l8o TiMEHRl. 



I see them to-day, who have gone to work, who are work- 

 ing in many dire6lions with the courage and with the 

 determination which are the attributes of the British- 

 born wherever his life be cast. Rome could not be 

 constru6led in 24 hours. The waterways leading into a 

 great delta cannot be turned into easy flowing deep 

 canals for the passage of comfortable steamers in a few 

 months, or even in a few years. Roads and Railways 

 cannot be laid out and construfted through virgin forest 

 and wide stretching swamps by the stroke of a pen or 

 the recommendation of a Committee. The capital sunk 

 by adventurers requires time to gain its fruition ; and a 

 question of borders has been known to take more than 

 half a century before it gets even to the acute stage which 

 might possibly lead to a settlement. You have not been 

 wanting in energy. 



Others have come here and have been received with 

 that open-handed, free-hearted hospitality for which Bri- 

 tish Guiana is proverbial. They have come, and to-day 

 have seen. If they have conquered, however, their con- 

 quests have not been made known to us, and the problems 

 they found on their arrival are still for a time unsolved. 

 This therefore shows that no charge of want of a6lion 

 on the part of those who live here could for a moment 

 be sustained. If these comers and seekers could have 

 solved the problems for themselves, is it not to be ima- 

 gined they would have done so? And, is it not a fa6l 

 that they had every facility given them ? And I depre- 

 cate indeed, any idea that would detra6l from the energy 

 and a6livity, from the value of the work already done, 

 and still continued by pioneers on the spot. 



The problems will be solved, I feel sure ; and my most 



