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The coffee plantations took a severe beating from two deseases and a replacement had to be found. James Taylor in 1876 introduced tea to the country. It was to be an unifying hypothesis with the Indians coming in their droves, the kaleidiascopic panorama and the internal migration to earn a living. Bullock carts as the main mode of transport until the Railways were opened and trading posts were established in Lindula, Talawakelle, Mawanella, Warakapola, etc. With the ethnic mix was formed a diversity of the people.

1948 should have given the leaders the foresight to think Sri Lankan but we missed the bus when we clung to the ethnic origins, an apartheid of a kind.

1994 changed the pattern when a Sri Lankan identity was introduced. Integration and inter-marriage helped the course of One-Nation, one type.

'The Hills of Paradise' could be read at several levels: there is a plethora of ideas for novelists, information for the medics and for the politicians, to the trade unionist. It is pertinent to mention that trade union activities started in the tea estates.

The pre-eminent and illustrious Breckenridges who had as teachers fed the country with noble manhood. He recalled how a boy, given a forty minute essay on cricket had summarily written three words - 'rain, no play' to be kept after class for an essay on umbrellas.

There are no dry statistics in this book. It brings alive the colourful British immigrants."

Dr. Breckenridge traces his life as a medical officer who had not been over ambitious. His entry into the medical officers' sphere, the right place, no doubt but at the wrong time. After twenty five years he is wiser now. He has from the beginning of his life been interested in the pastoral life with the keen bonding of the village and the temple. Whilst practising preventive medicine in remote areas such as Mawanella he was able to visit Kandyan villagers, rock temples and make close observations, of malaria and migratory workers.

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