Interior Communications for British Guiana. 15 



naturally sought to encourage settlement on the lands they controlled, 

 they nevertheless adopted the broadest of policies in the encouragement 

 of settlement on Government lands as well as their own. In some in- 

 stances the granting of free transportation to bona fide settlers and all 

 their belongings was adopted. 



The problems of the development of the enormous expanses of 

 Western North America are hardly comparable with those of the relatively 

 small area of British Guiana, and it would perhaps profit us better to 

 study the method of dealing with land settlement of a couple of hundred 

 miles or so on either side of the transcontinental lines. 



The settler who goes out into virgin territory to build his homestead 

 and invest therein his hard earned savings, in many instances the result 

 of years of toil in the " old country," will naturally choose, all other 

 things being equal, a locality in which the elements of doubt as to the 

 future are reduced to a minimum. 



The importance of this factor was quickly recognised in North 

 America and almost from the very beginning the locations, first of staked 

 lines, then of paths or trails, then of roads, and finally of branch rail- 

 roads were definitely fixed from the start. Although the uncertainty as 

 to what the future held in store for the railroad companies as to the 

 extent to which the territory they served would be settled, prevented such 

 companies from guaranteeing to build branch lines to the " back lands," 

 they were nevertheless able to say, and did say, " we cannot tell you when 

 it will pay us to build, but when we do build branch lines in this or that 

 section of the country, those branch lines will follow this or that align- 

 ment and you can build your homestead safe in the knowledge that a 

 branch line will not be constructed by us that will appreciate land value 

 elsewhere, by depreciating the value of land that has been made valuable 

 as a result of your pioneering, toil and industry." 



As mentioned in my report to the Government in October, 1916, 

 when new reads are projected for the purpose of opening up virgin 

 territory, the question invariably arises whether the location shall 

 be governed solely by highway considerations, or partly with a view 

 to a railway being subsequently built either upon or parallel with 

 the line of highway. In projecting new roads into virgin territory it is 

 usually desirable tbat the alignihent and grades be suitable for a railway. 

 Manifestly the expense of road building in this circumstance may be in- 

 creased, and the extent to which the roadway and railway alignments are 

 to coincide is a matter for the judgment of the engineer, due considera- 

 tion being given to the nature of the terrain, probable rate of settlement 

 and financial conditions. 



A factor which has to some extent aflected the actual working out 

 of previously conceived plans along the lines above mentioned has been 

 the great resuscitation of road transport within the last few years, due to 

 the development of mechanical road haulage. 



