900 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[June 2, 1884. 



analyses now published of a limited number of specimens 

 must, of course, be regarded as subject to correction by re- 

 sults of further examinations of a larger series of similar 

 botanical specimens and barks that may come under future 

 notice; but it may be hoped that the facts brought out by 

 analyses of these specimens may prove of some value to the 

 pharmaceutical public and to the energetic directors of the 

 plantations in India and elsewhere. 



PSARL FISHING IN THE TORRES STRAITS 



(By " The Vagabond " in the Australasian.) 

 With the exception of some parts of Otago, Torres 

 Straits is the most inhospitable place I have visited 

 in the world. During my enforced detentions at Thurs- 

 day Islaad 1 much wished to examine the working:! 

 of the pearl fisheries. I should like to visit some of 

 the " stations " and describe the strange phases of 

 life thereon. I desire, abo^'e all, to give reliable in- 

 formation and statistics relating to this industry. So 

 with the assifltance of the Professor I issue a circular 

 letter to the proprietors or managers of all the sta- 

 tions, asking lor particulars which 1 consider would 

 be interesting to the public, and hinting that it is 

 my desire to inspect souie of the stations, although 

 the time at my disposal prohibits my visiting all. 

 This may be said to be tishiug for invitations ; per- 

 haps I mean it" in that light. It is the same sort of 

 letter which I had despitched from Townsville to all 

 the sugar planters in the district, and to which, in 

 most cases, I received full replies. I also received 

 pressing requests to visit many of the plantations and 

 see how the K.anaka labourers are treated. This, as 

 I have stated, I take to be a proof that the managers 

 and owners condder that they have nothing to con- 

 ceal from the public. How is it in Torres Straits ? 

 I receive only one reply to my letters, and not one 

 single individual amongst the pearl-Hshint! "bosses," 

 V. horn I meet at the store or the hotel, has tiie courtesy 

 to offer me a sail in his boat, or invite nie to visit his 

 station. I apply to officialdom for information, and it is 

 not supplied to me. I have travelled in many lands, and 

 never had such discourtesy shown to me as here. There 

 must certainly be a reason for this. One pearl- 

 tisher informs me that my advent and the letters I 

 send have cre;rtcd quite a scare in the Straits. " A 

 few of us held a meeting, and we decided that it 

 should be generally understood that we would not 

 answer your letters, and that you should be kept 

 away from the stations and fishing grounds." "But 

 why send me to Coventry in this way ? " I ask, as- 

 tonished. " Well you see, you have the reputation 

 of writing strongly, and we don't want to be stirred 

 up. Personally, I am very pleased to meet you. Let's 

 have a drink." I decline this solalium to my in- 

 jured feelings, and at once set to work lo find out 

 what there is to conceal in the working of the Torres 

 Straits pearl-fisheries. 



Melbourne capital and Melbourne interests are largely 

 represented in the sugar districts of Northern Queens- 

 land. The pearl-fisheries in the Straits have been 

 established by, and are essentially in the baiids of 

 Sydney firms. There is a great difference in the pub- 

 lic opinion of Victoria and New South Wales. Out- 

 spoken journalism is not relished in the sister colony. 

 But that can hardly account for the treatment I rel 

 ceive in the Straits. Little by little I find out what 

 is the evil on the pnarl-fishing stations which it ia 

 hoped to hide from the world. Staiidin(» at Burns 

 Philp & Co. 'a store, talking to gentlemanly captains', 

 who have just come ashore from the elegant yacht-' 

 like boats anchored in Port Kennedy, I see case after 

 case of spirits carried down to their dio'des. Extra 

 pri'paratiouii, perhaps, are now lieiug made for 

 the Christmas holidays, but all the year round 

 the stores of a fishing station include an abnormal 



amount of liquor, which is supplied to the hands 

 employed, divers and crews of the boats. I am told 

 on good authority that the amount of drinkiug on 

 many of the stations is something frightful. Many 

 station stores are only private grog-shops. The crews 

 of different boats buy cases of liquor from their em- 

 ployers, meet at some island, and have a day's de- 

 bauchery, as regularly as some English artisans keep 

 Saint Monday. Driuk is the curse of the Straits, 

 and an act ouglit to be passed prohibiting any strong 

 liquor being supplied to the Malays and the islanders 

 employed in pear'-fishing. It, is bad enough to see 

 Malays and Polynesians come to the hotels here and 

 get bottles of grog, with which they retire into the 

 bush to get drunk and quarrel amongst themselves, 

 the knife occasionally beiug called into play, but on 

 the lone islands in the Straits, supplied with cases 

 from the station stores, I am informed ili.at there 

 are at times veritable scenes of Pandemonium. The 

 loss to employers in this waste of time is of course 

 very great, but the custom of supplying men with 

 liquor for an occasional spree sprang up at the com- 

 mencement of the pearl-fisheries. Employers argue 

 it is better to give the men liquor and let tliem have 

 their saturnalia over on the .station or some loue island, 

 where, w hen it is over, tiiey will set to work again, than 

 to let them go to Thursday Island and spend their 

 money at the pubs there, with the difficulty of get- 

 ting them back to the scene of their labours. Liquor, 

 it is said, these men will have. If one employer 

 attempts to run his boats on Blue Ribbon principles, 

 the men leave him for others where there is period- 

 ical gi-og and a spree. There is no doubt, that, to 

 counterbalance the lo^s of time, a large profit is 

 made out; of the sale of grog to the men, and that 

 many of them, by drinking up their wages, are kept 

 from leaving. Some employers, I daresay, are heartily 

 sick of the system. They should arouse public opinion 

 and a bond should be signed by every owner and 

 manager that no strong drink should be supplied to 

 their bands. 



Until 1S78 the islands in Torres Straits formed 

 an Alsatia for European " beachcombers," runaway 

 sailors, discharged Polynesians, and Malays. They 

 worked a little at beche-de-mer fishing, and spent 

 their enrnings pricipally in grog, which was supplied 

 to them from Onoktown and Thursday Island free 

 of duty. The ni.ijority of the pearl-fishing stations 

 thus also obtained liquor at a cheap rate, and so 

 the evil, which is now the curse of the Straits, 

 grew up. In 1S77 Mr. Chester suggested that he 

 should be appointed a deputy-commissioner for West- 

 ern Polynesia, so as to exercise supervision over the 

 beach-combers, and he was accordingly so appointed 

 by Sir Arthur Gordon ; but in 1S78, on the pro- 

 posal of Mr. .John Douglas, then Premier of Queens- 

 land, the " maritime boundaries " of that colony 

 were quietly "rectified" on the assumption 

 that police authority might be exercised over doubt- 

 ful characters in the Str.aits. The Queensland 

 shores were then some 60 miles from New Guinea. 

 Now Queensland's boundary comes to within four miles 

 of the New Guinea coast. The boundary line runs 

 northward outside the Great Barrier Reef to Brumble 

 Bay ; thence westward to Saibai and Talbot Islands, 

 extending for half a degree within a few miles of the 

 New Guinea shore ; thence extending to 138 deg. long, 

 east, and running south into the Gulf of (^arpentaiia. 

 It will be thus seeu that Queensland has po<se3sion of 

 Torres Straits, the toll-bar between the east and the 

 west, the Indian and Pacific Oceans, a highway of 

 yearly increasing and important comm -rcc. With this 

 annexation the days of cheap grog in the .Sti-aits were 

 ended. The measure, which Mr. John Douglas in- 

 nocently or artfully described as one merely of moral 

 expediency to provide for proper police surveillauce of 



