All land not in a town is subject to a tax of f cent 
per acre. Most cultivated land is liable to a further 
tax of IJ cents, and inland served by a railway a 
further tax not exceeding 8 cents per acre, may, 
with the consent of the Legislative Council, be 
levied. 
There is an export duty on mahogany; and also 
one on chicle. 
The Customs dues are light, the ad valorem duties 
being io per cent. Those duties may shortly be 
be raised to 11 per cent., in order to provide inte¬ 
rest and sinking fund for a loan to be expended on 
public improvements. For Customs purposes the 
value of goods is taken as the value at the port of 
export. In most places the valuation includes the 
cost of freight to the colony. Practically, there¬ 
fore, a duty of n per cent, in British Honduras is 
the equivalent of io per cent, elsewhere. The first 
work to be undertaken will be the dredging of the 
channel through the bar of the river at Belize. 
Money has been voted for the purchase of a suction 
dredger for this purpose. The facilities for dis¬ 
charging cargo which this dredging will afford will, 
I believe, reduce the expense of landing goods by 
a greater amount than that of the increased duty. 
With the spoil from the channel low land in 
Belize will be brought to a proper level, and some 
important building sites will be obtained for busi¬ 
ness and other purposes. The sale of some of these 
sites will help to pay the costs of the improvements. 
In towns a tax not exceeding 6 per cent, of the 
annual value of property may be levied for local 
purposes. This tax is at present 4 per cent, in 
Belize, and 3 per cent, in other towns. In Belize 
there is a further tax of 1 per cent, for the support 
of the Fire Brigade. 
Small royalties are charged on produce extracted 
from Crown land. 
