In the interest of small property owners, advantage has been taken of provisions of the Public Land Act which make it possible to compel the survey of private lands under certain conditions in cases of doubt as to ownership. As soon as the people concerned could be made to understand our object in doing this they became enthusiastic about it, but the legal procedure authorized was by no means adequate or satisfactory, and there was great need of the passage of a carefully drafted Cadastral Survey Act providing the necessary legal machinery for accomplishing the desired end with the least possible delay and at the lowest possible expense, and providing further for the distribution of such expense between the insular, provincial and municipal governments and the property owners. All are interested parties, the insular government because it learns what land in a given region belongs to the public domain; the provincial and municipal governments because the collection of taxes is facilitated, and accurate maps of towns and barrios are made. Such an act was passed by the commission. It was clearly and indisputably designed expressly for the benefit of poor Filipinos. No legitimate objection could be made to it. The treatment accorded it by the Philippine Assembly conclusively demonstrates the irresponsibility of that body, and its unfitness to deal with great questions which vitally affect the common people. Realizing that the commission, and especially the governor-general, were earnestly desirous of securing its passage, the assembly refused to pass it. It was duly reintroduced at the next session of the legislature. I was a member of the commission conference committee appointed to meet a similar committee from the assembly and discuss it. The assembly committee informed us at the outset that a sine qua non for the discussion of the bill was that we should agree to an amendment which would admit, without examination, to the work of making public land surveys Filipino so-called surveyors, known to be utterly incompetent, who could not make correct surveys under the most favourable circumstances. But this was not all. It was generally understood that an additional requirement was to be an amendment to the Judiciary Act providing for a number of new judges. The commission committee believed that they were unnecessary, and were asked for with a view to making places for political appointees. Needless to say, the Cadastral Survey Act failed in conference. In the session of 1912-1913 it finally passed, with practically all of these objectionable features eliminated, but it is at present much less useful than it might be for the reason that an act amending the Judiciary Act so as to provide more judges in the Court of Land Registration, where they are badly needed, instead of for courts of first instance, where no such necessity exists, was killed in the assembly.