Hua Hong Stories : Rearing Buffaloes

My father was an idealist. And definitely he was not an entrepreneur. While my grandfather was alive, my father was just happy to do whatever his father wanted him to do.

One of my father's forays into a side business was the rearing of buffaloes in Pulau Kerto. The British colonial government advised him to have an experimental farm. He was given a bull as a free gift and he had to buy a female and a calf. It was not too expensive in those days.

However a year after the purchase of the animals, things started to become rather difficult. Neighbours were unhappy because they went into their padi farms and disturbed some land, making lots of puddles here and there.

The buffaloes were hard to tied to the trees in the yard. Well my father was not exactly a farmer.

One day an Iban man who was very angry shot at the bull and injured him in the leg. He was really angry and he asked my father for compensation because his fence was damaged.





The Ice Factory staff came out to help my father on the issue. My father being quite a pacifist decided to let the kampong folks have the injured buffalo as meat. The matter was settled and my father sold off the mother and calf very cheaply.

That was the end of our family's Animal Farm enterprise.