JAPANESE PEARLERS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23021, 26 April 1938, Page 8

JAPANESE PEARLERS

AUSTRALIAN GROUNDS BIG INVASION EXPECTED '[from otjb own correspondent] SYDNEY, April 14 Private intelligence received at Darwin from a'reliable quarter is that one * of the largest Japanese pearling fleets operating from Palao, in the Carolines, proposes to concentrate next season on the North-west Australian fields, which extend from Broome to Onslow. This will complete the Japanese invasion 'of the Australian pear mg grounds. It is intended to use at least 200 vessels, including large uggers and modern mother ships, on all the Australian fields. , About 50 vessels will probably work ' the Broome fields, another 50 northwest of Bathurst Island, and north ol Wyndham, a large number, the Central Arnhem Land Coast, and the remainder east of the Wessel Islands and the Gulf of Carpentaria. To combat the serious drop m the price of shell, likely to result froni these operations, a conference of owners will meet shortly at' Palao to consider the erection there of a factory for tho production of buttons and other articles from the shell. These,, activities will call for greater vigilance and pterhaps the employment of more vessels, by the Australian patrol services. At least one large new vessel is under construction at Sydney for the patrol, and another for the Customs Department, but it would not cause surprise if the second also joined the patrol service. It is expected that Captain Haultain and the crew of the Larrakia will go south early next year, pick up the new patrol boat and take her to Darwin. Then the Larrakia may return to her original task of "crash" boat for aeroplanes meeting with trouble on the Timor Sea crossing. Larger than the Larrakia, but not as fast, the new boat will have a much greater cruising range and her engines should stand wear and tear»