Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1900-12-12
BANANA PLANTERS COMPLAIN
Fruit Rotting Along the Monkey
River, Honduras, and No Steam
ships to Garry 1t.

The Clarion, a newspaper published
at Belize, British Honduras. gives
voice to the troubles of the banana
planters on the Monkey river, south
Of that port. They depend wholly
Upon the banana crop for a. livelihood.
The Mobile Steamship company has
for six years been running a fort
nightly service to the river which has
been it's chief source of banana sup
ply, but to-day it's vessels are steam
ing past the port and buying their
cargoes in the harbors of Guatemala
and Honduras, leaving the Monkey
river planters in the lurch, says the
New York Sun.
SO the planters are writing letters
telling of their grievances. They say
the steamship company has hereto
fore paid fair price and everything
has been satisfactory. In September,
however. the company confronted the
planters with a contract and told
them they must sign it or the service
would be discontinued. The planters
say the proposed contract so changes
the classification of fruit that they
would be robbed of third of their
income if they assented to it. They
told the company they would not
sign, and now they sit on the wharf,
where the fruit is rotting, and see the
steamers pass by in the offing on the
way to the republics south of them to
load up with bananas for the Ameri-
can market.
The planters are tasting the bitter
ness of having commodities to sell
without any means of transporting
them to market. They say they will
not sign the contract, for it means
ruin, and they will not assent to in
justice. So they appeal to the colonial
government to redress their wrong.
Why, they ask, did not the govern
ment compel the company to ship the
fruit of the colony when a contract
was given it to carry the mails? What
will the government do to secure
transportation now that the planters
are helpless and living in enforced
idleness while their crops are spoil
ing on their hands? These planters
have from 5000 to 1000 punches Of
bananas to ship every week, and there
is work for any steamship company
that wants the job.
British Honduras is the least impor.
tant colony in the British empire.
The interior has been little developed
and everything has gone in a happy
go-lucky way, just as Belize was
named. The English who settled there
cd oil
.iards had difficulty in pronouncing the
name and they corrupted it to Belize,
and later it came to be called Belize.
The Englishmen in that warm coun-
try were too lethargic to oppose this
corruption of the name. and so they
1azily acquiesced in the Spanish YER
sion of it.
Few regions abound more in natural
resources. j. Bellamy wrote II years
ago: GA remarkable popularity of
the climate and soil is that almost
all the tropical products of CONNER
cia1 value may be grown in the same
zone. [ have frequently seen maize,
rice, bananas, pineapples, oranges, cof-
fee, cacao, cotton, eassava, rubber and
cocoanuts all fourishing on the same
piece of ground. There is an album
dance of fiber-producing plants and
large extent of land suitable for cattle
and mule breeding.'
The crying need just now is trans
portation for fruit. and it is to be
hoped that some day the development
of this neglected corner of the world
may be commensurate with it's large
resources.