Pearl-Button Industry
p. 37 · Read in the full issue
[?]Ap Poachers
Ire A Factor:
The Future of Fiji’s Pearl-Button Industry
lIHEN Mr. A. G. McCown visited f? Suva in March it was rumoured that he was planning to move is pearl button factory to that city om its present location in Levuka, i Ovalau Island.
Mr. McCown was non-committal, it he admitted that his location i Levuka sometimes caused trans lation difficulties.
One other difficulty which might ■ solved easier with a shift to Suva mid be the availability of skilled aftsmen from overseas for the anufacture of the button rpsidue to costume jewellery, etc. Skilled ;hnicians for this trade, like any tier, are scarce. They might be ghtly less scarce if they had to e in Suva rather than out-of-the iy Levuka.
Mthough Mr. McCown has all the ichinery necessary for this part the industry, so far lack of crafts n has forced him to concentrate ly on button making for which al labour is adequate.
Juttons made from a natural aki-coloured shell found in Fiji ters are popular and so far the entry of Japan into the button de and the consequent high price which trochus shell has soared, i had little effect on his market. before he began production he ested about £15,000 in trochus 11 at a time when it was only to £BO per ton on the open rket. His factory is still working that shell; and, in addition, he over half-a-dozen launches of own which are employed in thus fishing in Fiji waters. t present the open market price rochus is about £A4OO per ton— nee at which Japan, thorn in flesh of all button producers, 5 only about one-quarter of her urements. is calculated that for the re aing three-quarters of her needs manufacturers pay no more i £5O. This is achieved simply fle poaching and plundering of mese fishing fleets that have i seen everywhere in the SW fle in the last 18 months.
UHderstood that the men on ■: Ships receive a wage equivalent bout 7 dollars per month. In tion they get a bonus of seven Lr . s f or every ton of shell they he mothpr-rhip transports shell so poached back to Japan ibout 14 dollars a ton. The bulk ipanese requirements are there landed there for a ridiculously sum and as a result Japanese
manufacturers are prepared to pay a fantastically high price for the comparatively small amount of shell that cannot be poached.
Basically it is a problem of hungry mouths and population pressure: Japan has got to export cheap goods or go hungry.
However, other button manufac turers who are likely to be forced out of business by Japanese methods are not likely to take that academic view. They are more likely to feel that if a country like Japan, with so few natural resources, does not voluntarily put a brake on its dis astrous fecundity, the products of such indiscriminate breeding deserve to starve. And there is something to be said for that view.