An Act Reorganizing the Mining Bureau and Prescribing the Functions Thereof

October 1, 1903

ACT NO. 916

AN ACT REORGANIZING THE MINING BUREAU AND PRESCRIBING THE FUNCTIONS THEREOF

SECTION 1. The personnel of the Mining Bureau shall consist of a Chief of the Bureau, class one, who shall be appointed by the Civil Governor, by and with the consent of the Philippine Commission; and of two geologists, class three: Provided, That the Chief of the Bureau and the geologists shall be graduates of recognized schools of mines or shall have received degrees in mining, metallurgy, or geology from reputable universities.

SECTION 2. The Chief of the Mining Bureau shall have authority to employ for temporary service such assistance from mining engineers, experts, and practical miners, or others, as the funds appropriated for the field work of the Bureau shall warrant, such temporary employees to be exempt from the requirements and privileges of the Civil Service, and such appointments and the compensations and allowances therefor to be approved by the Secretary of the Interior.

SECTION 3. The Mining Bureau shall further consist of two field assistants, class six, who shall qualify in topographic surveying, and who may qualify in either mining engineering or metallurgy, or both, to be selected under the rules of the Civil Service Board; of the chief clerk and stenographer, class six; of a property clerk and custodian, class eight; of a record clerk and translator, Class C; of a draftsman, Class D; of a draftsman, Class F; and of such labor as may be authorized by the Secretary of the Interior, the total compensation for which for office work shall not exceed seven hundred and fifty dollars per annum.

SECTION 4. It shall be the function of said Bureau to make, facilitate, and encourage special studies of the mineral resources, mineral industries, and geology of the Philippine Islands; to collect statistics concerning the occurrence of the economically important minerals and the methods pursued in making their valuable constituents available for commercial use; to make collections of typical geological and mineralogical specimens, especially those of economic and commercial importance, such collections to constitute the museum of the Mining Bureau, subject, however, to transfer by executive order of the Civil Governor to any general museum established; to provide a library of books, reports, drawings, and so forth, bearing upon the mineral industries, the sciences of mineralogy and geology, and the arts of mining and metallurgy, such library constituting the library of the Mining Bureau; to make a collection of models, drawings, and descriptions of mechanical appliances used in mining and metallurgical processes; to preserve and so maintain such collections and library as to make them available for reference and examination, and open to public inspection at reasonable hours; to maintain, in effect, a bureau of information concerning the mineral industries of the Philippine Islands; to make an annual report to the Secretary of the Interior setting forth the important results of the work of the Bureau, such special reports as may be called for by proper authority, and such bulletins concerning the statistics and technology of the mining industries, and of the geological and mineralogical and other field and office work of the Bureau, as may be approved by the Chief of the Bureau and ordered published by the Secretary of the Interior.

SECTION 5. All orders, decrees, Acts, or parts of Acts in conflict with this Act are hereby repealed. cHaCAS

SECTION 6. The public good requiring the speedy enactment of this bill, the passage of the same is hereby expedited in accordance with section two of "An Act prescribing the order of procedure by the Commission in the enactment of laws," passed September twenty-sixth, nineteen hundred.

SECTION 7. This Act shall take effect October fifteenth, nineteen hundred and three.

ENACTED, October 1, 1903.