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A RAILWAY AND HINTERLAND DEVELOPMENT.* 



By Sir Walter Egerton, K.C.M.G. 



I have promised to address you to-night on the subject of the 

 development of the Interior of this Colony of British Guiana, great in 

 area and great in magnificent possibilities. Though this is a subject 

 ■ inseparably bound up with the prosperity of the country and is one, I am 

 sure, of deep interest to all residents, I fear that it has been so fully 

 discussed, both in public and private, for many years past and especially 

 during the recent few months, that it is difficult to say anything new or 

 to avoid boring many of those present. 



" For the last thirty years spasmodic attempts have been made to 



interest outsiders in the construction of a railway from Georgetown to 



Brazil."' So writes a Mr Headley, a native of British Guiana, in a letter 



published in " The Daily Argosy " of Saturday, the 21st March, and 



probably the idea of such a railway is much older. More recently the 



late Colonel Link worked energetically to bring to fruition a scheme 



for such a line. With considerable ability and unlimited enthusiasm it is 



1 possible that but for his sudden death he might have succeeded. Many 



of Dur prominent residents have written and spoken in favour of railway 



I construction to the South. Mr. Nunan, our present Attorney General, 



, both in the colony and out of it has advocated interior development by 



a railway and pointed out the possibility of the extension of such a 



railway as a main trunk-line through South America. 



I do not claim to be the originator of any such schemes but I hope 

 I may have done and may yet do something towards their realisation. 

 Many of us believe a North to South transcontinental line is quite 

 possible of accomplishment and its construction does not present nearly 

 the same difficulties as the famous African " Cape to Cairo " scheme, 

 except that we yet lack a Rhodes to push it on to execution. It is said 

 that the opportunity finds the man. I believe the man will be forth- 

 ^j coming if we construct our line to the Brazilian frontier as a " pointer " 

 to the Southern Cross and the great cities of Bio de Janeiro and Buenos 

 Ayres lying under it, which are the proper termini of any such line. 



South American Development. 



Do you realise how rapidly the great Republics of the Atlantic 



' watershed of South America are developing ? The Argentine has already 



' over seven million inhabitants and 20,000 miles of railways ; the capital, 



Buenos Ayres, already takes its place amongst the largest cities in the 



world with a population of 1,300,000 — more than four times the total 



population of the whole of this colony. Uruguay, a comparatively small 



! . — 



# Address delivered at a meeting of the Royal Agricultural and Commercial Society. 

 March 31st, 1914. 



