PEARL FISHING AT THURSDAY ISLAND.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 11502, 7 February 1903, Page 3

PEARL FISHING AT THURSDAY ISLAND.

AX INTERESTING INTERVIEW.

The manager of a Thursday Island pearver fleet, Mr E. n. R«eve, ia at present on a visit to this city. Because it is the stepping-stone between Australia and the East; the last outpost separating civilisation from the Yellow Peri., Thursday Island has an importance vrhidi is altogether disproportionate to Tta size. It is the stepping-stone, moreover, not to closely intoD-ted Australia, but to that irrunense nortluirn area of the continent, in which white men can with difficulty labour, and which presents the most natural of passages, therefore, to the inundation of the alien. The danger is increased by the fact that at Thursday Island itself ail industry is carried on wibic-i peculianly demands the assistance of foreign labour. Though the European holds hiS own on rihore, Japanese, Kanakas, Manila men, Malays, and other races form by far the greater portion of the maritime population of the place; The industry wlhich brings them there is pearl fishing. In the 33 y«jrs of its existence, the shell, beolie-de-ner. and tortii.se shell wrested from tlie deep in this pursuit are estimated '© ■have realised no 'less than £5,000,000 in the London and markets. Pursuing its policy of "a White-Australia," the Federal Government has recently enacted thaii tihe alien, to wh&se labour alone the whole success of the industry has been due, must. go. Four yeans from now will be the limit of his services. If the prophets of evJl may be trusted —and in this case they liave plain «igr_» to go upon—that term will also see the beginning of the extinction of the industry. . WhoJt.' pearl fishing, as it is carried on at tlie island means, was explained to a representative of "The Press" yesterday by Mr Reeve, ,wsio has spent five years at Thursday Island, as menager of one of the pearling fleets. Mr Reeve is enjoying a short holiday in New Zealand tft present, in the course of which he arrived in Christchurch yesterday morning, from Wellington. There are nine fleets, he stated, each of them working fourteen or fifteen boats. Every boat has its diver, its crew of four, and a man wbo .ooks after the diver,, and takes charge whils _ie is ri the bottom. Allowing for boats Which do not beilong to the fleet, there are more than 2000 people employed altogether in the industry. A colllecting boat goes round the fleet once every day, takes the shell which has been gnltihered, and puts it on board a schooner, wlieie it is opened by the whites on board, and put through' all the processes which are necessary before it is ready for export. Tlie average collection per boat per year is about tnree tons, aivd the sheil is worth 4-_aX) a ton. Most of the men use diving dresses, and can grope about under water for two hours at a time. A smaller proportion practise 'Wimmang divingi" without any equipment except a pair of glasses to keep the water out of their eyes, and to serve as magnifying' 'glasses, enahding them to see under water • as clearly as above. The- "swiir-ming dive*" goes? own ait intervals, crawls along the bottom as far as he is able, and is taken into the iitltle dinghy which follows him until he is ready for another descent. He works in waiter aibout five fathoms deep, while the diver with a proper suit can descend ten, and even eighteen fathoms. . The first man makes only half the haul of his competitor, but his exroeaiees ore also helved. The work is much too hard for white trite, Mr Reeve,says. Th« boats ore an*, chOTed far out at sea day after day, night after niglht. During fine weather, which overages aibout three months of the year, the hours of labour are from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. The remuneration also would not tempt a European. It varies between £60 and £80 a year. The Japanese, accustomed in their own country to a hard life as fishermen, become expert divers in '>wel'»e months/and are always willing to teach their countrjinett. Mr Reeve once saw a white main working side by side with a Japanese, who was not by' any means specMly adept, and the IdttJe brown man made just three times as much as his com-pa-iion. The South &ea -slanders are favourite workers, owing to their quiet and tractable dispositions.. All their money, and that of the Malays and Manila men' also is spent in Australia, but the Jap, to some extent, oJt any rate, remembers his kindred over seas. In Mr Reeve's opinion, there is not the slightest danger of the supp-fes of shell being exhausted for years to come. There are miles of pearling ground unexplored as yet, though the vessels ar© always going further afield. Under the Federal regula- *<&£% r_o one but Enropeai-B can become owner* in the indM^ ; licenses to owners ore torn issued. The,pearls, it may be stated, tae, ibe least importa«(( portion of Prom their writy, they ore looked, upon as mere perquisites. In former days, before she system of "floating stations" and collecting vessels wt-B established, they were generally appropriated by the lucky diver, whose occasional . translation from poverty to opulence was pnly guessed ?t after his sudden disappearance.

The enactment that, the alien must go has caused -mich uneasiness among owners, wlho are alt. a loss to know what to do. 'ilne Dutch have recently opened a. eettaemeisb in Dutch Naw Grujnea, wflnere they are building a twwny Merouke, and have two nten-of--vror -itaiioned. Butch are not concerned vi the industry .thenns-ilvew, but, wiith an eye to the advancement of t'hedr settlement, -bhey ane invii-ing the pearling men to sbiifit their fiieadquai'ters' to Neiw Guinea, -vrhioh is only 120 miles distant from t3ae island, so iw to evude .the Federal restrictionß. As the fisheries have been worked by aliens from tlie first, and, according to expert opinion, offer no U-duoen-ents whatever to Etsroipean toilers, the temptation to dbamge tflieir headauartera -w-Ml douibtless grow gradually stfonger, as the four years atlawed to the foreigners in which to take their departure slip by.