228 Timehri. 



Council, the two offices being amalgamated a few years later. There 

 were several successive Town Clerks up to my time, when I found the 

 office worthily filled by my old friend and namesake Mr. Jacobus C. R. 

 Hill, whose portrait hangs in the Town Hall : he always claimed to be tlio 

 11 corporation " of the Mayor and Town Council ! He was followed in 

 1892 by Mr. P. P. Fairbairn, who was succeeded in 1010 by the present 

 holder of the office Mr. J. Barrington Woolford. a former Mayor of the 

 city. 



In the matter of Town Superintendents the Corporation was pecu- 

 liarly fortunate in being but seldom troubled with the necessity of 

 making new appointments, as in the course of its seventy years exist- 

 ence, only four such officers had to be appointed, namely : — 



William Lyng who served from 1837 to 1852 

 William Hayley „ „ „ 1852 „ 1878 

 Luke M. Hill „ ,, „ 1878 „ 1910 



William F. Laurie Thomas appointed 1910. 



At the time of the institution of the Municipality in 1837 the popu- 

 lation of Georgetown was 16,500 and the length of the roads and streets 

 as taken over from the Board of Police was only 12f miles with 36 

 brick and 11 wooden bridges and culverts. Since that date the popula- 

 tion and the mileage of the streets have increased fourfold, and the 

 number of bridges and culverts by several hundreds, including the intro- 

 duction of many ornamental iron and concrete structures ; and taken 

 altogether, the expansion and improvement of Georgetown since its con- 

 stitution as a Cathedral city in 1843 on the founding of the Diocesan See 

 of Guiana, reflects credit on the enterprise and enlightenment of the 

 corporation in its administrative capacity as a Municipality, more espe- 

 cially in view of the fact that the continued improvements have been 

 effected practically without any increase in the rates and taxes until 

 within the last two or three years, ami only then necessitated through 

 the creation of a separate department of Public Health and the increased 

 expenditure thereby involved. 



In common with most other corporations throughout the world, the 

 Town Council of Georgetown has been the subject of adverse criticism 

 from time to time by the press and more or less irresponsible members of 

 the community, who, generally speaking, are themselves too mean spirit- 

 ed to undertake the ordinarj^ responsibilities of citizenship by an active 

 participation in the administration of their own city : indeed so manifest 

 is this apathy in Georgetown that but comparatively few of the more 

 prominent members of the community even take the trouble of register- 

 ing their names as voters, much less offering their services as city coun- 

 cillors, though ever ready to find find fault with and belittle the etfbrts of 

 those who do endeavour to the best of their abilities, to serve their race 

 and generation as members of the corporation ; a thankless job at best, 

 the world over. 



