Sec. 8. That at the same time with the first meeting of the Philippine Legislature, and biennially thereafter, there shall be chosen by said Legislature, each House voting separately, two resident Commissioners to the United States, who shall be entitled to an official recognition as such by all departments upon presentation to the President of a certificate of election by the Civil Governor of said Islands, and each of whom shall be entitled to a salary payable monthly by the United States at the rate of five thousand dollars per annum, and two thousand dollars additional to cover all expenses: Provided, That no person shall be eligible to such election who is not a qualified elector of said Islands, owing allegiance to the United States, and who is not thirty years of age.

Sec. 9. That the Supreme Court and the Courts of First Instance of the Philippine Islands shall possess and exercise jurisdiction as heretofore provided and such additional jurisdiction as shall hereafter be prescribed by the Government of said Islands, subject to the power of said Government to change the practice and method of procedure. The municipal courts of said Islands shall possess and exercise jurisdiction as heretofore provided by the Philippine Commission, subject in all matters to such alteration and amendment as may be hereafter enacted by law; and the Chief Justice and Associate Justices of the Supreme Court shall hereafter be appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, and shall receive the compensation heretofore prescribed by the Commission until otherwise provided by Congress. The judges of the Court of First Instance shall be appointed by the Civil Government, by and with the advice and consent of the Philippine Commission: Provided, That the admiralty jurisdiction of the Supreme Court and Courts of First Instance shall not be changed except by Act of Congress.

Sec. 10. That the Supreme Court of the United States shall have jurisdiction to review, revise, reverse, modify, or affirm the final judgments and decrees of the Supreme Court of the Philippine Islands in all actions, cases, causes, and proceedings now pending therein or hereafter determined thereby in which the Constitution or any statute, treaty, title, right, or privilege of the United States is involved, or in causes in which the value in controversy exceeds twenty-five thousand dollars, or in which the title or possession of real estate exceeding in value the sum of twenty-five thousand dollars, to be ascertained by the oath of either party or of other competent witnesses, is involved or brought in question; and such final judgments or decrees may and can be reviewed, revised, reversed, modified, or affirmed by said Supreme Court of the United States on appeal or writ of error by the party aggrieved, in the same manner, under the same regulations, and by the same procedure, as far as applicable, as the final judgments and decrees of the Circuit Courts of the United States.

Sec. 11. That the Government of the Philippine Islands is hereby authorized to provide for the needs of commerce by improving the harbors and navigable waters of said Islands and to construct and maintain in said navigable waters and upon the shore adjacent thereto bonded warehouses, wharves, piers, light-houses, signal and life-saving stations, buoys, and like instruments of commerce, and to adopt and enforce regulations in regard thereto, including bonded warehouses wherein articles not intended to be imported into said Islands nor mingled with the property therein, but brought into a port of said Islands for reshipment to another country may be deposited in bond and reshipped to another country without the payment of customs duties or charges.

Sec. 12. That all the property and rights which may have been acquired in the Philippine Islands by the United States under the treaty of peace with Spain, signed December tenth, eighteen hundred and ninety-eight, except such land or other property as shall be designated by the President of the United States for military and other reservations of the Government of the United States, are hereby placed under the control of the Government of said Islands, to be administered for the benefit of the inhabitants thereof, except as provided in this Act.

Sec. 13. That the Government of the Philippine Islands, subject to the provisions of this Act and except as herein provided, shall classify according to its agricultural character and productiveness, and shall immediately make rules and regulations for the lease, sale, or other disposition of the public lands other than timber or mineral lands, but such rules and regulations shall not go into effect or have the force of law until they have received the approval of the President, and when approved by the President they shall be submitted by him to Congress at the beginning of the next ensuing session thereof and unless disapproved or amended by Congress at said session they shall at the close of such period have the force and effect of law in the Philippine Islands: Provided, That a single homestead entry shall not exceed sixteen hectares in extent.

Sec. 14. That the Government of the Philippine Islands is hereby authorized and empowered to enact rules and regulations and to prescribe terms and conditions to enable persons to perfect their title to public lands in said Islands, who, prior to the transfer of sovereignty from Spain to the United States, had fulfilled all or some of the conditions required by the Spanish laws and royal decrees of the Kingdom of Spain for the acquisition of legal title thereto, yet failed to secure conveyance of title; and the Philippine Commission is authorized to issue patents, without compensation, to any native of said Islands, conveying title to any tract of land not more than sixteen hectares in extent, which were public lands and had been actually occupied by such native or his ancestors prior to and on the thirteenth of August, eighteen hundred and ninety-eight.

Sec. 15. That the Government of the Philippine Islands is hereby authorized and empowered, on such terms as it may prescribe, by general legislation, to provide for the granting or sale and conveyance to actual occupants and settlers and other citizens of said Islands such parts and portions of the public domain, other than timber and mineral lands, of the United States in said Islands as it may deem wise, not exceeding sixteen hectares to any one person and for the sale and conveyance of not more than one thousand and twenty-four hectares to any corporation or association of persons: Provided, That the grant or sale of such lands, whether the purchase price be paid at once or in partial payments, shall be conditioned upon actual and continued occupancy, improvement, and cultivation of the premises sold for a period of not less than five years, during which time the purchaser or grantee can not alienate or encumber said land or the title thereto; but such restriction shall not apply to transfers of rights and title of inheritance under the laws for the distribution of the estates of decedents.

Sec. 16. That in granting or selling any part of the public domain under the provisions of the last preceding section, preference in all cases shall be given to actual occupants and settlers; and such public lands of the United States in the actual possession or occupancy of any native of the Philippine Islands shall not be sold by said Government to any other person without the consent thereto of said prior occupant or settler first had and obtained: Provided, That the prior right hereby secured to an occupant of land, who can show no other proof of title than possession, shall not apply to more than sixteen hectares in any one tract.

Sec. 17. That timber, trees, forests, and forest products on lands leased or demised by the Government of the Philippine Islands under the provisions of this Act shall not be cut, destroyed, removed, or appropriated except by special permission of said Government and under such regulations as it may prescribe.

All moneys obtained from lease or sale of any portion of the public domain or from licenses to cut timber by the Government of the Philippine Islands shall be covered into the Insular Treasury and be subject only to appropriation for insular purposes according to law.

Sec. 18. That the forest laws and regulations now in force in the Philippine Islands, with such modifications and amendments as may be made by the Government of said Islands, are hereby continued in force, and no timber lands forming part of the public domain shall be sold, leased, or entered until the Government of said Islands, upon the certification of the Forestry Bureau that said lands are more valuable for agriculture than for forest uses, shall declare such lands so certified to be agricultural in character: Provided, That the said Government shall have the right and is hereby empowered to issue licenses to cut, harvest, or collect timber or other forest products on reserved or unreserved public lands in said Islands in accordance with the forest laws and regulations hereinbefore mentioned and under the provisions of this Act, and the said Government may lease land to any person or persons holding such licenses, sufficient for a mill site, not to exceed four hectares in extent, and may grant rights of way to enable such person or persons to get access to the lands to which such licenses apply.

Sec. 19. That the beneficial use shall be the basis, the measure, and the limit of all rights to water in said Islands, and the Government of said Islands is hereby authorized to make such rules and regulations for the use of water, and to make such reservations of public lands for the protection of the water supply, and for other public purposes not in conflict with the provisions of this Act, as it may deem best for the public good.