PEARL FINDS.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXIV, Issue 938, 7 December 1933, Page 5

PEARL FINDS.

The Real Wealth of the Oyster. DARWIN ACTIVITIES. CSpecial to the “ Star.”) MELBOURNE, November 27. r Although the history of the Austra- : Hart pearling industry records “ finds ” i of large and lustrous pearls whose value i on the world market amounted to , thousands of pounds, the bulk of the receipts amassed by the pearling fleet, : operating in Queensland, Northern Territory and Western Australian waters, has come from pearl-shell. The disappointment of Mr V. J. : Clark, a Darwin pearler, one of whose i divers recently brought up from the sea floor a pearl which might have fetched £20,000 had it not been spoiled [ by a worm’s tunnelling, must therefore have been exceptionally mortify- : ing. ; Figures of pearling operations come .'in tardily and incompletely, because of i the nature of the industry, with its ■ fleet of luggers operating in 2000 miles ; of waters between Cape York and Shark Bay. But in 1930-31, when the i value of pearls recovered by Queens- • land and Western Australian luggers : was only £8672, exports of pearl-shell were worth £354,992. Nowadays, the entire fleet in northern waters is about 250 boats, employing 2000 men, mostly Asiatics. One of the richest finds made during half a century of pearling was that of a 178-grain pearl, sold for £3OOO at Broome. The original intention of the Commonwealth authorities was gradually to exclude Asiatics from the crews of the luggers by refusing them further permits. But a Royal Commission reported in 1916 that the White Australia policy was not imperilled by the preponderance of Asiatics in the fleet. However, after 1918 permits were given to Asiatics only in cases in which the diver and tender of a boat were Europeans.