II. They shall be addressed, in form of petition, to the authority whose action is solicited. They must contain an offer of reciprocal action and have all the requirements which make them valid and authentic in accordance with the laws in force. J. B. HICKEY, Assistant Adjutant-General.

No. 270.

HEADQUARTERS DIVISION OF CUBA,
Habana, July 5, 1900.

The military governor of Cuba, upon the recommendation of the secretary of finance, directs the publication of the following, as complementary to Order No. 254, these headquarters, 1900, concerning the municipal treasury:

I. The land tax on rural property shall be collected every half year. The first half of the fiscal year shall be collected and paid without surcharge during September and October, and the second during March and April.

II. After the two months for collection without surcharge have elapsed delinquent taxpayers shall pay 6 per cent interest for tardiness during the remainder of the first half of the year and 12 per cent during the following half year, which rate shall continue until the definite settlement, by auction of the property.

III. Whenever taxes are demanded for estates destroyed by the war, their proprietors may make a statement of the facts to the administration of revenues and taxes of the fiscal zone where the estate is located, within the two months granted for collection without surcharge. Said administration will direct the mayor to summon the interested party or parties, to make a personal inspection and take other necessary steps to obtain evidence; and he shall draw up a record of the proceedings. The administration of revenues and taxes will render decision in view of the proofs obtained. Said decision shall be subject to appeal by the mayor or the interested party or parties before the secretary of finance within the period of ten days, counting from the date of the notification.

IV. An estate shall be considered as having been destroyed by the war when it is a sugar plantation which has had its batey (buildings and dependencies) burned and razed to the ground; a stock farm whose houses, yards, and fences were devastated, or a tobacco plantation, farm, or any other kind of estate whose bateyes, buildings, or dwelling houses were burned down.

In the case of estates that were not destroyed but which have not continued to be worked, as indicated in the present assessment, a rectification of the latter shall be undertaken, after granting the proprietors a hearing, in order that the estates may contribute in accordance with their present rate of production.

V. Until new budgets are drawn up in accordance with Order No. 254, current series, these headquarters, the ayuntamientos can not make any change in the rates and quotas of taxation, except in cases where said order determines and establishes the rates.

J. B. HICKEY, Assistant Adjutant-General.

No. 271.

HEADQUARTERS DIVISION OF CUBA,
Habana, July 7, 1900.

The military governor of Cuba, upon the recommendation of the secretary of state and government, directs the publication of the following regulations for the department of charities of Cuba:

DEPARTMENT OF CHARITIES OF CUBA.

ARTICLE I.-The organization of the department.

SEC. 1. There is hereby established a department of charities of Cuba, which shall be under the general supervision of the department of state and government. The term "department," when used hereafter in this decree, shall mean the department of charities.

CUBA 1900--VOL I, PT 1—31

SEC. 2. There shall be a board of charities of Cuba, which shall consist of eleven members, to be appointed by the military governor, as follows: One from each of the six provinces, and five from the island at large. The regular term of office of members of said board shall be six years. The first appointments of the six members representing provinces shall be made for the terms of one, two, three, four, five, and six years, respectively. The first appointments of the five members from the island at large shall be for the terms of two, three, four, five, and six years. Subsequent appointments, except to fill vacancies, shall be for the term of six years. Appointments of members of this board, and of other boards established by this decree, whose terms of office may extend beyond the period of the military occupation of Cuba by the United States, shall be subject, upon the termination of such occupation, to the approval of the government which shall follow. Appointments to fill vacancies caused by death, resignation, or otherwise shall be for the unexpired term. The board of charities shall be appointed on or before July 31, 1900, and shall hold its first meeting between July 31, 1900, and September 30, 1900, at the call of the superintendent of charities and hospitals. The board of charities shall hold regular meetings once in each quarter of the year, in the city of Habana, at such times as it may determine, and may hold such other regular or special meetings as it may deem necessary. Six members shall constitute a quorum, but the affirmative votes of at least five members shall be necessary for the transaction of any business. The board shall appoint annually an executive committee of five members, and it may, by resolution, delegate to such executive committee, or to a standing or special committee, or to the officers or any officer of the board, the exercise, during the intervals between its meetings, of such of its specific powers, to be clearly defined in the resolution, as it may deem advisable, and may, in its discretion, revoke such delegation of authority.

