Jan. 1, 1894.] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
443 
entered into the miad of us Pioneers to conceive — a 
garden (f European as well as of tropical productions, 
peopled with European as with Asiatic faces 'I'o 
facilitate this desirable end, I plead for a, bridle-path 
as the first requisite. 
Hard work and priva ion have endeared the Wilder- 
ness of the Peak to me. I have often had rough work 
in it. crossing flooded rivers, and living on edible roots 
and plants, which the Singhalese, familiar with forests, 
alone could have selected; but my last two months 
and a half work in it were the most trying, from con- 
tinued insufficiency of food. I reached Adam's Peak 
118 light of baggage as could be, hoping to be able to 
get .some fowls up from Batnipura. My messengers 
returned with only five; three died on their journey 
up, from cold and wet, the remaining two had to be 
kil ed on arrival to ■' save " their lives. They all in 
due course found their way into curries, and I could 
not discover which had yielded to the sharpness vi 
cold, or which to that of steel. They constituted the 
only animal food I had during the ten weeks when, 
working every hour against time, I accomplished my 
task, having worked up to the top of Pedrotallagalle 
befo e the monsoon burst, and I have thought well of 
the sustaining properties of b. iled rice ever since. 
I remain your Excellency's faithful servant, 
(Signed) T. Skinner. 
Of Capt. Skinner'.s experience as a Coftee 
Planter* we have the following :— 
In 1840 the officers of the public service ran wild in 
re coffee-planting. As pioneers they were encouraged, 
to the ruin of many ; for though one or two had been 
very a iccessful. others lost heavily by embarking in an 
enterprise of which they were perfectly ignorant. Sir 
W. 0. Can-, the chief justice, and myself went into 
partnership. Our estate had only just come into bear- 
ing when the protective duties in Ceylon were remov- 
ed, and the price our produce realised fell from up- 
wards of 100s. the cwt. to 45s., the latter sum being 
the cost of production on the estate. 
We ouglit to have mentioned that the Civil 
Department for Roads &c. got into such con- 
fusion, that in 1837 Capt. Skinner was asked 
to take u]) the duties of "Civil Engineer and 
Surveyor-General, " and he continued in the 
office till 1840. How he discharged the duty 
can be judged by the following : — 
Extract front tlie Address of His Excellenc!/ the Gover- 
nor the Right Hon. Stewart Mackenzie, to the Lerjisla- 
live Council, Jaiiuari/ 1840. 
His presencet alone prevents nie from bearing testi- 
mony to the unwearied activity of the Acting Surveyor- 
General, to the entire inadequacy of his means to 
overtake all that under the names of Surveyor- 
General and Oivil Engineer would be expected from 
him. That he has performed a ir ost ungracious, and 
a very unsatisfactory work, during his tenure of these 
combined offices, most zealously, I can bear most 
ample testimony were it necessary. 
So that so far back as 1840, Capt. Skinner was 
• Mr. T. E. B. Skinner favours us with the fol- 
lowing note in answer to our inquiry as to the fate 
of the Major's coifee venture/ — ■• ^Iy father owned 
a large tract of land in Ambagamuwi, and once 
cultivated jointly with Sir W. Carr, the Chief Justice, 
a coffee t state which proved a failure, and even- 
tually coat him m'vny thousand pounds sterling. 
( aptain Evatt purchased a portion of the land and 
op ned an estate called Koladeniya, which was also 
unsuccessful a.' a coffee estate, and subsequently Mr. 
H. Saunders bought the remainder of the block of 
several hundreds of acres which are now, I believe, 
in tea. " 
t N'oTK.— Oftptain Skinner being a Member of the 
a member of the Legislative Council, though' 
to the disgrace of both local and home authorities, 
one so pre-eminently fitted to be a most valuable 
legislator was never confirmed in his Council seat, 
notw itlistandiug several " acting " appointments. 
On the 19th Dec. 1838, Capt. Skinner was married 
to Georgina, daugliter of Col. Burrell, c. B., Com- 
manding the 18th Koyal Irish at Trincomalee, 
and afterwards Lieut. -General Burrell. In 1841, 
the unfortunate Civil Engineer and Surveyor- 
General's Department again became disorganised, 
and the Government resolved to divide it into 
two, giving Capt. Skinner charge of all the 
Roads on a salary of R8,000 per annum, after- 
wards increased in 1846 to R 10,000. In April 1847 
his regiment, the Ceylon Kides being ordered to 
Hongkong, he finally retired from the Army as 
Major Skinner, selling his Commission after 28 
years' service. In 1848 Major Skinner went on 
leave to England, his first absence after 23 years' 
continuous service including much hard work 
and privation ; this was made the occasion for a 
very flattering address from the Maha and subor- 
dinate Mudaliyars (native chiefs). Major Skinner 
was absent in England when the so-called 
Pvebellion of 1848 broke out ; he had prophesied 
trouble in tlie Kurunegala and Matale districts 
from the misgovernment he had witnessed during 
the " forties," but his warnings were disregarded. 
At home, the Secretary of State for the Colo- 
nies, Lord Grey consulted him, and he drew up 
a very able State paper in July 1849 for the 
benefit of the Select Parliamentary Committee 
on Ceylon affairs, dealing with the social and 
material condition of the island and its people, 
among whom he had lived so long. In this, 
he recommended as one check on native litiga- 
tion whicii was filling the British Courts, the 
revival of " Gansaibs" or " Gansabawa, ' another 
reform which it fell to Sir Hercules Eobin.son 
many years after to carry out. Major Skinner 
resumed his duties in Ceylon at the end of 1849. 
In 1850, the " Civil Engineer's" Department was 
separated from the Survey, and Major Skinner 
was ordered to incor]iorate it with liis own. 
thus beconuug "Civil Engineer and Commis- 
sioner of Roads," and so continuing in charge 
of the entire Public Works of the Colony until 
his retiiement in 1867. In August 1854, another 
departure home on leave was inade the occa-sion 
of a flatteriug but well-deserved encomium in 
the Ccijlon Obsct-vcr, on the man who had 
given tlie best years of his life— from the 
14th to the oOth year — to the service of the 
Colony, and whose name was closely connect- 
ed witli every line of communication opened 
from 1819 onwards, as well as with the great 
survey of the island. " Nothing but an iron 
frame and the most temperate habits, could" — 
wfote tlie Editov— " Ua,ve eqablv-l Maj'U SkitiUft 
