128 . BRITISH HONDURAS. 



especially in the interest of the fruit trade. At present the 

 shipping facilities are ample for the requirements of the colony ; 

 and the demand for fruit is greater than the supply. 



Telegraphic communication, by means of La Compagnie du 

 Telegraphe Sous Marine de L'Ame'rique Centrale, is in course of 

 being effected, which will land cables and construct telegraphs 

 in or through the colony, connecting it with the island of Cuba. 

 The colony has guaranteed a payment of 1,000 annually for 

 twenty years, as the proceeds of telegraphic despatches sent 

 from and received in the colony, so long as the cable is in 

 working order. 



Until the direct cable is established, telegrams to Belize, and 

 British Honduras generally, should be sent to New Orleans, to be 

 forwarded by the next contract mail steamer to Belize. 



The water-ways of British Honduras, though so extensive and 

 so largely utilised, require to be largely supplemented before the 

 rich virgin lands on the upper portions of the Sibun and Belize 

 Eivers can be adequately worked. -Not only this, but the 

 natural supplies of valuable woods which first attracted notice, 

 are becoming partially exhausted in the immediate neighbour- 

 hood of the rivers, and they can only be brought down to the 

 coast by means of railways. Hence the question of a railway, 

 which in the first instance is intended to run through the valley 

 of the Old or Belize Eiver, is being warmly taken up in the 

 colony, and its construction is expected to give a great incentive 

 to agriculture, as well as open up new fields for the older 

 staples. From a recent notice in The Colonies and India I find 

 that 



" The general idea is to construct a railway from Belize westward to 

 the Guatemala frontier, and thence through Peten, Coban, &c., to the 

 capital, Guatemala City, where, besides the area within the colony, it will 

 open up immense commercial, agricultural, and mineral fields. 



