Market
p. 56 · Read in the full issue
Shell Poachers Ruin
PEARLS and pearl-shell worth £250,000 are being taken yearly from north Australian waters by Japanese sampans, according to Mr. J. B. Marco, representative of the Australian Pearl Co., Hatton Gardens, London, who vis ited Australia in January.
Mr. Marco said that about 140 Jap anese sampans operated off the Austra lian coast, from Thursday Island, Dar win, and Broome. Each gathered about 30 tons of shell, which in 1937 was worth £l4O a ton. Last year the col lection was lower, and the price, be cause of the flooding of the market by Japanese, averaged considerably less.