Japanese Pearlers In Northern Waters.

How Australian Restrictions Help Foreign Vessels.

From Our Own Correspondent.

Thursday Is., Feb. 24.

THE presence of strange craft in Torres Strait has been explained by a Dar win resident, Mr. E. J. McKay, who left there last year with two luggers to make his headquarters in the Dutch East Indies.

Interviewed by the “Northern Stan dard,” he explained that the pearl-shell companies in the East Indies have their boats working all-out in consequence of the Australian restrictions on the output of pearl-shell. One manager claimed that the restrictions were helping overseas pearlers and, if continued, would mean that the pearling industry would be lost to Australia, as the pearl-beds round the Australian coast are mostly beyond the three-mile limit, and engined boats give a much wider range of operations. He pointed out that boats owned by Japan ese, as well as by the Dutch, are work ing on the same beds as the Darwin boats; and that others from Japan would be coming down this year.

These Japanese boats are 28 tons ves sels, with Diesel engines, and carry three months’ supplies of provisions. They are built to carry 20 tons of shell, and oper ate from an island some 500 miles north of New Guinea. The crews work on the share system and, as a result, it is said that they can undersell Australian pearlers by £50 a ton. The skipper in charge of the boats informed Mr. Mc Kay that the Japanese Government had instructed him to observe the three-mile limit, and that if he did that, the Japan ese government would deal with the Australian Government at Geneva on any other question that might arise.

This accounts for the “mysterious ves sels” which have been the subject of much comment in Australia’s news papers recently, and their description tallies with that of the boats Mr. McKay describes.

Practically the whole of the islands and reefs in Torres Straits are within Queensland boundaries, and at one point on the northern side the boundary runs right up to New Guinea, only a mile or so from the coast. The Great Nor’-east ern Channel, by which deep sea craft travel through Torres Strait, is claimed to be non-territorial; and it is also said that in practice the three-mile limit ex tends only from the mainland of Queens land, which would mean that waters be yond that, whether in Torres Strait or not, are non-territorial.

However, the Taxation authorities (when collecting revenue from those who use those waters) take a different view; and so do the administrative of ficials. But apparently other countries feel inclined to try conclusions on the matter.

At Thursday Island pearling restric tions are voluntarily imposed under mu tual agreement by the pearlers. At Dar win and Broome the restriction on out put is imposed by the Government at the request of the pearlers. But in any case it is to be hoped that the industry will not suffer injury in the way sug gested by Mr. McKay.

EDITORIAL ROTE— S. Komato, the master of the Dai Kohu Maru, an 86-ton Diesel engined vessel, was fined £10 at Thursday Island on February 25 for failing to answer customs signals when his ship passed eastward of Thursday Island on January 22.

It was stated for the prosecution that the Dai Kohu Maru’s speed was increased after she had been signalled to stop by the Customs boat and that the signals must have been seen on board her. Sergeant Carseldine, for the sub collector of Customs, who conducted the prose cution, said that strange vessels had been seen poaching shell, and it was reported by natives that this ship had fish aboard.

The defendant explained his disregard of the signals to stop by saying his vessel was in shallow water and he thought they were those of a pilot boat trying to help him. The reason for his presence in Australian waters was an adventure with a scientific basis.

The Dai Kohu Maru left Kelung in Formosa in December for the Caroline Islands, but put into Zamboanga in the Philippines with engine trouble. She is believed to have cruised as far south as Cooktown and also down the Gulf of Carpentaria.

Frequent complaints of poaching by foreign vessels on Australian and New Guinea trochus grounds have caused the Customs Department to call for a full report into the interception of the Japanese vessel. The report will be sub mitted to the Minister for Customs (Mr. White) for official action.