PEARL SHELL TRADE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 229, 30 September 1935, Page 11

PEARL SHELL TRADE

INDUSTRY nr AUSTRALIA ..iG i -L-A-ok. JAPANESE COMPETITION A witness at a recent sitting of tb* Australian i a rill' Board iu Brisbane regarding the pearl shelling industry •said that the industry had ialleu into the control of the Japanese. The Japanese divers got all the pearls and the boat owners nad to pay the Japanese crews the price they demanded lor the shell. He said he believed the owners should have the pearls, which would make the industry profitable. The board was inquiring into the application for granting a bounty on pearl shell taken by vessels of Australian register working from Australian ports. The inquiry was begun at Broome, and was adjourned to Brisbane. Air. F. H. Hockings said he had been connected with the pearl shelling, trochus, and beche-de-mer industry since 1911, and had actively carried on business as a partner in the Wauetta Pearling Company since 1922. Practically the whole of the mother-of-pearl shell fished by his firm was gained from the high seas. Pearl shelling at. present was a long proposition, and owners generally recognised that changes were imperative to enable the industry to survive. The complete absence of any form of naval patrol was a great handicap, said Air. Hockings. A patrol boat would enable the owners to establish and maintain better supervision of their lishing vessels. In the QueenslandTorris JStrait region the industry had become entirely dominated by japan use, and until this season no divers of other nationality had been employed in his experience. The influx of foreign-owned vessels involved many obvious evils, the witness stated. They worked the same grounds us Australian-owned vessels, undoubtedly paying a lower wages scale. Their operations were free of licence fees, customs duties, and all forms ot taxation or restriction by fishing regulations, Tim Chairman: Do you think it I would be possible to work the industry with white labour i Air. Hockings: No chance. It would cost too much. No whites are employed The Japanese run the whole industry. The European has practically no say in his own business. We need a patrol boat, both to impress lao local Japan esv and to check law-breaking bv the visiting sampans. The visiting Japanese have no respect for our law at nil. They break every law. Continuing, Air. Hockings said:—“l •io not see that the Japanese are nt. I all necessary in the industry. They I have got the idea that they ere indisponsible, and many Australians seem lo think so, but our company has (lone away with Japanese labour. We employ mostly Malays. One oilier firm | has also dor>? away with Jbpajie>e I crews. We need reorganisation and | there “bould be more supervision to make the Japanese aware they are in ’ British territory. They have become