SEC. 3. No member of the board of charities shall be a trustee or officer of any institution subject to inspection by said board, nor shall any member have any authority to make, directly or indirectly, any sale of real or personal property to any such institution, or any purchase from any such institution; nor shall any member have any pecuniary interest in any such sale or purchase. Members of the board of charities shall receive no salary, but shall be paid their traveling and other necessary expenses incurred when engaged in official business: Provided, That the total official expenditure of any member of the board during any calendar year for purposes other than transportation shall not exceed the sum of $500. The appointment of the members of the board of charities for terms of six years and the provision that they serve without salary are intended to secure the resuit that such appointments shall always be made without regard to political considerations, and that the destitute and helpless wards of public charity shall receive the benefits of the services of eminent citizens, possessing special knowledge and qualifications for rendering useful service in such positions. Each member of said board shall, so far as may be practicable, inspect the charitable institutions in the province in which he resides once each year, and shall inform himself in regard to the measures that have been adopted for the assistance of the poor in Cuba and in other countries.

SEC. 4. The board of charities shall assume such of the duties hereby conferred upon the department as may from time to time be transferred in writing to it by the superintendent of charities and hospitals, and may establish such rules, regulations, and by-laws for the regulation of its affairs as it may deem wise, subject to the provisions of this decree.

SEC. 5. During the period of organization the superintendent of charities and hospitals shall possess and exercise all the powers hereby conferred upon the department, excepting those that by reason of section 4 he may have already transferred in writing to the board of charities. When, in the judgment of the military governor, the various branches of work of the department may have been thoroughly organized, the board of charities shall be so informed in writing, and the superintendent of charities and hospitals shall thereupon become the secretary of the board of charities, and shall be its chief executive officer, and the said board shall then be the head of the department, and shall possess and exercise the powers hereby conferred upon the department. Thereafter, whenever a vacancy shall occur in the office of secretary of the board of charities, the board shall appoint a secretary to fill the vacancy. Members of the board shall not be eligible for the office of secretary. The secretary shall receive a salary, to be fixed by the board of charities, subject to the approval of the military governor. The secretary shall hold office at the pleasure of the board, provided that he shall not be removed from office, except for cause stated in writing and entered in the minutes of the board, and after reasonable notice and an opportunity to be heard before the board upon the cause of his proposed removal. The

department may, within the limits of its appropriation for such purpose, employ such assistants, inspectors, clerks, and other employees as it may deem necessary, and fix their salaries from time to time, and may remove any employee from office, in its discretion, for cause stated in writing, and after an opportunity has been afforded such employee to be heard upon the cause of his proposed removal.

ARTICLE II.-Concerning destitute and delinquent children.

GENERAL PROVISIONS.

SEC. 6. It is hereby declared to be the general policy of the island of Cuba, to be carried into effect as speedily as circumstances will permit, that destitute and delinquent children who are now, or become in the future, subjects of support from public funds, shall be cared for by the State, and shall be committed to the guardianship of the appropriate insular authorities. Such children shall be cared for, according to their respective needs, in families, training schools, or reformatories, as may from time to time be found to be advisable.

SEC. 7. No municipal, district, or provincial institution for the care of destitute or delinquent children shall hereafter be established, but this shall not prevent the establishment of municipal hospitals for sick children. Any existing municipal institution for the care of children may be discontinued at the option of the municipality, or by order of the department, and the inmates may be committed by the alcalde to the department. Each municipal institution for children, until discontinued, shall be under the charge of a board of managers appointed by the alcalde, and of which the alcalde shall be ex officio a member. Payments from the insular treasury for the support of children in municipal or private institutions will be discontinued as rapidly as provision can be made by the department for the care of such children. From and after the 1st day of September, 1900, all payments from the insular treasury to orphan asylums and other institutions for the care of destitute children, except State institutions, shall be made on the basis of a per capita payment for the care and maintenance of such of the inmates of said institution as may be accepted as proper public charges by the department. The various orphan asylums established by the Red Cross and other organizations, which have been, or may be, turned over to the insular authorities, having served the special and temporary purpose for which they were established, will be discontinued as rapidly as may be found to be practicable, unless, for special reasons, the department may decide to continue one or more of such asylums as temporary homes for children until such children can be placed in families, or removed to a training school.

