THURSDAY ISLAND.

Wanganui Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16046, 10 February 1920, Page 6

THURSDAY ISLAND.

AN OUTPOST OF EMPIRE (By'Brooke Nicholls, in Melbourne Argus.) The opportunity for studying the life and conditions upon Thursday Island was afforded during a recent ornithological expedition to the islands of Torres Straits on behalf of Mr H. L. White, of Belltress, Scone, N.S.W. Mr White has been a patron of ornithology for many years, and has made munificent gifts to the Royal Australasian Ornithologists’ Union, as well as the National Museum, Melbourne. To the museum he presented his great collection of Australian birds, to which additions are continually being made. He has financed several scientific expeditions to the remoter parts of Australia. Thursday Island, or “T. 1.” as the inhabitants prefer it, is to-day an important outpost of empire. Some day it may become another Heligoland . , This small island, of some two hundred acres, has a population of eighteen hundred people, speaking fourteen different languages. In fact, they claim ail nationalities except the Laplander. The island is in the midst of a group of larger islands, named Wednesday, Friday, Horn, and Prince of Wales, all placed just a mile or two away. Captain Bligh, of Bounty fame, discovered Wednesday Island upon bis famous open-boat voyage—-the most remarkable in the annals of sea history—but no one knows why Thursday Island is so called. The larger islands surround and enclose its waters, making a harbour whose beauty is enhanced by the blue cobalt colouring of its depths. Prom the sea approach “T. 1.” differs from any other port along its white fringe of beach, the sea front lined with the warehouses and boat-building slips of the pearl fishers, the wide verandahs of the residential quarters, all latticed against the force of the south-east monsoons, give it an Oriental aspect, emphasised by the colour and character of its inhabitants. Here 500 whites, 800 Japanese, and a polyglot population of Chinese, Cingalese, South Sea Islanders, Papuans, Javanese, and Malays, Torres Strait Islanders, mainland natives, Ceramese, and others, live on the largesse of the bountiful coral sea mother-of-pearl, beche-de-mer, tortoiseshell and trochas, sandalwood, cocoanut, dugong, and turtle, and always the chance of a little treasure trove. MIXED POPULATION. The town is divided into two parts—the business portion, with its six hotels, stores (mostly run by Chinese), jewellers’ shops, banks, warehouses, and an open-air picture theatre; and the native quarter “Yokohama,” a sandy wilderness of unmade streets, tin shanties, Japanese stores, and gambling dens. There are two churches, the Quetta Memorial Church (the cathedral of the Bishopric of Carpentaria) and the Roman Catholic church. There are also two schools, one for the white children, and one for the natives. Upon general principles one is somewhat against too much missioning of native races, as the tendency is to destroy all trace of their primitive arts, manners, and customs. . But there can be no doubt about the good work which the Anglican and other missions are accomplishing in these remote parts of the Commonwealth. One day a deputation of three Torres Strait Islanders called upon the acting rector. There was a diffidence about this deputation which bespoke something out of the ordinary.. Usually the coloured visitors to the Bishop’s house are the captains and crews of the luggars from the out-lying islands, with mail bags and messages for the rector, or perhaps a present of turtle meat. But this was something more serious. After some interrogation, the spokesman intimated that one of the party, a cheery-faced, fuzzy-haired “boy” from Murray Island, 100 miles away, wished to get married. The boy spoke little English. “You want to get married?” queried the rector. A bashful, smiling assent was the only reply. “Where’s your girl, eh?” This seemed to be a poser, and a head hung down, and an agitated shuffling of one foot denoted an hiatus in the proceedings. Then the spokesman, who was the captain of the Murray Island lugger, explained that the boy had not yet seen her, and that he wanted one of the native girls from the mission station of Mapoon, 200 miles down the Gulf of Carpentaria. These girls, together with many half-caste children, are taken from the native tribes as young as possible, and carefully trained and cared for, otherwise they would grow up wild. They make good wives, and when there is not a sufficient number of marriageable girls upon any particular island, the “boys” come to the Bishop’s house for a wife, knowing they will not be disappointed in her —an excellent testimony to the value of the missions in these parts, JAPANESE AND PEARLING. The most important industry in “T. 1.” is the pearling, which is practically in the hands of the Japanese, who are the only people that will engage in the deep-sea diving, for a diver’s period of active life, strenuous and unpleasant, and hazardous in the extreme, averages only three years. One morning, at daybreak, the harbour, which overnight had been silent and empty, showed a forest of brownstemmed masts. The pearling fleet had come home 17 days before its time. For it was the Mikado’s birthday—the biggest day of the year for “T. 1.” and not an owner nor a master dared board his vessel and order the crew back to duty. The fleet lay at anchor,, scores and scores of two-masted luggers, heads up to the wind, with canvas sails folded, resting serenely like a flock of white gulls. Ever since daylight, the dinghy of each lugger had been plying over the short stretch of water to the beach, filled to the gunwale with pearlshell, each load holding

