Tax paid by sellers in the public market-place 7,050 00 Tax on slaughter of animals for food 12,098 00 Tax on local sales of hemp 40 00 90% of the Municipal fines and tax on Chinese 554 00 10% on tithes paid and house-property tax 380 00 10% on Industrial licences 5,710 00 10% on Alcohol licences 2,525 00 28,357 00 ======== == P122,052 00 In the same year this province contributed to the common funds of the Treasury a further sum of P133,009. There was in each town another local tax called _Caja de Comunidad,_ contributed to by the townspeople to provide against any urgent necessity of the community, but it found its way to Manila and was misappropriated, like the _Fondos locales_. There was not a peso at the disposal of the Provincial Governor for local improvements. If a bridge broke down so it remained for years, whilst thousands of travellers had to wade through the river unless a raft were put there at the expense of the very poorest people by order of the petty-governor of the nearest village. The "Tribunal," which served the double purpose of Town Hall and Dak Bungalow for wayfarers, was often a hut of bamboo and palm-leaves, whilst others, which had been decent buildings generations gone by, lapsed into a wretched state of dilapidation. In some villages there was no Tribunal at all, and the official business had to be transacted in the municipal Governor's house. I first visited Calamba (La Laguna) in 1880, and for 14 years, to my knowledge, the headmen had to meet in a sugar-store in lieu of a Tribunal. In San Jose de Buenavista, the capital town of Antique Province, the Town Hall was commenced in good style and left half finished during 15 years. Either some one for pity's sake, or the headmen for their own convenience, went to the expense of thatching over half the unfinished structure, which was therefore saved from entire ruin, whilst all but the stone walls of the other half rotted away. So it continued until 1887, when the Government authorized a partial restoration of this building.