SEC. 8. A destitute child is hereby declared to be one not possessed of sufficient means for self-support, and who has neither parents nor grandparents, or whose parents and grandparents, if living, are unable to provide for the support of said child, or have abandoned it, or have habitually and grossly neglected to provide for its physical well-being, or are habitual drunkards, or are of notoriously immoral character, or are confined in a prison, or in a hospital for the insane. Nothing in this decree shall, however, impair any of the obligations created by Title VI of the Civil Code, concerning the support of relations.

Any alcalde, upon proof to his satisfaction that a child then residing in his municipality is destitute as herein defined, may, unles the support of said child be voluntarily assumed by some individual known to the alcalde to be of good moral character, and of sufficient ability to provide for said child, or by some private charitable institution at its own expense, commit said child to the care and custody of the department of charities until it reaches the age of 16 years. Before making any such commitment, the alcalde shall cause a careful inquiry to be made as to the whereabouts, circumstances, and character of the surviving parents and grandparents of the child, if any. The results of such inquiry shall be reduced to writing and placed on file in the office of the alcalde, and, if the child is committed, a copy shall be forwarded to the department with the commitment paper. Such commitment shall be made only upon the application of a parent or a grandparent of such child, or after notice of at least three days to the parents, if living, or, if both parents are dead, after a like notice to the grandparents, if living, and after an opportunity has been afforded to such parents, or grandparents if the parents are dead, to be heard before the alcalde upon the cause or causes for which it is proposed to commit such child. The testimony taken at such hearing shall be placed on file in the office of the alcalde, and, if the child is committed, à copy shall be sent to the department with the commitment paper.

No child shall be committed who has a parent or grandparent of good moral character and of sufficient ability to provide for its support, or who has a relative or

friend of good moral character and of sufficient ability to provide for its support and willing to do so, or whose support may be voluntarily assumed by a charitable institution at its own expense. The insular authorities may, in their discretion, collect from each municipality a sum not to exceed 30 cents per day for the maintenance of each destitute child committed by the alcalde of a municipality for the period during which such child is supported in a State institution. Children committed to the department may be returned to their parents, relatives, or friends in the discretion of the department. No child so returned by the department shall be again committed by the alcalde, but the department, in its discretion, at the request of the alcalde, may again take charge of such child.

When any child shall be so committed in the province of Habana, the alcalde shall provide for the transportation of said child to the office of the department. When such commitment occurs in some other province, the alcalde shall forthwith notify the department and shall place such child temporarily in some suitable institution for the care of children, or make other suitable provision for the temporary care of such child, at the expense of the municipality. The department shall forthwith notify the alcalde at what place said child will be received into the custody of the department, and the alcalde shall provide, at the expense of the municipality, for the transportation of the child to such place.

SEC. 9. Whenever a child actually, or apparently, between the ages of 10 and 16 years is convicted before any court of competent jurisdiction of a crime or misdemeanor, whether or not said child shall have acted with discernment, said court shall, unless in its judgment said child should be placed under the care of a parent or other relative or friend willing and able to care for and properly train him, commit such child until he shall have attained the age of 18 years to the Reform School for Boys at Habana, if a boy; or if a girl, to the Aldecoa Reform School for Girls at Habana. Girls between 10 and 16 years now in confinement in any jail or prison shall be transferred to said reform school for girls; and subsequent commitments of girls under this section shall be to said reform school for girls. Any such court is hereby authorized to commit to the proper reform school any boy or girl between the ages of 10 and 16 years residing in the judicial district in which such court is situated, who has been found, after an inquiry satisfactory to the court, to be a confirmed vagrant, or whose moral training has been so neglected that said child is in danger of becoming a criminal and is in need of reformatory discipline; provided, that no child shall be so committed by any court for the sole reason that it is homeless or destitute. No such child shall be committed without notice of at least three days to its parents or guardian, if such parents or guardian are living within the judicial district in which such commitment is pending. Every commitment to a reform school shall be until the child so committed shall reach the age of 18 years. When any child shall be committed under the provisions of this section, the authorities of the municipality shall forthwith provide for the transportation of such child to the institution to which it shall have been committed.

TRAINING SCHOOL FOR BOYS.

