172 Timehri. 



" It is very much to be regretted that several years ago when Sir 

 William Thistleton-Dyer suggested that attempts should be made in 

 planting - rubber-trees in parts of the forest lands of British Guiana, the 

 great value of his advice was not appreciated and the opportunity was 

 neglected. All that can now be said is that many parts of the colony 

 appear to be almost ideally suited for the cultivation of certain kinds of 

 rubber trees. 



" upon them (the very extensive savannahs of the interior) 



great developments may take place in cattle-ranching.'" 



Meantime, the opinion expressed in 1897 that there was "no 

 indication of exceptional fertility in soils other than those of our alluvial 

 coastlands " had gained wide publicity, and a more sweeping application 

 than it really connoted. Agricultural papers published in tropical lands 

 competing for capital in rubber growing made effective use of it to divert 

 enterprise in their own direction and gave to the rather incautiously 

 expressed dictum undeserved weight. 



In the colony itself there were many who estimated the opinion at 

 nearer its true value. The theory was traversed by the evidence of a. 

 few who, like Mr Melville, had practical experience, or like Mr. McTurk, 

 extended and intimate acquaintance with the conditions in the interior. 



Professor Harrison's conclusions had therefore comparatively little 

 weight locally and did not much discourage those interested in the 

 colony's development, and a resuscitation of the Interior Railway project 

 took place in 1902. In that yenr Mr. Luke M. Hill as President of the 

 Royal Agricultural and Commercial Society read a paper on " The 

 Possibilities of Railway Development in British Guiana. " 



The resources to be developed now included, besides the more profit- 

 able exploitation of the established gold and diamond fields, the opening up 

 of un exploited mineral areas, access to the forests in which balata and other 

 gums were already yielding profits, in spite of the enormous difficulties 

 of the journey to and fro, and huge quantities of valuable timbers were 

 known to exist, beyond the falls and obstructions to the waterways which 

 effectually blocked their profitable working. The pastoral possibilities 

 of the savannahs and the agricultural value of great areas at varied 

 elevation suited to a variety of economic products such as tea, tobacco, 

 fibres, native cottons, coffee, cocoa, and tropical fruits came into the 

 pur view. 



The development of trade with the Rio Negro and upper Amazon 

 district, almost inaccessible by way of the Brazilian trade routes, and the 

 expansion of the rubber industry in that region where enormous 

 expansion is almost certainly possible and would follow on cheap and 

 rapiJ transit, became a prominent factor in the discussions, while the 

 visions of a great trunk system for South America, with termini at 

 Georgetown in the North and Buenos Ayres in the South, began to take 

 shape. The point sought for the first stage in this colossal project was 



