THE PEARL FISHERY.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume IX, Issue 448, 11 November 1881, Page 7

THE PEARL FISHERY.

The report furnished to the Ceylon Government regarding the pearl fishery of the present year deserves notice : — The fishery lasted 47 days, from the 4th March to the 27th April. The tot^l number of oysters fished was 27,338,596, the Government share, two-thirds, amounting to 18,225,731 and realising Rs. 598,688, the prices per thousand ranging from Rs. 22 to 62, and averaging Rs. 3285. The sum total obtained by Government, including tbe sale of sample pearls and Kottu sweepings was Rs. 599,533. The increase of the divers-share from one-fourth to one-third, says Mr. Twynam, had upon the whole a good effect, the divers flocking to the fishery in larger numbers and working with greater alacrity than in previous years. It is estimated that the men and boats engaged in the fishing earned in all a sum of Rs. 299,076, about half the amount obtained by Government, so that the actual yield of the late fishery was Rs. 898,609. Mention is made of the fact that the Roman Catholic section of the divers refused, all persuasion to the contrary notwithstanding, to go out to fish on Good Friday The attendance of merchants and speculators from Ceylon and India at the fishery was much larger than in any previous year since 1837, competition was brisk, and attempts at combination by capitalists to bring down prices proved unsuccessful owing to the presence of a very numerous body of small speculators. Mr. Twynam thinks that the fishery was on the whole remunerative to all concerned ; to the Government, to the divers, and to the traders. The sanitary arrangements of the fishery were all that could be desired. In anticipation of an unusually large gathering, the fishery quarters were extended, additional streets were opened, new refuge houses erected and wells sunk. The health was exceptionally good, and no crime of a serious nature occurred. Mr. Twynam concludes the report with a suggestion, which Captain Donon supports, that a chank fishery should be established at Sillavaturai aa a means of inducing Indian divers to settle in the neighbourhood and of training a body of Ceylon divers. At the late fishery there were 1,000 divers, of whom, it is thought, not even fifty belonged to Ceylon. There was a small number of Ceylon divers in Arippu before 1855 ; but these have all become extinct, with the exception of one very old man, who was said to have been working in the fishery of 1814. The difficulty experienced of late years in obtaining a sufficient number of divers from India is a good reason for establishing a chank fishery with a view to the training of local divers, and Government will probably give effect to Mr. Twynam's suggestion.