Dec. 1, 1898.] 
THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTCJRIST. 
379 
their operations to Ceylon h« was sent here 
to assist Sir William Reid in forming that since 
famous property the " Sprin.2: Valley Estate," 
which soon became the undivided property of 
Mr. liannatine of Glasgow. Here "Wood reio;ned 
with absolute sway for nearly thirty years, adding 
to the estate a large clearing every year, till it 
became one of the largest in the country, as well 
as one of the finest and most productive, yiekling 
its fortunate but wealthy absent owner a princely 
income. The time, however, came when old age 
and a plethora of wealth induced the owner to 
listen to the wiles of the charmer in the person 
of the company promoter, and to sell his fine 
l)roperty to Mr. John Brown and his co-adjutor« 
for the sum of £40,000, and by that act the days 
of poor old Wood's glory came to an end and he 
was never the same man after. Did he retire 
wit^ his well-earned fortune and independence, 
to spend tlie end of his days in his own country, 
and with his own people ? Alas ! no. That fact 
itself did not much trouble him, and he bore his 
happy and habitual manner to the last. He had 
acquired no fortune wherewith to retire ; and this 
he knew and admitted to the writer who enjoyed 
his confidence, perha|is, more than any other per- 
■on. Few men ever enjoyed better opportunities 
to become a wealthy proprietor, and few (Scotch- 
imu though he was) ever threw such opportunities 
away, or cared less for thetn. To his assistants 
and the coolies he was a strict disciplinarian, and 
though he would not have a word of "shop" 
after 5 o'clock in the bungalow, it was not easy 
to get a smile out of him in the field between 6 
a.m. and 4 p.m. The coolies' names were entered 
to even a quarter of a day's name, the check-roll 
being full of ^ and i day's names, and no mere 
straight strokes for full days, but an initial letter 
indicating the nature of the work done each day 
by each cooly. His stolidity, however, gave way 
one day when, on asking one of his assistants 
what the letter "0" stood for in his check-roll, 
he was gravely told " Ho I O for 'Oling, sir." We 
often had that joke trotted out afterwards. Then 
one whole day was set aside every month for all 
hands to make up the accounts and monthly 
reports, printed on loose sheets. This was never 
omitted, and once done they where stowed away 
in a large box under his own bed. Imagine my 
surprise when, years after, he confided to me that 
he had never rendered an account to the proprietor, 
but only wrote him long letters. When 
Mr. Bxnnatine 
informed Wood that the estate had been sold, 
he said: — "I hope you will not feel leaving 
the place very much. You have never rendered 
me any accounts ; but I know that you are an 
honest man, and I have much pleasure in present- 
ing you with 5 per cent on the selling price, 
viz., £2,000." Incredible as it may appear, how- 
ever, he never applied for this donation, and never 
received it. What conclusion could the proprietor 
come to but that he had saved plenty and did 
not need it? But never was there a greater mis- 
take. Wood had saved practically nothing. I 
do not believe that he ever drev/ the liberal salary 
to which he was entitled, year after year, during 
all the time he was in full charge. I believe he 
only paid his bills as they because due out of the 
money he drew for the estate,— that this did not 
nearly amount to his duo, and that the i)roprietor 
unconsciously benefited by this e.xtraordinary 
habit, and that the £2,000 would have gone hut 
a short way to recoup Wood for all he had lost 
by his unaccountable action. " Fiocraslination," 
he admitted to me, had Leea the bane of hii life, 
much to my surprise, as I had always thought 
his character to have been the very reverse of 
this ; but to this evil habit nmst, in some way, 
be attributed this mystery of liis life, that is, 
in putting off bringing accounts and correspond- 
ence to a jioint, and in squaring up. His very 
principles of honesty and honor seemed to stand 
in his way; yet all whom he en)ployed fared 
well, and were liberally and punctually paid. 
He only neglected himself. 
If a man's biography is worth writing at all such 
truths as these are worth the telling, to point a 
moral as well as to adorn the tale. This unfortu- 
nate proclivity never left him. It had not for its 
foundation any desire to evade duty in any form, 
or to shirk work, for he was most conscientious, 
and his industry was remarkable. It was in his 
nature an idiosyncrasy better left to the physician 
than to the moralist to explain. Even when, in 
after years, he had become a Superintendent in 
the employment of a Colombo firm (again under an 
absent proprietor, though not directly so) he furni- 
shed no accounts until, after many months, Messrs. 
Geo. Steuart & Co. were instructed to demand 
them from the beginning, and, then, in due course, 
they were all forthcoming, correct to the smallest 
item. And in like manner, doubtless, the Spring 
Valley accounts could also have been produced, 
given the necessary time and labour. So, too, the 
accounts of an estate in which the writer and 
Mr. Wood were jointly interested, for a short 
time, were not forthcoming, and were never 
demanded, for I easily made up a retrospective 
"estimate," and was more than satisfied with 
the cost of the work done as represented by 
the money that had been drawn. Many a man 
in Ceylon has come to grief over his accounts, 
not exactly in the way followed by the subject 
of this memoir, but through an unconquerable 
hatred of the toil of keeping them up, day by 
day, and the periodical labour they entail. But 
"it is ivork that must be done" is the moral of 
this story ; for Wood's experience on Spring Valley 
would certainly not occur many times in a genera- 
tion ; and, even as it was, what but ruin to him 
was the consequence ? 
But it must not be thought that this vice 
of procrastination as it would be considered 
by men of business, or weakness, as moralists 
■\vould call it, since the greatest men have over 
been the greatest workers, was perceptible in Mr. 
Wood's daily life. On the contrary, those wh« 
knew him best would have been the first to 
defend him from any such imputation, and 
but for his own admission it could not have 
been even suspected, much less ever kno'wn. 
It aflfected only one phase of his character and 
that the most private, for in his daily work 
and duties his restless activity had no bounds, 
and those subject to his control were permitted 
no respite during working hours. He never in- 
dulged in couches and easy chairs, and he did 
not smoke. For a man of his attainments ho 
was not a great reader except of the daily and 
home papers, and I look back with surprise at 
the few books which adorned his bungalow. In 
iiis own bedroom, which 1 never knew anyone but 
the servant to enter, it may have been iliffeient, 
though I think not. But on the other iiand ha 
was a most industrious writer of letters of business 
and of war, and he kept a copy of all that iio 
wrote in his " manifold-writer," which became a 
terror to all against whom he luul cause of 
complaint. Indeed so often and so vigorously 
was his pen turned upon the public ollicials, 
including the Assistant Government Agent, ou 
