OS 



rumours of cholera, small profits, rough weather, chill winds, are all utilized with the 

 utmost cunning but the true reason — that they have made enough money — is always 

 kept in the background. 



Hence I conclude that relief must he sought in some other manner and that it is 

 necessary for the Madras Government to proceed entirely independently of the Ceylon 

 authorities and to accept, as an unpalatable but none the less living reality, the fact 

 that till present conditions be radically reformed, the Tuticorin and Kilakarai divers 

 have not the requisite confidence in the Tinnevelly pearl fishery administration to 

 induce them to forego attendance at a Ceylon fishery when such clashes with one ou 

 the Indian banks. 



Many years ago Captain Worsley, when acting as Supervisor of the Ceylon Pearl 

 Banks, summed up his conception of the Inspector's duties towards the oysters under 

 his charge in the dictum " find them, watch them, fish them ". I have shown that 

 the organization of the Indian Pearl Fishery Department has failed notable in all these 

 operations, lamentably so in 1889. 



Detailed inspection carried out with scientific accuracy by a capable officer 

 endowed with biological knowledge and with acquaintance with elementary marine 

 surveying, furnishes a sufficient remedy for the first and second of these administra- 

 tive diseases ; the third is more difficult to cure, though much improvement might be 

 counted on as certain to take place when the divers become aware of the improvements 

 taking place in the methods of inspection. With confidence in their Inspector and iu 

 the statements he might publish regarding the promising character of a bank about 

 to be fished, many would, I believe, voluntarily remain at home in spite of Ceylouese 

 counter attraction. 



This we must not, however, count upon till the new organization proves its 

 efficiency by results, and we come back again to the problem, how can we fish a large 

 number of oysters, say 50,000,000, during a fishing period not exceeding eight 

 weeks (March and April), in spite of the defection of the great bulk of the local 

 divers ? 



I can think of but two alternatives, (a) the utilization of mechanical means and 

 (h) the drafting to the fishery of a sufficient body of Arab divers. 



Eegarding the former plan, although the character of the bottom on the Tolayi- 

 ram Par is favourable to the employment of the dredge, the numbers of oysters to be 

 dealt with are so enormous and the occurrence of fisheries so erratic and occasionally 

 so long deferred, that at present I cannot see that this is a practicable solution, so long 

 as the fishery be conducted by Government. A fleet of dredging vessels would be 

 required and the maintenance of these cannot be justified till a cultural scheme be 

 perfected which will ensure tolerably regular periodic (annual) fisheries. The most 

 that is feasible is to fit the fishery steamer with dredging equipment and so enable 

 her to do her share in the actual fishing operations.* The same equipment woidd 

 serve for the dredging of young oysters for the purposes of transplantation, and it 

 might also be utilized for the dredging of chanks, though I doubt whether the results 

 from the last-named work would be sufficiently remunerative and would counterbalance 

 the extra expenditure that would be occasioned in coal and oil. 



The alternative of obtaining a supply of Arab divers adequate to work the 

 fishery is left us. It appears to me that if due precautions be taken to obtain true 

 Persian Gulf divers in small gangs under men who can give adequate monetary 

 guarantee for the good behaviour of the men supplied by them, that this plan is 

 eminently feasible. 



At the present year's Ceylon Fishery (1901) 258 Arabs were allowed employment 

 and Mr. Lewis, Superintendent of the Fishery, states in his report :j" 



* The results obtained during the Ceylon 6shery of 1905, show that an average of 35,000 oysters may he reckoned as 

 the daily catch of a properly equipped small dredging steamer under good management. The cost of wage6 and upkeep is. 

 considerably less than the value of the divers' share of oysters, so we find dredging to be a more economical mode of fishing 

 than the employment of divers on the one-third share basis, provided work can be found for the steamer in the off season. 



t ".Reports on the Pearl Fishery of 1904." Sessional paper No. XIII, Ceylon, 1904, page 6, 



