2o4 Timehri. 



£150,000 should be set aside to provide suitable lauds for settle- 

 uieut at the eud of the period of indenture. Of this £50.000 might be 

 spent on any urgent sea defences necessary for the purpose of empolder- 

 ing the lands required for development. This empoldering scheme would 

 benefit the coast population in general. 



It should be noted that under this scheme there would be 40,000 

 adults, mostly married couples not reckoning children in the fifth year 

 and that each person would be paying directly or indirectly nine or ten 

 dollars to the public revenue or $360,000 per annum or more than double 

 the amount of the annual interest and Sinking Fund on this head. Present 

 colony revenue is about S!> per head, paid chiefly in indirect taxation. 

 With prosperity, consumption of taxable commodities would increase, also 

 taxable capacity. 



At the beginning of the fourth year we should have 16,000 families 

 4.000 time-served) paying nearly $300,000 to the revenue or more than 

 enough to pay the interest, deferred interest and Sinking Fund on this 

 Development Loan. 



PRIVATE RAILWAY SCHEME. 



There is another question to consider and that is the possible refusal 

 of the Secretary of State to consider a Government Railway on the 

 ground that we cannot afford the expense and the risk. 



In that case we should ask the Secretary of State to help us to 

 secure the construction of a leased Government railway or of a private 

 railway by a reliable firm of contractors on the most advantageous terms 

 possible to the Colony based upon land grants and a limited number of 

 years' subsidy. The terms asked by Colonel Link's supporters were 10 

 years at 3| per cent. These terms are hopeless to expect now. In Brazil 

 the railways are built on a 25 years' subsidy of 5 per cent. But we 

 could do better than that on a British Imperial guarantee. I think 15 to 

 20 years at 4 per cent, would secure what we require. On Mr. Bland's 

 figures of 1] millions, interest (spread by amortization over fifty years) 

 would amount to roughly £40,000 a year, but I have not worked out 

 this last figure by tables. 



FIGURES. 



It should be noted that the figures set out below, which make no 

 pretence to official authority or to actuarial skill, would be somewhat 

 reduced in a calculation allowing for the fact that the Development loan 

 would not be fully called up until the beginning of the fifth year nor the 

 Railway loan until the beginning of the fourth. On the other hand the 

 annual interest on deferred interest as it accrues. i.e.. compound interest 

 is not taken into account so that I have made a rough balauce. The 

 calculation can also be worked out in other ways, e.g., on the basis of 

 deferred payments and at the expiry of the free period payment of a 

 Combined Sinking Fund comprising all interest charges. The main pofnt 



