An Australian Type: The Pearl Hunter.

Evening Post, Volume LXVII, Issue LXVII, 30 January 1904, Page 10

An Australian Type: The Pearl Hunter.

■ * . He came aboard our steamer at Fremantle, a big, loose-jointed lad of eighteen, with face browned to the hue of bath-brick, with ear-tips almost blackened by long exposure to severe heat, and with massive, powerful hands which boro evidence of having done real work in their time. Before the ship had penetrated far into the great Australian Bight most of his fellow-passengers knew his story, for he boasted of his adventures with a boyish heartiness which helped to reliove the monotony, of the long voyage. 'I'm not myself just now," he told us, in the smoking-room after dinner. "I've been down with fever, ' and I'vo not yet got over wondering at my still being alive. But 1 fouud two pearls just before I got tho fever, one worth £400 and tho other worth £250, so I thought 1 was eutitied to n holiday, aud I left my chum at Broome to look after other things, and I'm going on to Melbourne to have the time of my life. Broome, you know, is away up in Dampier Land, and it's the .headquarters of the pearling fleets. "How did I find the pearls? Well, it's my business to look for them, or, to come nearer the truth, it's the tit-bit of my business when 1 come across one. I'm an oyster-shell gatherer, the best paying business on earth. DIVING FOR PEARLS. "It takes «nbout £800 to equip you. I have known mon to set out with less by getting one of the big Louses like Dalgety's to help them a bit, but really you ought to have £800 in hand at the start. For that you can buy your lugger, stock her with a year's provisions, pay your diver his advance money — a kind of 'retaining fee' — hire your throe Malays from the agent, and set out. "Some of tho divers are Malays and some Japanese, but give mo the little Jap all the time. Your diver, of course, is your mott important man, for you remain _A)ove and examine the shells while ho is under the sea securing your harvest. You pay him £150 as advance money, and £20 on every ton of shell he brings up. The work is exceedingly dangerous, hence the heavy advance At the best his life is short, and sometimes the first plunge ends him. He has to work at great depths, xnd the weight of water may kill him at any time. I knew one man whoso diver was done for the first time he wont below. The doctor said a blood-vessel in tho head had broken under pressure. The owner lost his £150, of course. ITS PERILS. "There is some danger from sharks, but not so much as you would think, although sharks do abound in these waters. Tho divers tako their knives down with them, and their dress seems to warn off the sharks. But 1 remember 6ne case where the diver's signals ceased, and the Malays pulled up the line. They found the diver's clothes ripped up, and only part of him left. A shark had made a, successful attack. The three Malays control tho lines and pump for your diver, and do goneral work. xfi"ey are often a nuisance, nnd it is no use denying it. Sometimes they are a danger, too. You are cooped up month after month, with four Asiatics, with plenty on board to mnko it worth their while to get rid of you. . "One continually hoars cases of the white owner falling overboard, or disappearing no one knows how. You can very easily offend a Malay, and he remembers it a long time. The moment comes sooner or later when his kris or a a, slight push as you are standing on< the edge of the deck finally settles your debt I never went to sleep when aboard my lugger without Srst seeing that my re-

volver was properly charged, and placing it leady to hand fur business. You train .jourseli to sleep light on a peaniug lugger, and he would have to be a sharp Aiuiuy who got at me without my Laving a s.not first. "if ,jou are fortunate you may clear £700 a year out of your lugger, besides any ueuns you find. Our regular business is collecting the greai oyaier bhe.is of the north-wbst, and the&e are made into all nuuner of fancy articles. Sheila ore worth £220 a ton at Broome, and "if you send them Home it is said you can get from £260 to £<SBO a ton. But 1 prefer the JDki2o on the spot. One big London fiim of jewellers in Bond-street has about a bcoie of boats at Broome, aud, altogether, there are about 400 luggers there engaged in the business. Finding pearls is all a matter of chance. I know a man who weut for six years without finding one, and then lighted on a stone worth £2000. Your divers steal them pretty often if you don't keep youi <^es wide open. There is a Ma.ay at Broome to-day who has a stone worth £3^oo, but no one can get at it, for he obtained it on the cross, and is airaid to show or sell it. I tried to .do business with him. I learned that tire beggar wm fond oi champagne, so I made up to him, ond became his best friend. I shouted unlimited champagne, and after a day or two got him into a condition in which he agreed to bring the stone next day, and sell it to me for £100. But by next day ho had disappeared. It cost me £16 for champagne, and the Malay came out top on that deal. DRINK. "I was a teetotaller when I firat went to Broome. My dud's a squatter, jaid I was pretty strictly brought up. But no man remains a teetotaller at Broome, and soon I could stand as. much liquor as the best of them.. In December all the boats that have been cruising come into Broome for tho bad season, and remain there until March. You will not see such sustained drinking anywhere in Australia as there thon. Drink V Drink isn't the word for it. Men just float on liquor. Broome's no Sunday-school when the shell fishers arrive.' Every one has plenty of money, and every one insists on shouting to every one else. I,et twenty men meet in a bar, and each man must consume twenty drinks before they part. You can't refuse to drink with a. mau without mortally offending him. "And if a man had luck, nothing but the dearest liquor will do. I have known three cases of champagne opened for a company not much bigger than this." And he looked round the smoking-room as he spoke. "You don't always wait for corkBcrews. Break the tops off the bottle*, and pour down the fizz. "The Australian Government was going to interfere with us over the black labour question. Under some new law, blacks are not allowed to Umd in Australia without all manner of 1 restrictions. We get over that very easDy. The Malays and Japanese are taken on our luggers from the agent's ships direct, and they never leave the luggers until their time is up. The Australian Government cannot afford to meddle with us too much. If it did, we would simply transfer ourselves to the Dutch flag, and work from Java instead of Broome. We are not going to let any 'white Australia' nonsense spoil us." The lad walked away. An old soldier, sitting by, looked up. "There's a nice, unlicked young cub for you," he said. "If I had had him in my company in Natal at the beginning of the war — well, we would have made a man of him, and clipped his tongue a little." — Daily Mail