In the eighteenth century, the authorities ordered each plantation owner to build and maintain a public road and bridges to connect to the two adjacent neighbouring plantations.
The original width of the roadway was 16 feet, but this was later increased to 36 feet, and rough red bricks, made from burnt clay, were used to surface it. This road was deemed a public right of way, and if the plantation owner refused to build or maintain it, the government authorities would carry out the task and then demand payment from him. If he could not meet the payment, his land could be sold by the West India Company or the Berbice Association to recover the cost.
When the British took control in Guyana in the early nineteenth century, a Commissioner of Roads and Bridges was given the task of supervising the maintenance of the public roads and bridges. Plantations that did not keep the public road in good condition faced the penalty of being sold to recover the cost if the government was forced to carry out the task.
The plantations which were purchased by ex-slaves after 1838 experienced early problems in raising money to maintain the public road and bridges, with the result that they were, at first, in a state of disrepair. However, when these “proprietary villages” established forms of local government and levied their own local taxes, they were able to obtain funds to carry out maintenance.
Relatively swift movement along the coastal roadway was hampered by the rivers flowing to the Atlantic Ocean. Privately operated ferries, which included boats, barges and large rafts, moved people and good across until later in the nineteenth century when wooden bridges were built across the Boerasiri, Mahaica, Mahaicony, Abary, and Canje Rivers as well as the Anamoromise Creek flowing through No. 66 Village to the Corentyne River. Government-owned ferries continued to operate across the larger rivers (Essequibo, Demerara and Berbice) and large steamers were used to maintain this service.
Since almost all the plantations were located on the coast or the lower river banks, the interior forest and savannah areas had very few roadways, and the local Amerindian population used mainly tracks and pathways, or the rivers, to move from one settlement to another.
As the population grew, the need for the movement of an increased volume of goods arose. In March 1837, only twelve years after the first iron railway was built in England, the British colonial authorities commenced plans to build and operate a railway between Georgetown and the Mahaica River. Early that month, government officials met with all the proprietors and representatives of the estates on the East Coast of Demerara to discuss the proposal of constructing the railway. This proposal received unanimous support since the estate owners felt that the railway service would drastically cut the expenses for transporting sugar and other goods to Georgetown and, thus, reduce overall the cost of sugar production.
As a follow-up to this meeting, a committee was soon appointed to take responsibility for building the railway between Georgetown and Mahaica. Eventually, a joint stock company, the Demerara Railway Company, was formed to organise financing to run the entire operation.
The company, soon after, hired Frederick Catherwood, a British civil engineer with experience in the construction and operation of railways in England, to carry out the project. On his arrival in Guyana, he surveyed the East Coast route, and later he also mapped out the proposed line to be taken for a railway on the coastal area between the Demerara and Essequibo Rivers.
The main problem the company faced was that of raising the necessary finance in Guyana because many sugar planters claimed they were almost bankrupt as a result of the loss of their slave labour due to emancipation. Since they could not raise the required capital, two-thirds of the shares were acquired by investors in Great Britain and Holland.
The delay in raising capital forced the railway plan to be delayed until 1845, when legislation was finally enacted to regulate the constitution of joint stock companies for carrying on public works and to authorise the acquisition of land for such purposes. The passage of this legislation enabled the company to raise the required funds in London very quickly. A total of 100,000 British pounds was required, but the company was able to acquire double that amount.
To be continued
(Text from “The Guyana Story – From Earliest Times to Independence” by veteran retired Guyanese diplomat, Dr Odeen Ishmael)
