A Railway and Hinterland Development. 167 



the existing- railways in the South-East of the Continent and the route 

 of a main Continental line connecting these lines with the North Atlantic 

 at Georgetown, the other a map of British Guiana with the proposed 

 interior railway marked thereon and the route followed by the Governor's 

 party. His Excellency's remarks while showing the maps and views 

 were extempore and were not reported. 



Ax Addendum. 



Sir Walter Egerton in revising his address for publication in 

 " Timehri " has been pleased to add the following footnote : — 



" There is, in my opinion, no doubt that the people of the Colony are 

 very strongly in favour of the construction of a railway, and the scheme I 

 have laid before the Seci-etary of State, which is outlined, in some of its 

 aspects, in this paper has met with consistent and warm support in the 

 local Press. Only on the part of some of the leading men connected 

 with the sugar industry has there appeared an inclination to hold that a 

 very large additional amount must be spent on immigration of labour for 

 the Coast districts simultaneously with initiation of railway construction. 

 It will be a pity if an exaggerated anticipation of the effect of railway 

 construction on the labour for the sugar industry should lead to opposi- 

 tion to a scheme which must ultimately benefit every section of the 

 community, which is not likely to cause more movement of labour than 

 the gold rushes of the past, and which should attract to the Colony 

 tourists, many free immigrants, and far more labour than is likely to be 

 drawn from the Coast estates by the work if the railway construction 

 engineer refuses to pay a daily wage much in excess of the ruling rate in 

 the Colony. The hinterland of British Guiana is a fair and fertile coun- 

 try, of vast extent, capable of growing all tropical products, and if the 

 rules of tropical sanitarians are observed, and subject to the universal 

 limitation regarding the residence of white races within a short distance 

 of the equator except at high elevations, a healthy and pleasant 

 country to live in." 



