PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION D. 541 
10.—ON THE EXPERIMENTAL CULTIVATION OF THE 
MOTHER-OF-PEARL SHELL WELEAGRINA 
MARGARITIFERA IN QUEENSLAND. 
By W. Savitie-Kent, F.L.S., F.Z.8., Commissioner of Fisheries 
and P.R.S., Queensland. 
Tne pearl and pearl-shell fisheries of Queensland and West 
Australia occupy a prominent position among the most valuable 
natural products of the Australian continent. Collectively, within 
the past few years, they have represented an average annual 
export value of over £200,000. This estimated value was, how- 
ever, In previous years considerably exceeded, the falling-off, 
which has been most marked with relation to the Queensland 
output, being due mainly to the exhaustion of the home and 
inshore fishing-grounds, the pearl-shelling vessels having conse- 
quently to go much further afield and to expend much more time 
and labour than formerly in securing their harvest. In the 
earlier years of the Australian pearl-shelling industry fine shell 
was abundant so close in shore that it might be collected by 
wading at low spring tides. Examples are even yet to be 
occasionally obtained, and have been so collected by myself under 
these conditions. The greater bulk of the shell is at the present 
date obtained with diving apparatus from an average depth of 
seven or eight fathoms, while the very largest shell now pro- 
curable, and coming from near the coast of New Guinea, is 
brought up from a depth of close upon twenty fathoms. But few 
divers, however, can endure the strain of long-continued labour 
under such a superincumbent weight of water. A second cause 
which has contributed very extensively towards the exhaustion of 
the more accessible fishing-grounds has been the wholesale collec- 
tion of the young, miniature shell, now being left to arrive at 
maturity to replenish the exhausted waters. This minature shell 
cannot be utilised for the same purposes as the mature shell, and 
there is no demand for it in the English market. 
Recognising the necessity of instituting regulations that shall 
act as a check upon the unrestricted destruction of the young 
shell, and the desirability of inaugurating any other measures 
that might contribute towards the improvement and further 
development of this important industry, I have been recently 
deputed by the Queensland Government to make an exhaustive 
inquiry into and draw upa report upon the entire subject. For this 
purpose I have spent some two months in the Torres Straits dis- 
trict, making Thursday Island my head-quarters, and from thence 
visiting all the more important stations and shelling-grounds. 
Full details of the evidence collected and recommendations of 
regulations suggested for the better conservation and develop- 
