THE PEARLING INDUSTRY

Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21290, 9 October 1934, Page 12

THE PEARLING INDUSTRY

CRISIS IN AUSTRALIA SUCCESSFUL JAPANESE COMPETITION (HIOJI OUR UWK t'OKaiISI't'iXJJKKT.) SYDNEY, September 22 Australia's pearling industry, which has been worth roughly about £250.000 a year, is to-day facing the greatest crisis in its history, according to reports that have been received l'rom Darwin. This crisis, it is said, has been orecipitated by a startling growth of Japanese competition, which began about three years ago. Now the Japanese are making vigorous preparations to extend their operations, and those interested in this trade say it is only a matter of time when they will have a monopoly. There is a grave danger, at least. That within five years the Japanese will have captured the greater part of the trade. The latest report is that there are now 1? Japanese and foreign-owned iuggers workmg the enormous pearlshell beds which cover hundreds of square miles of sea floor about 45 miles north-west of Bathurst Island, and next season four large and modern Japanese luggers, tended by a 140ton "mother" schooner will be pearling off Broome on the world's richest and most extensive shell banks. It is also reported that the foreign-owned fleet competing with Australian luggers will be augmented by two big boats that are now being built in Japan

Darwin pearlers complain bitterly of the intrusion of Japanese pearlers into the I'athurst Island grounds. The grounds, however, are beyond the three-mile limit, and Australia possesses no extraterritorial rights there as she does over the waters between the Queensland coast and New Guinea. The Japanese know this, and it seems that they are on the grounds to stay. Japanese have been working as clivers for Australian owners,, lor j'tats. but it was not until recently thct they turned to pearling on their own account. Ironically their .-ucccs.-; was due to the fact that Hie I P'ice of pearl shell had been greatly improved because of the restriction of output imposed by Australian The Japanese boats are much better fitted for the'!- task than the Australian, and each month they take a great deal more shell than the local luggers. Four out of five master pearlers at Darwin say that they made a loss last year. The Japanese have shown their ability to make a success of the pearling industry, and that Australians have not done so is surely a reflection on them They are now protesting to the Government, and it has even been suggested that they should be helped by the payment -f a bonus for all shell produced. It might be more reusonab'e to suggest that thev should follow the example of the Japanese and modernise their methods. Nobody likes to sec the Japanese taking a livelihood from Australians, but mest people vculcl like to see Australians put up a better fS^hi.