I9 22] MADRAS PEARL FISHERIES 179 



APPENDIX D. 



1744. Advantages to be gained by Government by rent- 

 ing out the Pearl Fisheries of the Gulf of 



Mannar. 



Respectful considerations relating to the renting out of the Aripo Pearl 

 Banks and the Chank Fishery on the shores of the North of Adam's 

 Bridge, submitted to His Excellency Gustavus William, Baron Van 

 Imhoff, Governor-General, and the Members of the Council of 

 Netherlands India, by Julius Va/entyn Stein Van Golleuesse, 

 Governor of Ceylon. (Ceylon Literary Register, Volume III, 

 page 181.) 

 Although the undersigned has not as yet acquired sufficient experience 

 to be able to judge fully of all matters relating to the Pearl Fishery, yet he 

 is unwilling to defer obeying the order conveyed in your letter of 

 5th November 1743,* and which desires that he should lay before you his 

 humble opinion with regard to the Chank Fishery, and also state whether 

 it would not be as advisable, or even preferable to rent out the Aripo Pearl 

 Banks, as to continue the present custom of settling whole or half fisheries, 

 and he hopes that Your Excellency will look over any errors in his views 

 of the subject, and kindly supply any defects in this statement of his 

 opinion. 



In the first place then, I must admit, as a matter beyond dispute, the 

 remark which Your Excellency makes in the memoir left here for the 

 guidance of your successor in this Government, namely that the Honour- 

 able Company is rather a loser than a gainer in our Pearl Fisheries ; no 

 person will deny this who has a grain of local knowledge respecting the 

 affairs of Ceylon. It is therefore necessary to seek some mode of conduct- 

 ing these fisheries, which may secure to the Company the profit to be 

 derived from them without its being accompanied by the many drawbacks 

 detailed in your memoir ; and who can doubt that this may best be effected 

 by renting them out, or by selling the freedom of diving on the banks, with 

 a limited number of boats and persons in the same manner as now takes 

 place with regard to the Chank Fishery. It is evident that this may be 



Merely calling his attention to the preceding remarks of Baron Van Imhoff. 



