PREVENTING PEARL POACHING

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21813, 19 June 1936, Page 11

PREVENTING PEARL POACHING

LARGER PATROL BOAT TO BE BUILT

THURSDAY ISLAND, June 18. The Federal Minister f6r Customs (Mr T. W. White), who has been investigating the reports of pearl poaching in Northern Australia, said that after his investigations a larger patrol boat would be built to protect North Queensland from poachers. In the meantime, the Customs Department in Queensland had been instructed to charter a seaplane or launch, whenever necessary, to apprehend a poaching sampan. If the vessel were found to be breaking the Queensland or Federal laws it would be arrested and heavy penalties imposed. [Mr White announced in April that he had ordered ah immediate enquiry by officers of his department into reports that Japanese sampan crews were using Hicks Island, off Thursday Island, as a base for tbeir operations. and were causing annoyance to residents of that island and others nearby. The Government regarded the reports very seriously, and was determined to have every complaint fully investigated, so that action could be taken if necessary. Most of the reports received, the Minister added, seemed to indicate that the offences alleged to have been committed by sampan crews were against the State laws of Queensland, rather than against Federal laws, but the Commonwealth Government would do all in its power to check the illegal activities complained of.l