During 1922 with Hugh Gordon’s co-operation and having borrowed money from Fred Whittall , for his part of the operation, Father journeyed monthly to Badulla the main centre of Uva province, to bid for blocks of land at the government land auctions. Prior to bidding he would walk and survey well each block prior to its coming up, and tried as far as possible to bid for the areas of the lushest wild mannah grass, the thickest lantana scrub, trying to avoid the poorest cabooky ironstone ridges that had been eroded from over grazing and carried hardly a blade of grass. This was not always possible and as a result a lot of poor land was purchased amongst the most fertile in order to make large contiguous blocks in order to create the new estate.

Another problem arose was that with the post war boom in tea, it was difficult and also expensive to buy good “high Jat” or Assam tea seed. Eventually he found a source at an Estate called Cannavarella in Uva , set it out in sand and some four or five months later, once the leaves had really started to develop, he found that they had supplied him with China or “low jat seed”. What had happened was as the owner had sold out of his proper seed, and being greedy he had small boys to pick seed from the old china bushes on the property to augment his stock....which was a swindle! He wanted to go to court, but that would have meant more delay, and they were all in a hurry to start planting with the first North East rains in October 1923. He had recruited 50 Tamil volunteers to help start off and work on the new enterprise, but had no luck whatsoever in persuading many Sinhalese to come from the villages nestling in the little surrounding valleys below the hilltops that his land was situated upon.

The area that he bought his first 200 acres was on a hill top at an elevation of about 3,500ft, equidistant between Luckyland 1,500 ft higher and Downside. Through the property was the Manawela River cascading into a beautiful 100 ft waterfall and a further 100 ft descent of tumbling rapids to the base of that part of the valley at 2,500 ft. It was altogether a most attractive location with the valleys lush with Sinhalese homes each surrounded by a canopy of cool shady jak fruit trees ( a form of breadfruit) bananas, mangoes areca nuts etc. Their small paddy fields were a brilliant soft pea green, watered by complicated contour channels and anicuts. There was a Buddhist Temple nestling under the lee of one hill, and soon friends were made and their co-operation together with the sinhalese villagers helped make the enterprise work.

In 1923 the first clearing of 25 acres was planted at a rate of 4,000 bushes per acre, and thereafter it was planned to open 50 to 75 acres per year, and all steps were put in place in planning this expansion. Meanwhile in 1923 a further 200 acres was purchased at auctions on an adjoining nearby hill so as to have land available for future expansion. However now there was a really serious setback at the end of 1923 and into 1924 with the most serious epidemic of malaria the island had ever seen . The tamils as well as the villagers were racked with fever, and started dying in droves. Over the whole of Ceylon 250,000 people or 10% of the entire population of the island died. Some areas, such as the high elevation tea plantations where it was too wet and cool for mosquitoes to thrive had little effect, and cities such as Colombo, were able to be controlled easily. But in the vast countryside with paddy fields once the general population had got infected, the anopheles mosquito could bite an infected person, and transmit the disease to the next healthy individual, causing a chain reaction. Immediately around Hugoland precautions were taken by spraying all the water courses and rock pools with diesel or fuel oil. Oil drums with occasional dripping wicks were set up on all irrigation channels to the paddy fields to create a film of oil on the surface, that blocked the larvae’s breathing tubes. Until these measures took real effect , about one third of all the villagers and Tamils perished in this terrible epidemic.

To help pay for the development of the new enterprise, father took in a succession of “creepers”, to learn the trade. To start with Mother enjoyed the extra company, but as time wore on, the loss of her privacy became an obsession with her. It led to arguments and indirectly to the servants in the house playing up, as there were too many bosses giving instructions. Father would tend to side with the servants, saying that she was being unreasonable, and she would become ever more strident in her criticisms. Tensions mounted at home which smouldered slowly at first but got ever worse until in 1926 when she was pregnant with Helen , they reached such a state that she would blame him for the tension that led her to have a premature birth with the baby only weighing 3 1/2 lbs. These accusations alone created yet more maritial tension in a spiralling and most tragic fashion and she vowed never to have another child.

Thefirst of these creepers was Freddie Keun a first cousin of Father’s who was most charming. He delighted in the country and was great company for Hugh who was only about four years old. Fred was always interested in fauna, in looking for birds nests etc and delighted in the wildness of the proper low country jungle . Often during the NorthEast Monsoon they would go down to the large flat paddy fields at Wellawaya and Moneragala (Peacock rock) to try their luck snipe shooting. It was in early 1924 when one day in the sweltering 95F heat they arrived at Moneragala resthouse to ask for lunch and a drink. They were suprised to see about half a dozen European Planters meeting there all dressed up in heavy army greatcoats shivering with cold, whilst Fred and Father mopped their brows. It was a local Planters Society Meeting and they had come to discuss the epidemic. One reported he had lost half his labour 100 people, and another three quarters had died or 200, and so on. It was a pitiful sight but one that was not all that uncommon all over the island until the tragic epidemic was brought under control.

Ceylon used to have and undoubtly still has the finest snipe in the world. They arrive duringNovember from Siberia and fatten up quickly amongst the wet paddy fields that abound in the country. They are one of the hardest birds to shoot and are invisible on the ground, exquisitly camoflaged into their surroundings. As one walks through the fields a flock of 8 or 10 will rise within a few feet flying and darting rapidly from side to side making a real test of a sportsmans skill. Some quick eyed men and experts like Mac would get two with two barrels, but most would be lucky if they could only get a few all morning.

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Hugh Gordon.