of Pearling Industry

How Australian Governments Dug Grave of Pearling Industry Prophetic Words of Late Frank Jardine, in 1902

THE acute position of the pearling in try of Australia, and the operation of many Japanese pearling boats off the northern and western coasts of Aus tralia, have received occasional promin ence in the press. Therefore, it may be opnortune to publish some views ex pressed in 1902 by the late Frank L.

Jardine, of Somerset, North Queensland.

A comparison may be made between the difficulties experienced in the pearl ing industry in 1902, and those which that industry is undergoing to-day.

The following are extracts from a paper written by Mr. Jardine in March, 1902, and entitled “A Forecast—Torres Strait, Northern and Tropical Australia —Their Present and Future.”

I SHALL sketch briefly the history of the settlement at Thursday Island, as one of the connecting links be tween Asia and Australasia, and the centre of our pearl shell fishery in Tor res Strait (wrote Mr. Jardine, in 1902).

Then I shall have something to add in reference to the present relations of Asia and Australasia, and the recent Commonwealth legislation on alien immigration.

The pearl shell fishery commenced in 1869 at Somerset. Hither came some adventurous mariners, from Sydney, with scratch crews, consisting chiefly of South Sea Islanders. The Warrior, or Wappa, reef, was the first scene of their search, and the method was what we call “swimming diving”—that is, diving without the aid of any apparatus.

The shell was very abundant, and was readily brought to the surface by ex pert swimming natives, in water which did not exceed three or four fathoms.

The few boats which were then engaged in the fishery were not of sufficient capacity, but though the price realised at first did not reach £lOO per ton, it was so easily obtained, at but small outlay, that it paid remarkably well.

Then, when the shell reached the Lon don market, price rose to £250 a ton.

Here, then, was manifestly a new dis covery, which attracted marked atten tion. More boats, and more extended prospecting, resulted. The Ormond reefs

proved most productive, and the shallow and strong tidal channels of the Prince of Wales Islands were exceptionally rich.

Some fortunes were very quickly made by “swimming diving”, and a good many precious pearls found their way to Sydney as the illicit perquisites of the South Sea Islands divers, who gener ally managed to appropriate them.

Indeed, so handsome were the profits realised from the shell itself that the boat-owners began to regard the pos session of the pearls obtained as a secondary consideration altogether. Bed sides, if a diver happened to find a good pearl in the shell which he opened and handled, how was the master to know anything about it?

Many a diver, accordingly, after a successful season in Torres Strait, could afford to spend a high time in Sydney for many weeks. Thus it came about

that a good deal of attention was attracted to this profitable pursuit.

Boats were fitted out with diving apparatus, and white men began to think that it might be worth their while to learn to dive in the diving dress.

Under such conditions as then prevailed there was little or no risk, and with ordinary care diving for pearl shell might be quite as profitable as gold digging.

Meanwhile, more boats made their appearance, but it was not so easy to supply the crews. The local source of supply was exhausted. The shallow waters had been pretty well picked over, and in them the shell was less abundant. The deeper waters must be tried, and for them more men were wanted.

Thus it came about that Malays and Manila-men were recruited. They turned out to be very suitable for the work.

There were no divers among them at the start, as at that time all the divers were white men; but they soon learned to work in the diving dress, and some of them proved excellent divers.

AS time went on it was found that Somerset was not a very suitable centre for the industry. The Prince

of Wales Islands were resorted to by the shellers. Albany Pass proved to be a somewhat dangerous and foul anchor age; the tides being very strong. The channels around Thursday Island were found to be safer and more secure, though by no means being ideal har bours or anchorages.

So it came about that the settlement was removed from Somerset to Thurs day Island, and the former site of the old settlement was purchased from the Queensland Government by Mr. Frank L. Jardine. In the little bays and shel tered anchorages which abound in that locality the shellers had already com menced to form head stations, where they lived themselves, and whence they dispatched their boats to the neighbour ing fishing grounds.

A shelter's fleet might consist of 10 or 15 or perhaps 20 luggers. These he would fit out at his head station, and send them to sea for a month or six weeks; and at the end of that time they would return with the shell they had obtained, when they would remain in port for a few days, and then go out again to the fishing grounds with fresh supplies.

This system worked fairly well for some years, when shell was plentiful and divers were not too knowing. The pearls, it is true, nearly all went to the

divers as their perquisite, and this was almost recognised by the masters, who sometimes unknowingly bought their own pearls at a good round discount.

But a time came when it became necessary to sail closer to the wind in order to earn profits on the increased capital that was being expended in the industry.

