Note 22 — Chapter IV · SOME NECESSARY REFORMS

Messrs. Shelford’s estimate is £7000 per mile. But this cannot be reconciled with the amount expended. It leaves out of account the cost of bridges between Lagos Island and the mainland, which are part and parcel of the railway scheme. In March of this year the Colony had already expended its loan of £1,053,700, which works out at £8430 per mile. But although the railway has reached its present terminus it is not yet properly finished. Speaking in March, Sir W. MacGregor foreshadowed a further expenditure of £60,000, and added, “the probability is, however, that this will not be sufficient.” On the same occasion the Governor, reviewing the state of the Colony, said that one of the two “principal causes of anxiety” was “the difficulty experienced in getting the railway into working order.”