QUEST FOR PAWA SHELL

Taranaki Daily News, 31 March 1934, Page 19 (Supplement)

QUEST FOR PAWA SHELL

CANADIAN VISITS DOMINION. STRUCK WITH ITS BEAUTY, In quest of pawa shells, Mr. J. P. Ralston, a Canadian is at present visiting New Zealand. The beauty of the pawa shell, which in New Zealand is so common as to be passed by with hardly any notice, aroused Mr. Ralston’s admiration when he was shown some specimens in England, and, in order to secure some shell, New Zealand became his destination. 'Hie commercial possibilities of the shell impressed Mr. Ralston, and his interest has been heightened by the information that green pearls are sometimes discovered in the pawa. Green pearls, he states, are as valuable as Broome pearls.obtained from the famous fisheries on the north coast of Australia. The commonness of the shells has surprised Mr. Ralston, who during his stay in Wellington has pursued further inquiries, with a view to procuring supplies. Mr. Ralston’s journey adds an incident to an uncommon career, for he is the author Of a series of articles which appeared recently in the “Wide World Magazine” under the pen name, “The Man with the Harp.” In 1913, at the age of 23, he left Seattle for Alaska, his only possession being a harp and a remarkably fine physique. He quickly became known throughout Alaska as “the man with the harp,” and it was his adventures there that provided the material for the magazine articles. He became little richer, however, and it was in straitened circumstances that he took up prospecting in Australia. In Central Australia he had the good fortune to discover an opal mine, and left the Commonwealth with a large quantity of stone and very much richer. Since then he has toured the world buying and selling opals. A harp Mr. Ralston owns he has studded with opals, and now he is making another one of a more elaborate kind, the decoration of which, he hopes, will include pawa shells as well as opals.