SO it came about that attendant schooners were sent to sea with small fleets of luggers. These were called floating stations, and thus the owners were able to control their men more effectively. When the luggers re quired provisions they had recourse to

these depot schooners or floating sta tions, from which they could obtain any thing they required. This saved much time —the time which used to be spent in port—and it also put an end to the convenient appropriation of pearls by the divers. All shell had to be brought to the depot schooner unopened, and thus the pearls were secured before they reached the pockets of the divers.

Everything which used to be done on land was now done at sea, the shells were collected, opened, cleaned, packed ai ? d handed over all ready for shipment, ihe depots, again, were waited on by tenders which brought them stores and took the packed shell into port. In this way the shelling fleet could remain out on the shelling ground for a long time.

Such are the conditions on which this industry is now carried on (1902). There are 247 boats using diving apparatus, and there are nine depot schooners.

These boats and schooners represent a considerable amount of capital, a large proportion of which is owned in Bris bane.

I have said that at first the shelters, finding that it was impossible to get sufficient white men who would ship in their boats, had recourse to Malays and Manila-men, both of whom were found suitable for the purpose.

THEN came the Japanese, who ap peared to be quite suitable as employees, and who very soon showed that they could not only work for others, but that they could work for themselves. They bought and built their own boats, and fitted them out, obtained licenses, and won for them selves a position and a standing that could not be questioned.

Would they appropriate the industry?

It looked very like it. In numbers, they were rapidly increasing, and in co operation they proved more than a match for the European or the Manila men.

Then it was discovered that the Asiatic Japanese is an alien, and it was scarcely to be expected that. we would license aliens to take our profitable

Torres Strait pearling luggers, riding lazily at anchor in Thursday Island harbour.

pearl shell from our territorial waters.

Thus it came about that the licensing of shelling boats, which up to that time had been unlimited, was thence-forth restricted to British subjects.

It was our undoubted right to put this limitation in force and it was abso lutely necessary, for without it there can be no doubt that the industry would very soon have passed into the hands of the Japanese, just as the northern goldfields would have passed into the hands of the Chinese if we had not found the means of preventing it.

It was not only necessary to restrict the issue of licenses to British subjects, but it was also necessary to check what threatened to be a small invasion of Japanese, who were arriving, not only for employment in the pearl shell fish eries, but also on the sugar plantations.

This, fortunately, was easily accom plished by correspondence between the two Governments—for it must be said, to the credit of the Japanese Govern ment, that they have shown themselves to be most reasonable and considerate in their negotiations with us. It was arranged, accordingly, that immigrant Japanese should be furnished with pass ports; and that no passports should be issued except on authority from the Queensland Government, PASSING now to the maritime popu lation of Thursday Island, let us see in what proportion the differ ent nationalities are represented (in 1902): — Europeans 65 Japanese 619 Filipinos 237 Malays 217 S.S. Islanders 279 Pacific Islanders 242 Rotumans 79 Samoans 27 Papuans 27 Aboriginals of Australia .. 171 Miscellaneous 69 Making a total of men shipped and employed in the pearling and beche-de mer industries of 2,632; and these, of course, are nearly all single men.

Here, certainly, Asia has the best of it, and herein, as I believe, Asia will continue to have the best of it. I scarcely see how it can be that the Asiatic should not out-number the European. You might prohibit or place difficulties in the employment of Asiatics or of aliens, but whom could you find to take their place? The white man will not ship for £2 or £3 a month, even if supplied with everything that he can expect to be furnished with at sea.

The occupation is a perfectly healthy one, and the risks to be encountered are infinitesimally small, compared with the rigours and dangers of our fisher-folk in the North seas. But the white men are not to be had who will man the pearling luggers, nor are there white men divers who will work with coloured crews.

I scarcely know why white men are not attracted by the rich rewards of a diver’s calling, but such is undoubtedly the case. The unvarying monotony, dis comfort, and uninteresting life probably form the chief objections to it. Any how, they are not in the field.

Meanwhile, the Asiatic, with his em ployer, the owner of the lugger fleets and depot schooners, is in possession of the field, and it is hardly likely, as it seems to me, that he will be dispossessed.

But a new aspect will also come over the whole question by the passing of the Commonwealth restriction legisla

tion, and under that legislation how can the Asiatic find a footing?

To that the pearl-sheller with his fleets and floating stations, replies: “Nevertheless, we shall live! You may drive us from your territorial waters, but we shall find a field for our industry outside your limits, on the high seas—and we warn you that, if we are driven to this extremity, Thursday Island, as a commercial community, must surely die”—and there is certainly some prospect that recourse may be had to such an expedient.

