DIVING FOR PEARLS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20598, 24 June 1930, Page 9

DIVING FOR PEARLS.

JAPANESE FACE DEATH. SECOND FATALITY OF SEASON. [from our own correspondent.] SYDNEY, Juno 11. Each year pearl shell to tho valuo of .C 250.000 is fished from Australian waters by Japanese divers and tho discovery of new bods in tho Gulf of Carpentaria lias added fresh impetus to tho industry. Jn their eagerness to outdo ono another tho Japanese divers, encased in rubber suits and leaden helmets and boots, daily risk their lives at depths sometimes more than 40 fathoms, wliero tho pressure is so great that it occasionally bursts tho suit. Sometimes u diver is hauled to tho deck of a lugger with blood pouring from bis oars, noso and mouth. His eyes arc glassy and his limbs aro stricken with paralysis. Helpless, lie is again encased in tho suit and sent down to tho depths onco moro in tho hope that tho pressure will once again relax his limbs. If it does not, his fate, if not death, is something worse—paralysis for life. But tho Japancso nro philosophical. Thoy know tho risks that they lake and they aro prepared to take them in the feverish search for the treasures of tho deep. The second death Ibis season was reported to tho police at Thursday Island this week when a lugger brought in tho body of Ranzo Maraiuoto, who was asphyxiated when his air pipo to tho lugger, 30 fathoms above where ho was operating, became entangled in tho pro poller and broko Owing to the enormous pressure of tho water there was no tirno t,o haul tho victim to the surface beforo his supply of oxygen failed.