PROCEEDINGS OF THE VICTORIA INSTITUTE. 
351 
generally was to be as follows : One 12 tori locomotive only 
was to be employed on the line, it would start from the 
Junction at any rate once a day at a fixed hour with one 
passenger coach at least, and as many goods or ballast trucks- 
as were requisite, it was to travel 12 miles an hour, and 
stop to pick up traffic and put it down not absolutely wher- 
ever anyone wanted but at very frequent intervals if 
required — the charge for passengers was to be one uniform 
tariff of 6d. for any distance and the guard would issue paper 
tickets from a roll like the clerk at the wicket gate at a 
racecourse. The train would return from the terminus at the 
other end also at a fixed hour. If the original plan of con- 
struction had been carried out of light railways suitable for 12 
ton engines travelling 12 miles an hour, the money saved on 
station buildings and long sleepers and heavy ballasting, and 
fencing, would have been sufficient to construct the main central 
railway down the Nariva to a point opposite the Rio Claro 
Rest House. If the original idea of working had been carried 
out there would have been no loss on the daily working : and if 
roads at £200 a mile were made to converge on them the cost of 
the latter would be more than defrayed by the value of the Crown 
Lands sold. In Western Europe railways were made to enable 
passengers to travel with greater comfort and speed, or to trans- 
port goods with greater security and regularity than by the then 
existing system of canals and roads. Roads and railways in 
Trinidad are wanted to open up the country, to allow the Crown 
Lands to be sold and cultivated, and thus develop the natural 
resources of the country which are now lying dormant. A 
country cocoa planter would be delighted to travel to town 
tying on the top of his cocoa bags rather than have no 
opportunity of getting his produce to market at all. 
I now propose to direct your attention to the character of 
the soil found in the different parts of the district. Taking first 
the country served by the Sangre Grande Railway ; on leaving 
Aritna the soil is very poor, the hills are either formed of sand 
0r clay, but the river valleys are fertile, and some of the most 
valuable estates in the Colony are found on the banks of the 
Talparo, Tumpuna and Cumuto rivers As you get farther 
f°Uth the country improves, and round about Tamana the land 
18 very rich, containing a large proportion of calcareous matter ; 
and this fertile soil extends in all directions, not in laige. con 
hnuous sheets but in fingers and toes. Of the Northern pars 
the district I can speak very little of from actual ex P erienc ^ 
I have been told, however, by others that there are ne * o £ 
^country here and there at the base of the Northern • * ^ 
hl, k But there is one district the high character of ape 
° ae can mistake, Manzanilla and El Branche. eie 
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