The Early Years of the Lamaha Canal. 
By Henry Kirke, M.A. 
xq N the 29th Nov. 1892, Viscountess GORMANSTON 
¢ unveiled the monument which had just been 
be ere€ted tothe memory of Mr. WILLIAM RUSSELL 
in the open space to the west of the Public Buildings, 
Before the ceremony, speeches were made by Sir D. 
CHALMERS and Mr. HOWELL JONES, in which, whilst 
acknowledging his great eminence as a planter, special __ 
reference was made to the enormous benefit which Mr. __ 
RUSSELL had conferred upon the Colony by the inception _ 
of the various water schemes which now supply so many _ 
important centres of industry and population with one of 
the chief necessaries of life. Although the East and 
West Coast Water Schemes, as well as that on the = 
Berbice E. Coast will be for ever identified with his name, _ 
it was the Lamaha Canal to which Mr. RUSSELL’S atten- — 
tion was first dire€ted, and to its development he 
devoted time and money which were never repaid, and , 
expended an amount of energy which if it had been less 
recklessly squandered might have preserved his lifetous 
for many years longer. Those of us who are old enough ~ 
to recolleét the Lamaha Canal as it was twenty yearsago 
and who can compare it with the magnificent water — 
scheme which now supplies a fagade of estates thirty — 
miles long with an abundant supply of water, can alone do 
justice to wur great leader. From the time of CHALMERS’S — 
Survey in 1865, various schemes had been propounded, — 
angry feelings were aroused, one cure after another was — 
