A Railway and Hinterland Development. 161 



Amazon valley Para rubber is even more important than sugar is to us 

 — -these States are temporarily unable to finance large developmental 

 undertakings, although the Government of Amazonas would surely 

 welcome means of communication from Manaos to the North Atlantic at 

 Georgetown. The Federal Government of Brazil has probably already 

 in contemplation as the ultimate objective of the line, which has already 

 reached far into Mat to Grosso, giving communication by rail from the 

 capital to the Amazon valley and Manaos, a line which would help to 

 bind more firmly together the great confederation of States which form 

 the Brazilian Empire. Surely if the first section, Georgetown to the 

 savannah country on the Brazilian frontier, is constructed, the con- 

 tinuation to Manaos, either by the Brazilian Government or private 

 enterprise, is not likely to be long delayed and if the line once reaches 

 Manaos the missing link, necessary to connect the Northern 800 with the 

 Southern 38,000 miles of railway already in existence, together bridging 

 more than two-thirds of the total distance, cannot long be delayed. 



We have already in Georgetown an excellent harbour ; the approach 

 from the sea is safe but shallow. It is, however, even now the best on 

 the mainland between Trinidad and the Amazon, and is one which is 

 capable of being deepened so as to make Georgetown a first-class port with 

 depths sufficient for the largest ships in the South America trade, free 

 from earthquakes and where hurricanes are unknown. 



Georgetown the Starting Point. 



Nature has also pointed out that the easiest way of communication to 

 the South is from Georgetown via the Rupununi valley. The watershed 

 between the Atlantic and the Amazon there only rises to a height of 300 

 ft., while East and West mountain ranges bar the way to the North. 

 So much for the arguments in favour of a Continental main line the 

 construction of which must be left to others and may be a work of 

 somewhat distant date. 



Let us now consider the projected Colonial line and the arguments 

 in favour of its construction. I firmly hold the opinion that such 

 a line should commence from Georgetown, the commercial centre of 

 the Colony. There are several ways out of Georgetown and the 

 route adopted would probably be that on which proprietors of land 

 in private ownership did not open their mouths too wide in the 

 matter of price demanded, and were content to take a fair valuation and 

 share in the enormous increase in values consequent on the Colony's 

 expansion. I have heard it stated that the cost of acquisition of land 

 would be considerable. I do not think so, because the present market 

 price that anyone anxious to sell is able to obtain is very small ; we 

 have recently seen this in the sale of the Colonial Company's estates 

 — and the land to be passed through by a railway is nearly all out of 

 cultivation. There are two distinct routes to the Interior on the East 

 Bank of the Demerara River, and there are also two routes on the West. 

 I should prefer a route to the East, bringing the railway right into the 



