JAPANESE SAMPANS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22963, 19 August 1936, Page 3

JAPANESE SAMPANS

POACHING IN NEW CALEDONIA RESIDENTS PERTURBED (From Our Own Correspondent! SYDNEY, August 10. Mr Paul Constans, a prominent business man of Noumea, New Caledonia, who is visiting Sydney, said in an interview that the operations of Japanese sampans in search of valuable trochus shell on the coast of New Caledonia were causing much perturbation there. It was announced a few days ago that two sampans had been captured and confiscated with their fishing gear and shell, by order of the court at Noumea, after a fine of £6O had been imposed on each master. New Caledonia, it was explained, covered an area of about 500 miles in length by about 50 miles in width. Surrounding it were reefs, about 10 miles off the land. Between the reefs and the land the waters contained valuable shell, for which the sampans were fishing. Several hundred families in New Caledonia were entirely dependent for their living on this valuable source of submarine wealth. Since the sampans began operations some places along the coast had been stripped of the shell. The regulations provided that those residents engaged in the industry under special permits must take shell only of a specific size, in order to preserve the industry, but the Japanese not only secured shell in those waters in. contravention of irternational regulations, but also picked up shells of any size, thus menacing the industry with its ultimate extinction.

The position, Mr Constans stated, had assumed such serious dimensions that the Governor of the colony had cabled to the Minister for the Colonies in Paris, directing attention to New Caledonia’s unprotected coastline and strongly urging the necessity of the establishment of a military seaplane base as a coastguard. “ The captain of one sampan,” said Mr Constans, “ stated that he had fished for shell not off New Caledonia, but off the Great Barrier Reef. If that is so, then the position concerns Australia also. It is impossible for these sampans to operate alone; they must be accompanied by a mother ship, with a fairly clear Indication that the vessels have their base right up north, on one of the small islands off New Caledonia. Public opinion in New Caledonia is demanding measures for the protection of the coast to prevent the pillaging of the reefs.”