" Timehri" an<l Development. 187 



public revenue, i.e., a total of $250,000 per annum or mo -e than double 

 the amount of the annual interest and Sinking Fund on development 

 loan, which would after three years require 8105,740 to meet the charges 

 created, on the basis of $600,000 to which the three-quarter million alloca- 

 tion has been amended by the Sub-Committee. This would leive of 

 revenue from the new population about $150,000 of the $387,000 re- 

 quired to pay interest aid Sinking Fund on the Railway loan. In this 

 calculation the additional revenue from railway staff and immigrants 

 entering on their own charges, attracted by the railway and from any 

 traffic which directly arises from the existence of a large undertaking, is 

 not taken into account. That it would be a very considerable contribu- 

 tion to the charges on a railway there is no doubt. 



In conclusion I emphatically agree with the Sub-Committee that 

 questions of harbour improvement and sea defences should be kept 

 separate and the decks cleared for the main action. Important as these 

 things are, to complicate the big issue with these or constitutional 

 questions is, more than likely, to hold back any steps in advance for 

 another half century. The hesitating timorous temperament which has 

 been a characteristic of the colony for a half century is for the moment 

 galvanised into a hopeful vigour which encouraged and energized by an 

 influx of new activities might permanently shake up a land too 

 lotus-eating in the past for its health. With neither loss to fear nor pro- 

 fit to hope for, Guiana has drowsed, indifferent to the stream of life and 

 movement in the big world around. To be forced into the stream in 

 some way is the immediate and only hope for the rebuilding cf a people 

 with energy enough to get out of the way of the motor-bus of progress 

 when, as it must finally, it sweeps this way steered by men who want to 

 get there and will not swerve for every sleepy donkey which suns its If on 

 the road. We have the choice at present of making way for ourselves, 

 but the day of opportunity may pass and another day come when we shall 

 have to make way for better men. 



As the despatch of His Excellency Sir Walter Egerton and Mr. 

 Bland's report are at the moment of great immediate interest. I ap- 

 pend the following extracts, together with the Report of the Committee 

 on Railway Matters. 



Sir W. Egelitox's Despatch, 5th January, 1914. 



Georgetown as terminus : 



3. Georgetown, the capital of the colony, contains one-sixth of the 

 whole population. It is by far the best and safest port on the whole 

 coastline of British Guiana ; it is situated very nearly in the centre of 

 that coastline, and the country for twenty miles east and west of < leorge- 

 town is the more thickly populated. Unless natural conditions are such 

 as to make the cost prohibitive, any railway system should be based on 

 Georgetown, and the probabilities of the development of paying traffic 

 must be greater if the terminus of that system is in Georgetown. It so 

 happens, moreover, that although, on a superficial glance at the map, 



