penalty constitute a lien on the land bearing interest at six per cent. In case personal property of the owner cannot be found to satisfy the delinquent tax within twenty days, the land is sold after a prescribed publication by posting notices of the sale in public and conspicuous places and three weeks' publica tion in a newspaper of general circulation in the province wherein the land is situated. The owner is allowed a year from the day of sale to redeem his land by paying tax, penalty and costs, with interest at six per cent., and the amount paid by the purchaser at the rate of fifteen per cent. At the present price of lands, and in the depressed condition of the sugar market, it is not probable that such lands as may be sold for taxes will be redeemed by the own ers or parties interested. The great staple of this province is sugar, as it is of the island; owing to the low rates for sugar in the Hong kong market, the scarcity of cariboo, since the ravages made among the animals by the rinderpest, and other discouraging condi tions, the sugar interest is in a depressed condition, the outlook for the planters being: very discouraging. In case the tax due, with costs, be not offered at the public sale, the land is forfeited to the Municipality, and if not redeemed one year from the date of forfeiture, the owner ship becomes absolute in the Municipality, a deed being executed thereto by the Provin cial Treasurer. The law also provides that the delinquent land tax may be collected by action at law, in addition to all other remedies. The estab lishment of any system of civil government in this country must necessarily work incon venience and occasional hardship among the people. Progress must be made through ex perience, and improvements introduced as their expediency is made apparent. This is especially true of any system of taxation based upon an American model. The gov ernment heretofore prevailing has been of a
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military character, and political institutions, have been in keeping with the nature of the government. The Spanish mode of imposing and1 collecting taxes was radically different from the present system. It consisted largely of personal taxation, the cedular tax, for in stance, being an apt illustration, which was a sort of poll tax, the cednlar being a per sonal credential granted annually by the gov ernment to each individual showing his per sonalty and right to carry on any occupa tion. The cedular was issued at a cost of three pesos a head, under the administration of General Otis. The cedular is still demanded, the price being one peso. Experience under the new system would seem to show that a greater length of time should be allowed for taking an appeal to the Board of Assessors from the assessment on real estate, and more especially, also, in ap pealing from the decision of the Board of As sessors of the Municipality to the Provincial Board of Appeals. Many of the real estate owners in the island from which I write reside at a distance from 'the Municipality in which their land is situate, sometimes living in the neighboring island of Panay. In the Philip pines the means of travel or communication are frequently very inadequate, the roads being poor and in the rainy season almost impassable in certain localities, and communi cation by means of water very uncertain, so that the period provided by law may be in sufficient for the land owner to file his com plaint before the Board within the time pre scribed by law. It may be found expedient after trial to repeal that provision of the law enforcing the collection of the land tax by the sale of tb» personal property of the delinquent, and satisfy the tax alone from the sale of the real estate. It is highly probable that future legislation will provide that the tax shall at tach to the land independent of individual ownership. The new system is, in its general features.
