32 



dirty muddy sand. The quantity fished is large and 

 amounts to from 1,00,000 to 1,20,000 per annum. They 

 are mostly obtained from beds lying 7 to 8 miles east of 

 the villages of 1 iruppalagudi and Mudirampattanam. 

 During the only two years whereof we have statistics, 

 1,45,206 full-sized shells were fished off the Tiruppala- 

 gudi coast and 23,158 off Rameswaram; the latter number 

 is, however, believed to be considerably below a normal 

 average, the disparity in the catches from these two places 

 being due to the fact that the Government officers were 

 thwarted by underground influence from getting a suffi- 

 ciency of the Kilakarai divers, who are necessary for 

 this section of the fishery. 



The rates paid to the divers by the lessee are usually 

 h'orher than those rulino- at Tuticorin as the divers incur 

 extra expenses having to work away from home. The 

 great majority are Muhammadans (Labbais) from Kila- 

 karai Twelve years ago the rate for chanks fished to 

 the north of Rameswaram" Island and as far as the island 

 of Kachchetivu was Rs. 30 per 1,000, Rs. 27 per 1,000 

 for those from the beds between Pamban and Tondi, the 

 port of the Sivaganga zamindari, and Rs. 50 for those 

 taken off the Kilakarai coast. At the present time 

 rather higher rates rule, Rs. 40 being reputed to be 

 paid to imported Labbai divers fishing in Palk Bay and 

 Rs. 25 to 30 to the local divers who may either be 

 Roman Catholics or Hindus of the Karaiyar caste. The 

 employers by means of the advance system keep the men 

 eternally in their debt and power. A certain contribu- 

 tion or tithe of their catch is generally set on one side 

 by the divers for the benefit of one of their mosques 



In 1904, the question of the jurisdiction of the Raja 

 of Ramnad over certain chank beds lying from 5 to 7 

 miles from shore in the vicinity of Mudirampattanam 

 was brought before the High Court of Judicature at 

 Madras in the case of Annakumaru Filial versus Muthu- 

 payal and others The defendants or their agents had 

 removed chanks from the chank bed at the place named 

 and were charged at the instance of the Raja with theft 

 of property (chanks) belonging to him. The defendants 

 relied chiefiy on the fact that the place whence the shells 

 were taken lay beyond three miles from shore ; they 

 arguedthat theplace was in the open sea beyond territorial 



