ABSTRACT
The dawn of the twentieth century flooded the white verandas of the Belize waterfront with a rosy glow of confidence in the achievements of the past and hope for still better things in store. The cedar of British Honduras is of a particularly fine quality, and was soon discovered to be so by the many cigar-making firms in Havana and the southern States. Enterprising Americans saved a great deal of time and money by installing steam-sawmills in the Colony, buying the untrimmed cedar logs from the cutters, and themselves preparing them for transport. During the years before the War, the export of cedar mounted from 350 thousand feet to two and three-quarter million feet, chiefly for the American market. On the political side, a great improvement in the administration of the capital, and one which suited well the traditionally democratic leanings of the Colony, was the inauguration in 1912 of the Belize Town Board—the equivalent of a Borough Council.
