PEARL FISHING.

Taranaki Daily News, 22 May 1920, Page 10

PEARL FISHING.

IN NORTHERN AUSTRALIA;. EX-TARANAKI MAN'S INTER, ' ESTING ACCOUNT. In the course of a letter to a New Plymouth resident, a former Taranaki man, who is now engaged in pearl fishing, which he took up after having taken a distinguished part in the war, gives some interesting particulars of his new life in the northern waters of Australia! He says:— King's Sound, where I am writing this, is rather a Wonderful place. It has hundreds of islands, passages and coral reefs, and in most places has a depth of 120 feet dose up to the shore. The country rather'resembles Cape Terawhiti, except that the trees grow straight here. The direction of the wind varies with the season. The hills are chiefly white quartz, tumbled about at all angles, doubtless by past volcanic energy. Wherever the land is flat enough to hold soil the vegetation is luxuriant, the grass growing eight feet high, so the effect is very pleasing to the eye, although not equal to Queen Charlotte Sound. The passage we are working is called 'by pearlers "The Grave Yard," because so many divers have lost their lives here- It is only possible to work it during neap tide, because the current is so strong that divers cannot stand. The rise and fall is 34 feet, so you can inn: gine how the tide sweeps through the narrow passages.

ABOARD THE LUGGERS. Before proceeding it will be necessary to explain a few local terms. Most of the luggers have a white master to open shell (he need know nothing about a boat). He is either a pearler (owner), or shell-opener, employed by an armchair pearler. The colored "people are called pearl fishers, mostly ratings and highly skilled. They know 300 miles of coast without a map, and often work well out of sight of land for weeks at a time. The divers navigate the craft. Next in command come the tenders, who look after the boats' gear and food, and do everything for their diver above water and hold his life line when he is below. The remainder are crew. This only leaves two permits for imported colored labor. They hoist sails, weigii anchor, cook and do odd jobs generally. These arc not called ordinary seamen or A.B.'s, but crew, and one is spoken of singly as a crewThe luggers sail out of Broome about the middle of February where they have been laid up for two or three months' overhaul. They have all been painted, and some have new sails. Most of the running gear has been replaced, whether sound or not. They may go only a few miles from port, or may sail for a week, according to the divers' fancy for a certain spot. At the crack of dawn all hands are preparing for the day's work. They have all had a good bath in sea water, and cleaned their teeth with ditto and finished their coffee.

THE DIVERS. The diver is meantime fixing his thick woollen under-clothing, three pairs each of socks and pants, and three sweaters. 1 have failed as yet to learn the reason for this in a tropical sea. It may be an old habit for the colored man is loth to change his methods. As in stance, tip till 11)14 divers insisted upon having their hose (air pipe) reinforced with spiral wire. Then hose became rare and wired hose unprocurable, so the diver was forced to use the plain rubber and fabric by the war shortage of metal. Now he says the plain hose is better, easier to handle, and has the additional advantage of floating. Having climbed into the waterproof dress, had his brass corselet screwed on, and put on another pair of socks, moleskin this time, and his lead-weighted boots, he steps onto his ladder, which is a short one over the port side. By standing on the bottom rung, he can rest his elbows on the bulwarks while the helmet and life line are fixed. A manilla line called 'the plumper'' has been dropped overboard, and the diver takes this in one hand, with his basket in the other, and jumps off his ladder, lowering himself down by the plumper If the depth is over 12 fathoms, he stages both descending and ascending. Staging has played an important part in Australian pearling so I will deal with it later. When the diver reaches the sea bed he signals, and the tender, knowing the depth, realises how much air pressure to send down to counterbalance the water pressure. The diver remains below for upwards of an hour, during which, time the boat is drifting with wind and tide, and he is pulled along by his life line. If he wishes to stop to pick, up a shell lie signals "slack away, ' and then there is a haul in, and away he goes again at five miles an ! hour. The life line is a thin wire rope, and along it passes a continual stream of messages which surprise the new chum, because he is told in an instant when a shoal of fish is. passing, the kind of fish, and whether they are few or many.

