100 Timehri. 



Essequebo River is without doubt the one to follow and has been adopted 

 by the writer in his amended scheme of 1917. Leaving the Potaro, the 

 line as proposed runs due south to the Kurapakari rapids where it was 

 intended to bridge the Essequebo River, the line then keeping to the 

 west and south, the savannah being reached just beyond Annai. The line 

 then proceeded to the Ireng River where it terminated on some 

 high ground a few miles from the junction with the Takutu River, from 

 which point the river is navigable for a large part of the year to Manaos 

 and the Amazon. 



The total length of Mr. Bland's line from the Ireng River to Wisinar 

 was estimated at 280 miles, and the extension to Georgetown 60 miles. 



The estimated cost to bring the line from the Ireng River to Wisniar 

 was Stg. £980,000 



Additional if extended to Georgetown, 300,000 



Grand Total ... £1,280,000 



The cost as above for the line to Georgetown works out at £3,764 

 per mile, the cost to Wisinar only, being at the rate of £3,500 per mile. 

 When previously dealing with Mr. Bland's scheme, I trust I made it 

 abundantly clear that I fully appreciate he has turned the first sod and 

 has done the " collar " work, and that it is in the nature of the most 

 friendly criticism that I wrote my first report and now write this article. 



The Demerara Railway Company's lines extend from Parika in the 

 west to Rosignol in the east, the gap between them being represented by 

 the Demerara River. 



The taxpayer of the Colony contributes annually a sum of $60,000 

 to the Demerara Railway as a subsidy for the security of the bondhold- 

 ers of the Company. Hopeful, generous hearted and as optimistic as one 

 may be, it would be a brave man who set out to shew the benefits that 

 the ordinary taxpayer, excluding of course the railway officials, derive 

 from the payment of this large annual sum. Such being the undoubted 

 case, when a new railway project is on foot it is only natural to at once 

 look round and see if it is possible to build the new railway and at the 

 same time infuse new life into, and pass fresh traffic over, the slumbering 

 forms of the existing lines. 



The Ireng River and terminus of the proposed Hinterland line, is 

 so far distant from the seaboard that a triangle having the existing line 

 from Georgetown to Rosignol as its base with its apex lying on the Ireng 

 River would present an almost inappreciable angle at the apex, thus 

 shewing that any line to any point on the seaboard between Georgetown 

 and Rosignol would be practically the same length. 



