1 62 



Pearls. 



Year, 



Shells, Value. 



Pearls, Value 



1874 ... 



... 62,162 ... 



... 1 2,000 



1875 ... 



... 64,642 . . . 



... 12,000 



1876 ... 



... 75,292 ... 



8,000 



1882 ... 



... 28,440 ... 



... 9,000 



1883 ... 



... 30,300 ... 



6,000 



In the season 1882 — 1883 there were employed 

 in the Western-Australian fishery nineteen vessels, 

 manned by 539 divers, who raised 250 tons of shell, 

 showing an average of under half-a-ton per man. 



In 1882, the Union Bank of Australia opened 

 a branch at Cossack and Roebourne. Previously 

 to this, the wants of the community were aided by 

 the issue of rough promissory notes, by a store- 

 keeper, for any sum between 6d. and £^^ and the 

 general acceptance of Dutch guilders as two shilling 

 pieces. The manager of the bank and his assistant 

 were brutally murdered at Roebourne in January, 

 1885. In 1884, a steamer began to ply regularly 

 between Fremantle and Singapore, touching at 

 Cossack, and in 1885 the telegraph line was extended 

 700 miles from Geraldston to Cossack, thus placing 

 this lonely station within a few hours' communi- 

 cation with Europe. The recent development of 

 Cossack, consequent on the discovery of gold in 

 the Kimberley district, in the north of Western 

 Australia, has already been mentioned. 



It may not be out of place to remark that 