DISTINGUISHING PEARL SHELLSGreat skill is required in distinguishing pearl shells from stones or corral, because they are covered with marine flora, star fish, crabs, and dozens or different kinds of bivalves which become fixtures. Therefore when a diver is engaged, his previous year's "take" is considered. If he is a six or seven ton man he is first-class or '-'number one," and can demand an advance of .-(J250 on signing the articles and a bonus or lay of £4O per ton, also 10 per cent, on all pearl sales. The man who only gets 2£ tons a year has either failed to acquire the knack of finding a patch, or of seeing the shell when walking over it. Sometimes, by special arrangement with the pearler, a diver will work for pearls or baroque. The beds where these are found contain few shells. Thcrerore it is too risky when the outlay is heavy, so the majority of boats try for sheik and if they are lucky enough to find pearls the hitler are looked upon as a bonus. A pearler recently opened five tons of shell, a year's take, without sven finding a piece of baroque, and was pearling for nine years before finding a pearl worth £IOO, so don't advise your friends to join the pearling fleets. 'The profits are greater than any other business J know of, or were before flic ad"vance in gear and food, lint, on the other hand, risks are great. The present season iiad only run about two weeks when three luggers were lost by accident, two divers died in tlwjr dresses, and a tender was drowned. Also two divers have gone to hospital, which is a greater loss | Mian if they had died, because not only does the master lose the advance, but ! has l,i pay hospital fees and return the ! man to Singapore if permanently unfit. | The drifting method is not used at j "The Graveyard" owiii ? to the strong I tide even at neap. pi;<! the boat lias al'ways to lie anchored while tlie diver is

working, so they use 100 fathoms of thick coil rope on the anchor, and. this is slowly paid out or hauled in, according to signals from below. It is tedious work for the crew to he winding the windlass all day when they are trying to find a patch, but once they get on to it there is very little shifting until it is cleaned up-

THUNDER STORMS. It is very peaceful during the daytime in King's Sound. Birds with notes very like those of the tui call to us from trees only a few yards away, and then the sun sets are gorgeous, but we know we are going to have a severe thunder storm during the hours of darkness, usually lasting about an hour. The local name for these storms is "cockeye bo'j." They appear in the distance like a white cloud, exactly like *the cloud of steam one sees above a freshly started bushfire. Then a semi-circle of blackness advances, growing rapidly and with a wonderful display of lightning. Everything is perfectly still. Then a cold breeze comes from the direction of the blackness, and is very refreshing after a stewing day of 110 degrees in the shade, but in a few minutes a gale is howling through the rigging, and the sea is lashed about as though it had been blowing for a week. Rain follows, and we make a quick rush to the stuffy cabin with the blanket and pillow, and must put [up with cockroaches two inches long walking over one's features- A "cockeye" usually lasts 20 minutes, sometimes a hour-, luring which the wind may back from S.E. to N.W.

THE DIVER'S GREATEST ENEMY. To get hack to pearling, the diver's greatest enemy ia paralysis, and a careless man can soon kill himself if working in deep water. At one time the death toll was 20 to 30 per annumThis was before Messrs. Heinkie and Co. presented Broome with a compression chamber, which enabled the sufferer to be subjected to the pressure he had been working in and then having it gradually reduced. When Australian pearling was threatened by the White Australia Bill, a number of British divers were imported as a test. The scheme failed in manways, and about 00 per cent, of the white divers died, but they showed the colored divers that paralysis could t>oth be prevented and cured by the simple method of staging, which means that if a diver comes up unconscious from paralysiß he is promptly lowered again to the depth ho was working at, and is then drawn up by easy stages, allowing him sufficient time at each stage to become accustomed to the decrease in pressure. It has taken a long time to convince the colored man that such a simple method can save his life, but he sees it now, and the result is that la-st year only one diver died from paralysis.

COLORED LABOR. The Commonwealth Government allows colored labor to be imported on the understanding that they work only at pearling- During lay up season this labor may be used for minor repairs to craft, but pearlers may not use this labor for boat building or any work which will interfere in any way with white labor. The imported men are chiefly .Taps and Malays. There are also a fair number of natives of Kopang, Ambon, and Manilla. The Japs are organised. They have their own elub, where different sections meet to decide upon demands to be made upon their employers, and these are so unreasonable that they will cause the undoing of the Jap just as his shoddy work has killed his trade in cheap goods. A gentleman who has been pearling for about 30 years is leading the way by training a number of Chinamen to work his fleet- So. far they are showing great promise, and if his experiment succeeds much work will be saved those interested in the industry. The master must sign a bond for each of liis indented men. For a small fee the master is covered by the New Zealand Insurance Company, strange to say. Of course, they cannot get away, althpii'.vh they try sometimes, but whichever iay they go they are faced wlt:i waterless country and on top of this the police, through their black trackers',. know their movements and choose their own time and place for securing the escapees. A man may be signed on to a lugger for three years, after which he may sign to another master for a year, and can stay as long as he likes, provided there is no steamer sailing between his discharge and the time of resigning. Therefore, if he fails to secure a job his previous master must send him to Singapore. During 1919 1383 tons of pearl shell was exported from Broome to England and the United States. I cannot obtain the exact figures for the pearls and baroque, but the average worth of the e?.ports is about £IOO,OOO per annum.