Interior Communications for British Guiana. 17 



In considering the problem we must remember that we are very apt 

 to be influenced by development elsewhere, the conditions of which are 

 not the same as those to be met in British Guiana. 



Because the problems of development and settlement of the vast 

 areas of Canada, the United States, and to a large extent Mexico, and to 

 some extent also Brazil and the Argentine, appeared to lie in the direction 

 of railway construction, it does not follow that railway construction would 

 best meet the initial needs of the case here. Because of the extremely 

 small areas of some of the West Indian Colonies some of us may have 

 formed the habit of regarding British Guiana as very large. Yet it is 

 really quite small when looked at from the angle of development in com- 

 parison with other parts of the world. It should not be forgotten that 

 practically all development during the last half century in other parts of 

 the world, whether on a small scale or on a large scale, has been during 

 the railway era. 



During that time the railwa3's have held the field with only negli- 

 gible competition from the roads, due to the simple fact that mechanical 

 rail haulage reached the commercial stage long before mechanical road 

 haulage. What may be termed the developed areas of the world are all 

 equipped with railways. The rroney is spent, the railways are there. 

 But considering the flexibility and low first cost of a road system as com- 

 pared with railways and the new phase of the situation created by the 

 sudden coming to the forefront of mechanical road haulage on a com- 

 mercial basis, we may well consider whether or no our requirements as 

 well as our purse would best be met by the new development. 



I feel safe in asserting that hundreds of miles of railways now exist- 

 ing would never have been built if mechanical road traction had been 

 perfected say thirty or forty years ago. The point is well illustrated in 

 the case of Porto Rico, where the United States Government Engineers 

 planned an elaborate scheme of primary and secondary railways. The 

 advent of commercial road transport considerably affected the scheme, 

 which was very materially reduced on account of the new development, in 

 favour of a comprehensive scheme of first class roads. 



For the colony to embark upon an elaborate and heavy railway 

 scheme at this time would be, in my opinion, as unwise as would have 

 been a heavy investment in stage coaches at the time of the railway boom 

 in England, or the building of large fleets of sailing ships after the 

 development of steam navigation had become assured. 



The transport needs of the relatively small area of British Guiana 

 could be well within the scope of the motor truck, the ordinary motor 

 car, and the light electric railway built to road grades, for it is not as 

 though the area to be developed can ever be enlarged. The Western 

 frontiers in North America were gradually pushed Westward until the 

 Pacific was reached, and the most unpretentious of railway schemes, those 

 of perhaps but a few hundred miles, were always embarked upon with a 



