An Act Authorizing the Establishment of a Sugar Testing Laboratory in the City of Iloilo, Province of Iloilo, and Fixing the Powers and Duties of the Sugar Chemist in Charge Thereof

May 17, 1909

ACT NO. 1896

AN ACT AUTHORIZING THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A SUGAR TESTING LABORATORY IN THE CITY OF ILOILO, PROVINCE OF ILOILO, AND FIXING THE POWERS AND DUTIES OF THE SUGAR CHEMIST IN CHARGE THEREOF

SECTION 1. The Secretary of the Interior is hereby authorized to establish a sugar-testing laboratory in the city of Iloilo, Province of Iloilo, which shall be in charge of a sugar chemist who shall be an employee of the Bureau of Science. This sugar chemist shall fix and establish, on or before the fifteenth day of November of each year, standard samples of sugars number one, number two, number three, superior damp, and current of Iloilo, which shall govern as hereinafter provided during the twelve months immediately following said fifteenth of November.

SECTION 2. In fixing and establishing these samples, the sugar chemist shall take into account the degrees of polarization, the color, the hygrometric state, the granulation and the crystallization of the samples of each of the several classes of sugar fixed and established by the merchants of Iloilo, and accepted in the markets where Philippine sugar is sold, so far as they are known to him. Merchants may send portions of the classified samples of sugar which they receive from markets in which Philippine sugar is sold to aid him in correctly fixing and establishing standard samples, but failure to receive such samples from merchants shall not operate to prevent the sugar chemist from fixing and establishing standard samples of the different classes of sugar.

SECTION 3. It shall further be the duty of the sugar chemist to correctly classify all samples of sugar that may be delivered to the sugar-testing laboratory for classification by any person. In cases of dispute between contracting parties with respect to the classification of any sugar, any one of them may send to the sugar-testing laboratory a sample of the said sugar for its classification. The result of the classification made by the sugar chemist shall be set forth in a certified report which shall be transmitted in each case to the person sending the sample. A suitable portion of each sample of sugar the classification of which shall have been thus fixed, shall be deposited in a glass container which shall be closed with sealing wax, on which shall be stamped the seal of the Bureau of Science, and shall be properly marked so that it can be identified, and shall be transmitted to the person sending the sample.

SECTION 4. In every case of dispute between contracting parties as to the class of sugar, a classification made by the sugar chemist, as provided in section three of this Act, shall determine the classification of the sugar in question, except when any one of the parties shall impugn the classification made by the sugar chemist and shall prove that it is correct. CAIHTE

SECTION 5. Subject to the approval of the Secretary of the Interior, the Director of the Bureau of Science is hereby authorized to fix charges for the determination of the degrees of polarization of sugar, and for the determination of its color, its hygrometric state, its granulation and its crystallization, provided that the charges so fixed shall not exceed the actual cost to the Government of performing the work.

SECTION 6. The sugar chemist may make analyses of sugar canes, of bagasse, or of mill juices, or other similar chemical investigations for private persons. The scale of charges for all such work shall be fixed by the Director of the Bureau of Science, with the approval of the Secretary of the Interior.

SECTION 7. The sugar chemist may carry on such investigations as may be practicable relative to means which may advantageously be employed in improving the quality of Philippine sugar, and the Director of the Bureau of Science shall from time to time publish the results of such investigations for the benefit of sugar producers.

SECTION 8. Payment for all work performed at the sugar-testing laboratory shall be made to the sugar chemist, and all sums received in payment for work therein performed shall be accounted for as cash receipts of the Bureau of Science, under such rules as the Insular Auditor may prescribe.

SECTION 9. This Act shall take effect on July first, nineteen hundred and nine.

ENACTED: May 17, 1909.