6S6 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [Feb. 1, 1901 
holders at; t.he meeting. In the arbitration with 
Messrs, Vanderspar, an award was given in their 
tavour. The cost of this action appears in the 
accounts. The Directors are now consulting with 
the priiicipalshareholdpis and with th^se interested 
in tiie Conipaijy, to devise a scheme for placing 
the Company's finances upon a sound basis, which 
must necess'irily be taken in hand at once. This 
would have been proposed before had it been 
possible to have the revised accounts earlier. Mr. 
Oc L Davies has retired from the board since the 
last meeting. Mr. William Johnson retires in 
rotation and ofTeis himself for re-election. Messrs. 
Jackson, Pixley & Co., who were appoint 
Auditors, offer themselves for election.— By order 
of the Board. 
Hector F. Monro, Chairman. 
London, E.C , Dec, 10th, 
„. ^ 
PEAKL SHELLS AND OYSTEKS OFF 
WESTIiRN AUSTRALIA. 
At the meeting of the Royal Colonial Insti- 
tute where Sir Gerard Smith read a paper on 
"Recent Observations in Western Australia," 
—(at which among others Mr. R. B. Heinekey, 
Mr. G. B. Leechmnn, Sir AValter Sendall, 
G.C.M G., and Sir E. Noel Walker, k.c.m.g., 
were present,) the following speech was 
delivered : — 
Mr. W. Saville-Kent, f.l.s., fz.s.:— While 
some few years of residence and travel in the country 
enables me to endorse much that Colonel Sir Gerard 
Smith has deposed to and described in his admirable 
address concerning the natural and industrial 
wealth of Western Australia, I must honestly ad- 
mit that 1 should find myself very much " at .sea " 
if I were to attempt to enter into an elaborate 
criticism or enlargement of the facts and figures 
that he has so lucidly brought before us. On the 
other hand— if I maybe pardoned the Hibernianism 
— I shall feel very much more on terra firma if I 
may be permitted to supplement Sir Gerard Smith's 
discourse with a few words concerning both the 
actual and unearned increment of wealth that 
awaits exploitation and development in the waters 
that intersect and lave the Western Australian 
coast-line. Colonel Sir Gerard Smitti has inci- 
dentally, and by quotation only, mentioned pearl 
shell as being included among other articles of ex- 
port. As a matter of fact, that marine product repre- 
sents one of the most valuable assets of the colony. 
Even worked on the primitive lines of simply col- 
lecting it from the natural fishing-grounds, pearl 
shells to the value of from £60,000 to £100,000 are 
raised and annually shipped from the Western 
Australian ports. There can be but little doubt, 
however, that in the near future the systematic 
cultivation of pearl shell on lines parallel to those 
pursued in connection with ordinary commercial 
oysters will become a yet vaster and far more valu- 
able industry. During those years in which I en- 
jityed the privilege of acting as Commissioner of 
Fisheries to the Queensland and Western Austral- 
ian Governments experi.'.ients were initiated by ree 
with the object of proving, that this shell, like the 
ordinary oyster, was amenable to artificial cultiva- 
tion. These experiments were successful, and as 
an outcome of them the sy.^bematic commercial 
cultivation of this valuable .shell has already been 
established, but mo.st notably in Queeiisland. 
Furthermore, at the instigation of that progressive 
statesman, Sir John Forrest, experiments were suc- 
cessfully made by me in the direction of acclima- 
tising this valuable pearl shell considerably to the 
south of its iiai;ural liabitat, tliat is, outside tropical 
waters. Tiiis means that very extensive areas on 
the Western Australian coa.st-line can be devoted 
to this industry with the advantage of its prose- 
cutors being free from that stress and strain 
upon the Anglo-Saxon constitution that is 
almost inseparable from prolonged labour 
within the tropic.s. As an indication of the 
intrinsic value that would be attached to 
such a suggested industry, it is sufficient to men- 
tion that the cultivation of ordinary commercial 
oysters, as prosecuted in British water.*, yields 
highly remunerative returns ujio'i a capital that 
must be assessed at several millions sterling. 
These commercial oysters, having a gastronomic 
value only, obtain a maxinmni wholesale price of 
no more than one or two shillings per dozen — 
mostly much less. Tlie Australian pearl oysters, 
on the other hand, while propagating as abun- 
dantly, and in ever-increasing demand for the 
manufacture of all articles composed of rnother-of- 
pearl, realise in the wholesale market no less a 
price th.'in from £7 to £10 per cwt., or on an 
average, say, thirty to forty shillings per dnzen 
for well matured shell. It is obvious, I think, 
from this brief reference to the subject, that a big 
and prosperous future awaits the scientific develop- 
ment of the peail-shell cultivation industry ia 
Western Australian waters. Now, in the matter 
of ordinary oysters, Westein Australia, in com- 
pany with orher of the Australasian Colonies, 
originally possessed wliat, with due care, would 
have constiiUted an inexlia\istible stock of an 
oyster indistinguishable from our own world- 
famed British . native. Over-fishing, however, 
with no provision of reserves for future 
propagation, has almost, if not altogether, exter- 
minated that much-esteemed species. Time was 
when the Swan River estuary upon which Perth 
is built was one vast oyster-bed. The salt water, 
however, has retreated, leaving the oyster defunct j 
and high and dry in such abundance that, at the 
time of my last stay in Pei th, some four or five 
years since, they were being extensively employed 
for the groundwork of the new roads and streets 
that were being so rapidly constructed. With the 
completion of the new harbour works at Fremancle, 
and the clearance of tiie river's mouth by extensive 
dredging, it is quite po-sil)le that conditions may 
be again made favourable for the growth of oysters 
in the Swan River estuary. And at all events a 
very favourable area tor tlie re-establishment of ex- 
tensive oyster fisheries exists in the neighbourhood.^ 
of Albany and King's Sound, where they formerly 
abounded. Ordinary de criptions of commercial 
fish teem in Western Australian waters, and 1 will 
merely draw attention here to the circumstance 
that a species of pilchard and other members of 
the herring tribe are included among them. It has 
been referred to as a matter of reproach by Sir 
Gerard Smith that both butter and cheese have still 
to be annually imported into Western Australia to 
the extent of several millions of pounds. The same 
reproach must be attached to the fact that, with 
the live fish in vast shoals on their coast-line, pre- 
served herrings, sardines, and aricliovies are 
likewise annually imported in increasing quanti- 
ties from Europe. And this reproach applies not 
only to Western Australia but to all other of the 
Anstralasian Colonies. With the newly-aceom- 
))li-hpd federation of the Australian States, we 
may now, however, hopefully look forward to an 
immense impetus being given to the fisheries, 
agricultural, and all other industrial enterprises 
