Higher Wages
p. 22 · Read in the full issue
Pearl Divers Demand Higher Wages
A DEMAND by pearl shell divers for higher wages held up the Northern pearling fleet at Darwin at the beginning of March, just as the luggers were making ready to run for the Aru Islands, off the coast of Dutch New Guinea.
Pearlers offered £23 per ton for shell, but the divers demanded £25, refusing to sign on unless the increase was granted.
They declared that so many men have paid the toll of lives last season that they wanted extra wages to compensate for the risks taken.
Every year during the “wet” season the waters around Northern Australia and Torres Strait are unsuitable for pearling, and the fleet moves northwards and west wards to the Dutch islands.
Mr. K. Church, mining engineer, and Dr. R. L. Jack, geologist, of the Broken Hill Proprietary Co. Ltd., left Sydney by the Montoro on February 26 for Rabaul.
They will investigate iron ore deposits on the north coast of New Britain for the B.H.P. Co., which holds an option over the area from Eastern Prospecting Co., No Liability.