even conceded a secret discount from the general tariff. With the enforcement of the San Domingo Improvement Company's arbitral award and the inauguration of the receivership for Santo Domingo the control of the custom-house passed out of the hands of the local chieftains, who sullenly protested as against an invasion of their treaty rights. In other matters the autonomy of the district remained unimpaired until the beginning of 1906 when upon the fall of Morales the government troops, in suppressing the revolution in the north, overran Monte Cristi province and restored its dependency upon the central government. The healthiest and most important political subdivisions in Santo Domingo are the communal governments, and whatever progress has been made in the Republic has been due largely to their initiative. They correspond to the Spanish "municipios" and the French "communes." In Santo Domingo the French name was introduced during Haitian occupation. The various towns constitute the centers of government, their jurisdiction extends over the surrounding rural districts, and the affairs of the whole are administered by a municipal council. The powers of such councils are manifold and far-reaching and their importance has been accentuated by the chronic impotency of the central government to foster public improvements. The councils exercise all the faculties commonly pertaining to city councils elsewhere and have control of education, sanitation, streets and roads in their respective districts. They also act as election boards. When an outlying hamlet of the rural belt has grown to sufficient size it is erected into a municipal district or canton and accorded a justice of the peace and a cantonal chief and governing board. It remains subject, however, to the municipal council of the commune of which it formed a part until further development warrants its segregation as an independent commune with its own council. The cantons, as well as some of the sections, are also provided with a cemetery and a small church or chapel.