140 Timehri. 



say that he expected to see it all, but he expected to see gome of these 

 improvements. He remembered in that very room listening to an address 

 by Sir Cavendish Boyle, when he told them that he could stay there and 

 look with his prophetic eye, away over to the large savannahs between 

 here and Brazil and see them covered with happy homesteads, and large 

 factories in which the animals reared on those savannahs were reduced to 

 Bovril or tinned meat. They were still hoping to see that. He believed 

 that a good many more people had gone into the interior since then. 



He hoped the time was not far distant when they would have 

 Georgetown within a few days reach of Buenos Ayres and perhaps go 

 there to see the Races. But outside of the sporting inducements in 

 Brazil there were good inducements there in other ways. They had been 

 hearing for a very long time of a railway to Brazil, but up to now they 

 had not got it. At the present time there was a gentleman in the colony 

 who represented a very good engineering firm and a financial firm too in 

 the Homeland, and he was here with a view of placing before the 

 Government a scheme, or schemes, for the construction of railways in the 

 interior ; it would be for the Government to say whether they would 

 entertain those proposals and whether they were worthy of credence, or 

 worth being looked into, and if so then they could place them before the 

 Court. Nobody was coming to British Guiana for their health or for 

 philanthropic purposes and they expected to get something for their 

 work. So far as he understood the firm in question desired to 

 give us good value for what we allowed them. In case of a 

 question of guarantee by the Government, he believed the guarantee 

 they asked would be a fair one. To-day they would not expect to raise 

 loans at 3%°/ per cent, with consols at their present price; consequently 

 they wouldhave to pay more than would have been paid a year or two 

 ago. A railway to the hinterland without going to Brazil, would take a 

 very long time before it could be productive. But in the event of a 

 railway being run to Brazil arrangements could be made with the Federal 

 Government not to put prohibitive duties on articles passing over the 

 border. If they were going to get articles from Brazil for exportation 

 then they would have to make necessary harbour improvements. 



Harbour improvements and railway construction must go along 

 side by side. They would require a large amount of money which 

 could not be taken from the Colony chest, but must be raised 

 by loan. The Panama Canal was now about to be opened and 

 great preparations were being made by all the colonies. He did not 

 know whether it would prove all that was expected of it, but they at 

 least ought to benefit by it, and it behoved them to be up and doing, and 

 not to sit with their hands in their laps. France had arranged to have 

 harbour improvements in Martinique, and the Danes were at work 

 improving the harbour at St. Thomas. They ought not to lag. They 

 must hold their own. They had sat too long with their hands folded. 

 Then if they were going to build a railway they must increase their 

 labour supply and not take the labourers from the estates. There was a 