The Dutch have recently opened a settlement in Dutch New Guinea, not more than 100 miles from our western boundary, where they are holding out

inducements to our pearl-shellers to go.

The shellers say, “Why should we not, if we can get better terms for our Asia tic crews, and exemption from labour restrictions? What is to prevent us from doing so? We can fish just as we have hitherto done, on our old fishing ground, and you cannot touch or inter fere with us so long as we keep out of your territorial waters.”

There is no doub t a good deal in this, and remains to be seen how it will work out. The probability is that the Commonwealth will come to some corn promise, by which the pearl-shell fisher ies, both on the northern and north western shores of Australia, will be re

garded as maritime industries differen tiated in some respects from the ques tion of alien or Asiatic labour, as applied to the mainland. There is, I think, a real difference which will have to be recognised.

IHAVE endeavoured to describe the position as regards the Asiatic alien as applied to Torres Strait.

At Port Darwin and in Western Aus tralia the same principles and same practices hold good.

In the Northern Territory, there are not many Malays or Japanese, though there are a good many Chinese —some 2,567, according to last returns. In Western Australia, their pearl-shelling fleets are recruited from Java and Singapore. There, too, is a limited mari

time enterprise which is not likely to be seriously interfered with by the new legislation.

The Queensland Government has lately, in Torres Strait, made fairly extensive water-reserves in the neigh bourhood of Thursday Island, and instructed their officers not to issue any more new licenses.

Both these provisions have, of course, had the effect of considerably limiting the operations of those engaged in the industry. They have a tendency, also, in the direction of creating a monopoly, as regards the present holders of licenses.

They do not commend themselves to my judgment, and I consider them, if not a mistake, at any rate premature.

HERE is an industry which, during the 33 years it has been in existence, has resulted in the production of shell, beche-de-mer, and tortoise-shell, which has realised, according to my estimate, something like £5,000,000 in the London and Eastern markets. Can nothing better be done for it than to impose all those restrictions, with the intention, as it is said, of saving it from

impending destruction?

The specific cure for the malady, it seems to me, would be to persevere in

the endeavours, already made, to ascer tain the best methods of cultivating the shell amongst the central reefs and breeding-places, where at one time it was so abundant. These nurseries should be closed, and would act as reservoirs from which the spat would, with the tides, be distributed through the greater portion of the strait. This will certainly be accomplished some day, and the sooner the better, even though it costs a large sum of money by way of experiment. The Govern ment, indeed, got as far as the appoint ment of a scientific expert for this pur pose, but there the matter ended —ad futurum tempus relegatum est, like many of our grand schemes.

ACCORDING to my reading of the signs of time, the relationship of Asia and Australia is one of the great questions of the present and the future, for Australia. I am as conscious as other people that the immense area of Northern Australia cannot be peopled by Europeans alone, as the shores of Southern Australia are peopled, yet I am perfectly satisfied that the people of the Southern States of Australia will do their level best to maintain the in tegrity of their present institutions, and the existence of what is called a “White Australia”. It may be pride, it may be prejudice; but I believe it to be a pas sionate conviction with the present in habitants of Australia that the unex plored and uninhabited portions of their country shall be reserved for their own use, even though included in the zone of the tropics. When I say their own use I mean, of course, that they would desire that such territory should be occupied as Australia has hitherto been occupied—by men and women of their own kith and kin—and that the introduction of Eastern races must be subject to such limitations as they please to impose. But, whatever happens, Australia is determined to have her children —White.

Addendum, by C.R.S. (4/3/1940) THE average man in the street, who has heard quite a lot about the invasion of the Japanese pearling boats and sampans which have been operating off the eastern, northern and western coasts of Australia, and which have been termed “poachers”, etc., after reading the above paper written by the late Mr. Jardine, in 1902, can see that the Japanese themselves are not wholly to blame for invading the shores of Australia, as they have been doing in the last five years.

We see that the European pearlers of Torres Strait threatened to do the very thing the Japanese are doing to-day.

Therefore, it may be claimed that the Australian governments of the past are responsible for the invasion of the Jap anese pearling boats and sampans, which have created havoc on the Aus tralian M.O.P. shelling grounds, be cause they did not pass proper legisla tion for the protection of the Australian pearler, when the industry was young.

It is rumoured that, in the pearling season of 1940, the Japanese Govern ment intends to give financial assist ance to the Japanese pearling-boats operating off the Australian coast.

Exactly how this financial aid is to be given has not been disclosed. A decid ing factor was that the Australian Gov ernment now is subsidising the Austra lian pearlers, and the Japanese Govern ment considers it therefore imperative to help and maintain the Japanese South Seas pearling industry.