two years to complete the computation work
of the friar-lands surveys, based upon a force of at least 25 computers working
continuously. In addition, computations must be kept up upon public lands
and other surveys.
DRAFTING.
The drafting force during the year has been unable to keep abreast of the
large amount of work, although the final maps of the friar lands have been
given precedence. It has been difficult to secure good Filipino draftsmen who
are thoroughly competent to handle the work given them, and very close supervision is necessary. Two American draftsmen were secured during the year,
one of whom has been transferred to the bureau of public works, as it was
unable to obtain a qualified draftsman in any other manner. It is expected to
fill this vacancy in a short time from the United States.
APPRENTICE SURVEYORS.
On July 1, 1907, there were 5 apprentice surveyors certified by the director
of education, who had received from one to ten months' instruction in this
course. None of these apprentices were able to pass the junior surveyors'
examination and were retained in the class of apprentice surveyors. There
were certified by the director of education 9 more apprentice surveyors, of whom
5 have resigned or have been discharged, leaving a total on June 30 of 9 in
this class. The work of this class has shown steady improvement during the
year. Special attention has been given to instruction in mathematics. New
students now entering this class are better prepared than those of two years
ago. The theory of the transit adjustments has proved difficult to the students,
while the work in algebra, geometry, and trigonometry has shown steady improvement. Of the 9 students surveyors, 8 were successful in the examination