This government was established in 1904 under the direction of Major General George W. Davis, the first governor of the Canal Zone. From time to time it was extended and improved. More than half of this was appropriated out of the Treasury of the United States, and the remainder collected in the operations of the government. In addition to directing the government of the Zone, the head of the department of civil administration was the titular representative of the Canal Commission in all matters in which the commission and the Republic of Panama had a mutual interest. However, in practice, the Panaman Government looked directly to the chairman and chief engineer on all important matters. One of the earliest and most important subjects requiring their cooperation was that of sanitation in the cities of Panama and Colon. The United States agreed to advance money for building sewer and water systems, and for street improvements, in the two principal cities of the Republic, on condition that the Republic of Panama and the two cities would reimburse the United States Treasury through the water rents. The street improvements were to be paid for in 10 years, and the sewer and water systems in 50 years; in the meantime the United States was to be allowed 2 per cent interest on the money advanced. This amortization of the Republic's debt for these improvements has been going steadily forward. In laying out the government of the Canal Zone it was thought wise to adhere as closely to Spanish laws and customs as was expedient under the new conditions. In view of this consideration the methods of taxation on the Canal Zone were allowed to remain largely the same as under the old Spanish laws of Colombia. Likewise the Spanish system of judicial procedure was adhered to during the early years of the construction period. It was not, indeed, until 1908 that the right of trial by jury was established in the Canal Zone. At that time former Senator J. C. S. Blackburn, of Kentucky, was at the head of the department of civil administration, and he regarded it as repugnant to American ideas of justice to deny to Americans on the Isthmus the right to be tried for felonious offenses by juries of their peers. Upon his representations President Roosevelt issued an executive order extending the right of trial by jury to the Canal Zone, and that order was effective after 1908.