SEC. 10. The department of charities shall establish at some location, at which land suitable for agricultural purposes can be obtained, an institution to be known as the training school for boys of Cuba. Its objects shall be the temporary care of destitute boys under the age of 16 years, committed to the department from any part of the island, until such boys can be placed in families; and also the training in agricultural or other pursuits of such destitute boys as it may not be practicable to place in family homes. Boys shall be received in the school only by order of the department; they will remain in the custody of the department while in the school, and may be removed at any time by the department. The department shall also remove to this institution, when established, all the boys then in the institution heretofore known as the Habana San José Asylum for Boys, except those who shall have been admitted thereto to await trial, or who have been convicted of an offense, or who have been sent for correctional discipline.

SEC. 11. The training school for boys shall be under the direct charge and control of the department until March 1, 1901. There shall be appointed for this school, not later than September 30, 1900, by the military governor, a board of managers composed of five members. The term of office of members of this board shall be five years, and they shall serve without salary. The first appointments shall be for one, two, three, four, and five years, respectively. Appointments to fill vacancies caused by death, resignation, or otherwise shall be for the unexpired term. The first meeting of the board of managers shall be held during the month of October, 1900, at the call of the department. The board shall hold regular monthly meetings,

and such special meetings as it may deem necessary. Whenever practicable, meetings of the board shall be held at the school. The board shall elect from its own number a president and a vice-president.

SEC. 12. Until March 1, 1901, the board of managers shall exercise such powers only as may be delegated to them by the written order of the department. From and after March 1, 1901, the board of managers shall become responsible for the control and management of the institution and shall have the general direction and control of its property and affairs. They shall see that the objects for which it was established are secured. They shall have power to establish such by-laws, rules, and regulations as they may deem necessary for defining the duties of the officers and employees of the school and for the management of its affairs, and shall, subject to the approval of the department, determine from time to time the number and salaries of such employees. They shall, on or before the 15th of each month, submit to the department a detailed estimate of the expense of conducting the school during the ensuing month. They shall keep a record of their proceedings, which shall be open at all times, together with the other books and papers of the school, to inspection by the department. They shall appoint, whenever a vacancy occurs in that office, a superintendent of the school.

SEC. 13. The superintendent shall be the secretary of the board of managers and shall be the chief executive officer of the school. Subject to the by-laws, rules, and regulations established by the board of managers, the superintendent shall have the general oversight of the buildings and grounds, with their furniture and equipment, and shall have the direct control of all persons therein. He shall personally see that each inmate receives such training and instruction as may be suited to his years and capacity. The board of managers shall, upon the nomination of the superintendent, appoint such resident officers as they may deem necessary for the efficient management of the affairs of the school, and may remove any such officer for cause stated in writing, after an opportunity has been afforded him to be heard. The cause of the removal shall be entered in the permanent records of the school. The superintendent shall see that suitable records are kept concerning each pupil, showing his name, previous history, place of birth, date of admission, age, previous residence, and his conduct, progress, and physical condition from time to time in the school. The superintendent, under the direction of the board, shall cause the children in said school to be instructed in the branches taught in the public schools of the island, and shall provide from time to time such courses of instruction as will enable the inmates of the school, other than those received for temporary care, to maintain themselves, after leaving the school, at some useful trade, calling, or occupation.

SEC. 14. The board of managers shall, after it shall become responsible for the control and management of the school, appoint a treasurer, who may or may not be of their number, and who, if not a member of the board, may receive a salary for his services, such salary to be regulated as are those of other employees. The treasurer shall

(a) Receive and have the custody of all moneys belonging to or appropriated to the institution;

(b) Pay the salaries of the officers and employees of the institution, and all other disbursements of said institution, upon the order of the board of managers; (c) Keep a full and accurate account of all receipts and payments, and such other accounts as may be required of him by the board of managers, and in such form as the board of managers may direct;

(d) Balance his books on the 1st day of each January, and make a statement thereof and an abstract of all receipts and payments during the preceding year, and within five days thereafter deliver the same to an auditing committee, to be appointed by the board of managers. They shall compare the same with his books and vouchers and certify as to the correctness thereof to the board of managers at their next meeting; and

(e) Perform such other duties as the board of managers may direct.

TRAINING SCHOOL FOR GIRLS.

SEC. 15. The institution now known as the Habana Industrial School for Girls is hereby declared to be the Training School for Girls of Cuba. Its object shall be the temporary care of destitute girls under the age of 16 years committed to the department of charities from any part of the island, until such girls can be placed in families; and also the training in useful industries of such destitute girls as it may not be practicable to place in family homes. Girls shall be received in this school only by order of the department; they shall remain under the custody of the department while in the school, and may be removed at any time by the department.