180 Timehri 



frontier strips has never been withheld from any of the numerous 



comtemplated international lines The idea of Brazilian opposition 



was another imaginary obstacle to the consideration of this question in 

 the eyes of those unacquainted with the progressive character of our 

 great southern neighbour " 



On July 23rd, 1913, in his presidential address to the R. A. & C. 

 Society the Hon. J. J. Nunan, LL.B., to whom, more than to any other 

 single individual colonist, the colony owes the energizing of a new spirit 

 of hope and the revival of aspiration after development, thus summed up 

 the most recent views of the route and aims of railway expansion : — 



"The actual amount unexpended of the $20,060 voted in 1910 for a 

 railway survey to Kaieteur is only 84,374 but there would be no difficulty 

 in securing an adequate vote. Your Excellency has made public your 

 intention of visiting the Rupununi in September in company with an 

 experienced railway engineer so that part of the scheme is in a fair way 

 to realization. The survey has at least made clear the fact that a 

 tourist railway to Kaieteur is beyond our present resources. No doubt 

 it has also increased the limited geographical acquaintance which many 

 people possess of the colony in which they were born and bred or in 

 which they earn their living. The fact that the Combined Court ever 

 thought such a scheme feasible shows how limited the original stock of 

 knowledge was. but it is too late for reproaches now. Nobody who ever 

 studied the question expected anything but the actual result. The possi- 

 bilities of a metre gauge line starting from Georgetown passing up the 

 right bank of the Demerara River crossing the Essequebo on the ledge 

 of rock near the Siparuni mouth and reaching the savannahs by the Buro- 

 Buro river valley in touch with the contemplated Brazilian line from 

 Manaos are quite another subject of investigation. But pending the 

 ascertainment of the data we can only speculate. 



•With these preliminary observations I now declare the subject open 

 for discussion, viz. : ' Whether the colony can be developed without fresh 

 taxation/ I hope the speakers will remember that the Government alone 

 cannot do everything and that it is only by the loyal and friendly 

 co-operation of everybody in the colony, Government, Legislature and 

 people, that our problems can be solved. I may mention that an increase 

 of our present revenue by seven per cent, from any cause would mean a 

 return of something over £40,000 or enough on a normal or even on the 

 present market, to secure a development loan of one million sterling." 



Sir Walter Egerton \\hose appointment as Governor has given to 

 the forward movement the strong support of an eminently practical and 

 progressive spirit in high places, speaking on the discussion which 

 followed said : — 



" The question of this interior railway was a very difficult one. The 

 first thing an opponet would say was, having made your railway what 

 traffic are you going to get from it ? Well, he was afraid all they could 

 say to him at present was that they should hope that on its way to the 



