Trochus Shell
p. 68 · Read in the full issue
Chance for Factory in the South west Pacific
IT is a remarkable thing that, although the waters of the South-west Pacific contain much trochus shell, and there is a world-wide market for the buttons, etc., which are made from this com modity, no real attempt has been made to establish the button-making industry in the South Seas.
Until 1939, most of the Pacific shell went to Czecho-Slovakia and Japan, where it was cut up for various articles —mostly buttons. It is understood there were large factories in Central Europe; but in Japan this was essentially a back yard industry—thousands of Japs worked, in their own homes, on shell which they bought in the open market.
Three or four kinds of Pacific shell are sold for these purposes—pearl-shell (from a kind of ovster). and trochus shell be ing the principal sorts handled. The Pacific is the main, if not the sole source.
Up until World War I, pearl-shell was the chief raw material employed. Dur ing that war, pearl-shelling largely ceas ed. and a great fillip was given to the gathering of trochus shell which, though more brittle and unsubstantial than pearl-shell, nevertheless was a good sub stitute. Since then, trochus has held its place as a raw material.
For at least ten years before the war, Japanese ships were gathering trochus all over the South-west Pacific, and in many cases they illegally entered territorial waters. They thus were reported poach ing in Torres Strarit, in the Louisiade and Bismarck archipelagoes, in the Solo mons and New Hebrides, in New Cale donia and in Fiji. Trochus apparently does not occur in the same degree east ward of Fiji. The Japs did not recognise the rule observed by 'all Europeans, that trochus of less than 21 inches should not be taken. They scraped the reefs and shallows clear of baby shell, and de stroyed countless beds.
As a result of the war, trochus gener ally has had a great chance to recover, and traders everywhere report fine beds of shell. There is said to be a keen de mand for shell, which is quoted in Syd ney markets at double pre-war prices; but it is not so easy to locate firm buy ers. The demand appears to come largely from America, where some firms con template developing the button-making business: but American buyers are diffi cult to contact.
Meanwhile, it is astonishing that no man of enterprise has jumped in on this opportunity. It should bp easy to estab lish in one of the Territories, where there is a guarantee of cheap labour and low taxation, a factory which could make use of the shell from the adjoining seas, and which would be certain of a profitable market for its nroducts.