He joined the Government civil service in Perak for a time right after school and then took over the management of his father's Taiping property and became owner of the Yong Phin Mine at Kota near Taiping after his father died in 1901.[3][5][6][7]
His 3,000-acre (12 km2) Hearwood Estate near Sungei Siput, managed by E. Hardouin and with W. D. Wyesuriya as under manager, employed a workforce of 200 Javanese and Tamil workers to cultivate among other crops, rubber, lemongrass and coconuts. The estate was rich with tin and mines there were worked by Chinese who paid taxes for that benefit.[3] He floated his estate into a Limited Liability Company in Singapore in 1906.[8][9]
In his day he was described as one of the most enthusiastic sportsmen in the Federated States.[3]
He was the first person of Chinese descent in the country to play rugby.[2][10]
He was the first racehorse owner in Taiping, then the capital of Perak.[11] His racing stables cost him over 12,000 Straits Dollars a year and he placed his prize-winning horses under the charge of a European trainer.[3]
He was believed to have been the first person of Chinese ancestry in the country to play golf.[12]
He was a generous benefactor to the people of Taiping and in 1909 arranged to have a tennis court attached to the Taiping Recreational Club which immediately became greatly in demand.[13]
He (minus 100) was an avid billiard player and defeated Lauder Watson (minus 15) in the final of the Perak Club Billiard handicap in 1908.[14]
^Tanjong, Hilir Perak, Larut And Kinta: The Penang-Perak Nexus in History by Prof. Emeritus Dato’ Dr. Khoo Kay Kim, Department of History, University of Malaya.
^Economic performance in Malaysia: the insider's view by Manning Nash Published by Professors World Peace Academy, 1988, ISBN0-943852-52-8, ISBN978-0-943852-52-2
^Tanjong, Hilir Perak, Larut And Kinta: The Penang-Perak Nexus in History by Prof. Emeritus Dato’ Dr. Khoo Kay Kim, Department of History, University of Malaya
^Taiping's Many Firsts by D. M. Ponnusamy published by Sin Boon Beng Printing Sdn Bhd, Taiping