half a ton. Their black, brown, and dusky white crews, laden with largo boxies, carried on two poles, sedanchair fashion, moved up the beach and across the road to the warehouses, where the shell is examined and weighed. There is a constant clatter and banter, and a babel of tongues amongst these men of the fleet, and they, are all physically perfect. Three months at sea in a 14-ton lugger weeds out the weak aud unfit. The Papuans and South Sea islanders favour the Malay sarong or lava ( a strip of white, red, blue or figured cloth tied round the waist and falling to the knees.) Most of the others wear a pair of trousers and a shirt. Some of the Papuans bleach the top,of their fuzzy heads with lime, and then rub in a red vegetable stain. These are the exquisites of the fleet. All go barefooted, and most bare-headed, and, as they work, call and shout with many . gesticulations, making the scene an animated one. After every meal, a group of black-skinned Papuans come out of an eating-house along the sea-front. They cross the beach to the water, carrying kerosene tins and other cooking utensils, and wash the lot in the sea. This completed, they wade inwaist-deep and wash their one-piece garment before venturing upon a swim. As they return with their household gods and penates, the strong tropical sunlight flashing from their wet, glistening skins shows to advantage their magnicent chests and limbs. Life for them is reduced to its simplest elements. The wives and children of the crews of the luggers are glad to have them back, and this morning the town is gayer than usual, with everywhere the flags of England and Japan fluttering in the wind, and the sound of the accordion and the gramophone comes fitfully. But the predominating note is one of colour. Upon the cobalt sea a cutter’s dinghy approaches the shore. Painted white without and red within, and filled with shining shell, it is pulled by a bare-headed brown Japanese in blue trousers and a lemon-yellow sweater, A black-skinnod Papuan, wearing a white lava lava, squats native fashion upon the shell, and the colours do not clash because of the setting. , SHARKS, The flfeet has returned for 10 days, and mattresses, blankets, rugs, and clothing hang from the spars and rigging. The Japanese diver lives at one end of the boat, and the crew at the other. The complement of a lugger is divided into three classes—the Japanese diver or divers, the tender, who is responsible for the working of the air-pumps and the ship, and the crow of four or five. The diver is practically the captain, but the tender is responsible for the working of the vessel. When out upon the pearling grounds, the diver is seen walking along the bottom of the sea. Little fish come and take a peep at him and scurry away, and occasionally a shark, attracted by the .shining glass of the helmet, also pays him a visit. But the diver treats them with contempt. If the shark happens to be a big one, he distends the rubber wrist-piece of his dress, and shoots out a stream of air bubbles, and the shark hurriedly departs. But sometimes the shark gets his own hack. A Japanese was taken off the Arlington Reef, and so severely bitten that he died. The .bite took in one hip and buttock, and teeth-marks appeared in a crescent shape about the umbilical region. A tremendous bite! One of his mates was diving near by (they were working without the dress, “swim diving” they term it), and when he came to the surface the shark was just makingoff. The width of its tail was stated in evidence to be four feet six inches. Another chap was bitten, his foot being badly torn and lasoerated. In reply to the remark that it must have been a fairly big shark, he said, “Oh, no, boss; very small one, only about fathom and a half” (9ft). A more interesting case is that of “Treacle,” a Torres Strait island “boy.” The story reads like an extract from Baron Munchausen. “Treacle” dived head first into the mouth of a large shark, and both live to tell the tale. This “boy” had 32 stitches put into his head aud neck at Thursday Island Hospital, and the marks of the teeth are visible in a diagonal line halfway across one side and his chest and back. It is not known whether the shark also required medical attention, but “Treacle” had only got away by having sufficient presence of mind to gouge the eyes of the monster with his fingers. WONDERFUL DIVERS. Sometimes the island natives engaged in “swim diving” encroach upon the Japanese ground. They are much quicker than the diver in Ms heavy dress, and snatch up all the shell before his eyes, and keep ahead of him all along the bed. The diver signals to the boat above, and a little fat thrown into the water immediately brings the sharks, and the “boys” clear out for their lives. In these parts one does not venture far out for a swim after killing and cutting up a turtle on the beach. The Japanese divers have walked all over the bottom of Torres Strait, and a great part of the sea within the Earner Reef as far south as Gladstone, Every shoal and reef is known to them, as well as every sea cave where a mermaid may lurk. They are wonderful divers. Every day for eight to twelve hours, and for three hundred days in the year, they live under conditions which would make a submarine seem a palace. - Each day at dawn sees the diver at work. He dona his dress, is lowered to his eerie tack, and works without a meal as long as the light lasts. As he walks along , the bottom of the coral sea, the lugger above must follow his every move and turning. As the vessel drifts with wind and tide the crew lias a strenuous time, the sails being continually lowered or hauled up-

