PEARL SHELL .

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIV, Issue 34, 9 February 1903, Page 6

PEARL SHELL .

THE TORRES STRAIT FISHERIES.

(By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.)

CHRISTCHURCH, this day.

Mr E. 11. Reeve, a Thursday Island i pearl fishing manager, is on a visit to Christchurch. There are, lie says, nine fleets employed in pearl fishing in Torres Strait, each 'consisting of a •schooner, whicli is the moveable headquarters, and a number of boats, generally 14 or 15. There are also a few unattached boats ; engaged. Each fleet employs about 120 ; men, of whom only three are white men, j the captain of the schooner, the man-; ,ager and the clerk. Tho rest are Japanese (who largely preponderate), Malays,: Manila men and Kanakas. Probably j the total number employed in the fisher- ; ies is about 2000. The complement of 'each boat is a crew of four men, a j diver, and a. tender, the man who looto : after the diver. The majority of the clivers are Japs, they being generally j more skilful than any others engaged. The reason for this is probably that the Jap who travels to Kew Guinea or Australia to join the industry has been • brought up to a hard life on the sea coast,- and can the more easily stand the rough existence to which the pearl fisher is exposed. Then,- too, some sections of the Japanese make diving the aim and end of their education, and the Jap who can dive will readily teach | his fellows. Manila men, Malays and Kanakas are ffir less skilful, aud those [who have experience never trouble to Itrim those who have not. The labour problem is acute in the pearl industry, (for it is clear that white men are not |fitted for the work. Quite apart from the white man's constitutional objection to the hard duty '-graft," that they will only too gladly leave to a nigger, the former seems unable to keep pace with the bitter. A European diver working alongside a Jap has' never been able to get half as much pearl shell in the day as the Jap could. At the present time the industry is in trouble through the decree of the Commonwealth that all South Sea Island labour must be deported. When the ultimatum went, forth there wn-i a great 'outcry from the proprietors of the fleets. Realising, however, that it would be better to be low -and await further developments, they desisted from all agitation, and cf late nothing has been heard of the matter. That it must crop up again, nevertheless, is quite certain, for the" loss or the black labour will mean the ruin of the industry. Getting labour at all is troublesome work enough at any time, and there is no chance of substituting any body of men nearer home for those at present engaged .at a distance. The Queensland blacks, though fairly good sometimes as "swim divers," are not numerous enough nor useful enough for the fleets. The simplest and most easy-going men at present employed are the' Kanakas, and the best workmen are the Japs. None of them ever give any trouble to their employers, and they are all fairly honest and morally upright.