[Wages.] The daily wages of the common laborer are 1 real, without food; and his hours of work are from 6 to 12, and from 2 to 6 o’clock.  The women, as a rule, perform no field labor, but plant out the rice and assist in the reaping; their wages on both occasions being equal to those of the men.  Wood and stone-cutters receive 1.5 r. per day, and calkers 1.75 r.

[Land leases.] The Tercio is a pretty general contract in the cultivation of the land.  The owner simply lets arable land for the third part of the crop.  Some mestizos possess several pieces of ground; but they are seldom connected together, as they generally acquire them as mortgages for sums bearing but a small proportion to their real value.

[Family income.] Under the head of earnings I give the income of a small family.  The man earns daily one real, and the woman, if she weaves coarse stuff, one-fourth real, and her food (thus a piece of guinara, occupying the labor of two days, costs half a real in weavers’ wages).  The most skilful female weaver of the finer stuffs obtains twelve reals per piece; but it takes a month to weave; and the month, on account of the numerous holy-days, must be calculated at the most as equal to twenty-four working days; she consequently earns one-fourth real per day and her food.  For the knitting of the fibers of the ananas for the pina web (called sugot) she gets only an eighth of a real and her food.

[Schools.] In all the pueblos there are schools.  The schoolmaster is paid by the Government, and generally obtains two dollars per month, without board or lodging.  In large pueblos the salary amounts to three dollars and a half; out of which an assistant must be paid.  The schools are under the supervision of the ecclesiastics of the place.  Reading and writing are taught, the writing copies being Spanish.  The teacher, who has to teach his scholars Spanish exactly, does not understand it himself, while the Spanish officers, on the other hand, do not understand the language of the country; and the priests have no inclination to alter this state of things, which is very useful to them as a means of influence.  Almost the only Filipinos who speak Spanish are those who have been in the service of Europeans.  A kind of religious horn-book is the first that is read in the language of the country (Bicol); and after that comes the Christian Doctrine, the reading-book called Casayayan.  On an average, half of all the children go to school, generally from the seventh to the tenth year.  They learn to read a little; a few even write a little:  but they soon forget it again.  Only those who are afterwards employed as clerks write fluently; and of these most write well.

Some priests do not permit boys and girls to attend the same school; and in this case they pay a second teacher, a female, a dollar a month.  The Filipinos learn arithmetic very quickly, generally aiding themselves by the use of mussels or stones, which they pile in little heaps before them and then count through.