on. After walking the .length of the bed of shell, perhaps a distance of two or three miles, the direr signals for the boat’s return to the. head of the bed. Upon this journey it is not possible for the vessel to work against tbe wind and keep on the track of the diver, so he is hauled to the deck. But if lie be in a hurry, and he usually is, a rope with a loop in it. is lowered, and at the end of it the diver sits and swings in the sea, one hundred feet below, while the lugger scurries back to the starting point. Pox- a number of years the “floating station” principle obtained in the working of the mother-of-pearl industry. Each fleet was worked from a mother ship, usually a schooner of about one hundred tons. The shell was opened aboard, and any pearls were the property of the pearlers. Now the works are controlled from shore stations, and the pearls belong to the diver. One Japanese recently secured two pearls which he sold to a pearler for £450 and ■£3 so respectively. In. addition, he got his usual 25 per cent, “cut” upon all shell taken, so that his cheque for the three months ran well over the £IOOO. TROCHAS SHELL, At the outbreak of war no industry was so hard hit as pearling. The chief pearlshell workers were central Europeans, and at one blow the pearlers found their market gone. Thousands of pounds’ worth of shell was stored in London, and storage and interest charges ate up the profits. During 1915 most of the luggers “laid up.” Then came a great find, which more than any other of recent years shows what immense natural resources the vast empty north still holds. The ray of sunshine that pierced the gloom was the discovery that trochas shell could he profitably worked. The trochas is a coneshaped shell with a flat base, 3iu or Ain in diameter. When cut and polished it cannot be distinguished from pearlshell. The Japanese slipped into the breach, and for tho last five years trochas shell buttons have been used instead of mother-of-pearl in this aud other countries. Tho appended statement shows tho rapid rise and importance of tho trochas shell industry: Quantity. Value. Year, Cwt. £ 1915 10,886 11.904 1916 19,012 22,041 1917 14,209 21,693 1918 14,625 23,186 1919 (to Sept.) 13,419 45,225 Trochas shell saved Thursday Island. Meanwhile the pearl-shell ■ beds, which before the war were beginning to show signs of depletion, have had a chance to recuperate, and the shell is now more readily obtained and the work is attended with less risk, because tho shallow water beds are workable again. Deaths from deep diving have also practically ceased. The record for deep diving is 42 fathoms. If one were walking along Collins Street, Melbourne, and imagined it to be the bottom of the sea, the top of the spire of Scots Church steeple would represent the surface at this depth. Tho pressure is enormous, and it takes three-quarters of an hour to lower a diver safely, and the same time to bring him up again. And he remains only a minute or so on tho sea 'bottom. The Japanese are wonderful men in tho waiter, and absolutely regardless of death or danger. When a diver is brought up dead in the dress from the depths below another steps forward immediately to take his place. At the present time they have complete control of the industry, which employs 13 fleets of licensed luggers, comprising 156 vessels, employing 77,5 ixidexitured and 550 unindentured hands. The capital invested represents about £ 400,000. In addition, there are a number of small traders, sandalwood getters, etc., and mission boats worth another .£50,000. The Japanese divers earn about £40,000 a year, which is subject to income. tax, but this is never paid. Legislation is contemplated, and is necessary, which will reserve tho “swim diving” part of the indxistry for the natives of • the Torres Straits. Now all the industry is worked by Japanese, and the shell shipped to Japan in Japanese steamers, worked upon by their native artisans, and shipped back to Australia in tho same line of vessels. The local storekeepers complain that tho divers do not spend their money in “T. 1.,” but buy ail their stores in Japan. But there is this to be said upon the other side: that if it were not for the divers (no one else will face the work), the trade of Thursday Island would be dead. In the Marshall group, 1300 miles from tho Japanese have regenerated a diseased and dwindling race, and 1200 miles further westward, 90,000 of them make Honolulu the prosperous capital of the Pacific. Upon the festival days, such as the Mikado’s birthday, the luggers all fly the Union Jack and the Rising Sun. Tbe shops and stores are ransacked for flags, but the supply of “Jacks” is not sufficient to go round. At the Japanese Club—tho only club upon tho island—English and Japanese flags decorate the entrance, while at the flagstaff head a large red sun upon a white background flutters bravely ixr the south-east trades. At their sports carnivals the Japanese give fine displays of wrestling and siugkvstick play, the competitors, lithe and active, being singularly fit. It would be hard to find their equal upon “T. 1.”