July 1, 1900.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
31 
' THE CEYLON PEARL FISHERIES : 
SIR WILLIAM TWYNAM'S REPORT— 
WHAT IS TO BE DONE WITH IT? 
We have now concluded our pfrusal of 
Sir William Twynam's elaborate and historic 
Report, of twenty-six foolscap printed pages, 
on our Pearl Fisheries and made special re- 
ference to some foriy pages of appendices. 
To one who was generally acquainted with 
the writings of Capt. James Steuart, Mr. 
Thomas, of the Madras Civil Service, Mr. 
Houldsworth, Capt. Donnan and others, we 
cannot sav, there is much that is new in the 
bulky Sessional Paper before us. But Sir 
William has very fully and faithfully ful- 
filled the task imposed on him by the Govern- 
ment in May, 1899, when his advice was re- 
quested with reference to the serious dis- 
appearance of 72 millions of pearl 
oysters from a bank where they were so 
promising two years before, as rejiorted by 
Capt. Donnan last year. In replying, Sir 
William Twynam has, as we have said, gone 
into the whole history of our Pearl Fisheries 
and referred to every available writing on 
the subject witliin his reach. No man living 
has had a longer experience of the Fisheries 
than himself, Capt. Donnan coining next ; 
and they have both had the benefit of oil that 
the late Capt. Steu£irt and Mr. Vane could tell 
them, besides the Reports to Sir Plercules 
Robinson's Government of the Naturalist, Mr. 
Houldsworth, and to the Madras Government 
of the accomplished Mr. Thomas of its service 
on the Tuticorin Fisheries. Now there is no 
reason at all why we should follow Sir 
William through the history of the Fisheries, 
or the contents of the v^arious Reports. No 
more concise or practical summary of the 
former can be compiled than thfit given in 
our "Ceylon Handbook and Directory" 
where, the years of successful fisheries, and 
of blanks, can be seen at a glance as also 
the number of fishing days, the receipts, as 
well as expenditure, the number of oysters 
fished and sold for Government, and the 
prices obtained per thousand. Sir William 
Twynam writes of the Pearl Fisheries having 
realised from first to last one million pounds 
sterling to the British Government in Ceylon. 
In our " Handbook, ' we state that Capt. 
James Steviart made out the total net re- 
venue from 1798 to 1837 inclusive to be 
£524,522 ; but a careful statement prepared 
for Sir Henry Ward by the late Mr. J L 
Siebel, Chief Clerk of the Colonial Secretary's 
Office, showed a net return of £595,051 for 
the same period. To this we have to add 
the net receipts from 1838 to 1891 -the year 
of the last successful fishery— which will be 
found as follows : — 
Total Receipts ... ... £614,597 
,, Expenditure... ... 126,."56 
£488,241 
Add above ... ... 595,051 
Giving net revenue from 1796 
to date as ... ... £1,08.3.292 
—so that Sir William is well on the safe 
side. 
Now, this " harvest of the seas " which 
gave the Ceylon Government, nine years ago, 
as much as R963,749 of revenue during six 
weeks' fishing, against a total outlay of about 
R100,000,— surely deserves the very best atten- 
tion of the Executive Council, and it was quite 
time such <^ history as that of Sir Wm. 
Twynam should be prepared, in order that 
full consideration might be given to the whole 
subject. If we were inclined to be critical, we 
might complain of the tautology and repeti- 
tion in the pages before us. But the fault is 
one on the right side, and we look rather for 
the facts brought to light which justify fresh 
scientific investigation or reference. In the 
first place, we are reminded tliat the 
Naturalist, Mr. Holdsworth, got out by Sir 
Hercules Robinson, although out here five 
years (1805 -1869) never saw a fishery or a 
bank covered with mature, or even youno- 
oysters, and therefore got a most imperfect 
idea of the main features of the enterprise 
he came to investigate. This fact, of itself, 
in our opinion, justifies fresh scientific in- 
vestigation. Mr. Holdsworth, too, seems to 
have been taken up with " false spat "'— 
not the real spat of the pearl oyster - another 
fact which must liave vitiated much of his 
work. Sir Wm. Twynam does not seem to 
favour the further interference of science. 
He thinks, perhaps, that Mr. Thomas has 
about said the last word in that di- 
rection and that another Naturalist 
will not be of much more practical service 
than was Mr. Holdsworth. But thirty years 
form a long period in the history of 'science 
—even of marine Zoologv— and perhaps in 
what has been learned of all kinds of oys- 
ters, mussels and other shell fish. Sir 
William quotes with approval the pithv 
saying of Capt. Worsley, at one time Iri- 
spector, as to the sensible policy in reference 
to Pearl Oysters:— "Find tl'iem ; Watch 
them; Fish them." Very practical and im- 
portant indeed. But we want to know 
whether something cannot be done after 
'• finding," to coH.se/'i-e or 23mseri'e, as well as 
watch the young oysters We entirely ap- 
prove Sir William's one practical suggestion 
about more inspections ; in fact that there 
should be a system of inspection all the year 
round or nearly constant watching, if 
feasible; and we trust Government will o-ive 
effect to this suggestion, and vote the needful 
expenditure, at any rate for two or three 
years, so that we may know all that can 
be learned from "watching." We are not 
enteiang on the large subject of "enemies" 
of the oysters, save to say that the system 
of watching established, should settle the 
vexed question between Sir William and 
Capt. Donnan, as to whether muddy floods 
in our North-Western rivers have, at times 
been responsible for the disappearance of 
millions of oysters from the nearest 
banks. Capt. Donnan does not believe the 
flood water can reach the Banks : Sir 
■William holds the opposite opinion. 
Here there is one useful outcome from Sir 
William Twynam's Report,— that a more con- 
tinuous, constant system of Inspections and 
Watching , as to invasions of the Banks by 
Flood or Muddy water. Coast Currents, 
enemies in Skates, &c. ; and that careful 
observations be made and recorded. Also, 
perhaps that a profitable Chank Fishery may 
well be established south of Arripu. But 
