By authority of the United States, be it enacted by the Philippine Legislature, that:

SECTION 1. Hereafter no person shall be appointed notary public who has not the following qualifications:

First. Is over twenty-one years of age;

Second. Has not been convicted of a crime implying moral turpitude; and

Third. Is a practicing lawyer, or who has passed the examination for the bar or the justice of the peace examination, or who has completed and passed in the studies of law in a reputable university or school of law: Provided, That in municipalities or townships wherein no persons reside having the qualifications hereinbefore specified, judges of First Instance may appoint other persons to temporarily exercise the office of notary public who possess the desirable qualifications as regards ability and morality.

SEC. 2. All notaries public at present commissioned who have not the qualifications above mentioned, shall ipso facto cease to hold office and shall proceed with respect of their notarial books or records, documents and instruments in their possession by reason of their office, in the same manner as if their commission had expired.

SEC. 3. Section eighty-seven of Act Numbered One hundred and thirty-six, as amended by Act Numbered Two thousand and thirty-five, is hereby amended so that said paragraph shall read as follows:

"The notary public shall enter in such register, in chronological order, the nature of each instrument executed, sworn to, or acknowledged before him, the person executing, swearing to, or acknowledging the instrument, the witnesses, if any, to the signature, the date of the execution, oath, or acknowledgment of the instrument, the fees collected by him for his services as notary in connection therewith, and, when the instrument is a contract, he shall keep a correct copy thereof as part of his records, and shall likewise enter in said records a brief description of the substance thereof, and shall give to each entry a consecutive number, beginning with number one in each calendar year. The notary shall give to each instrument executed, sworn to, or acknowledged before him a number corresponding to the one in his register, and shall also state on the instrument the page or pages of his register on which the same is recorded. No blank line shall be left between entries. At the end of each week the notary public shall certify in his register the number of instruments executed, sworn to, or acknowledged before him, and if none have been executed, sworn to, or acknowledged that fact shall appear in the certificate. Such register shall be kept in books to be furnished by the Attorney-General to any notary public upon request and upon payment of the actual cost thereof. The register shall be duly paged, and on the first page the Attorney-General shall certify the number of pages of which the book consists.

SEC. 4. All and each of the Acts in any manner inconsistent with the provisions of this Act are hereby repealed.

SEC. 5. This Act shall take effect on July first, nineteen hundred and fourteen.

Enacted, February 28, 1914.