£113,000
of revenue. Then came along blank of eighteen years until the advent of
the great successor of Sir Edward Barnes, and one notable aid to Sir
Henry Ward's expenditure in the Colony was undoubtedly found in the
£140,000 derived by him from Pearl Fisheries. But " bluff Sir Harry"—
the Governor distinguished par excellenei by the '• drab
hat"—knew how to invest money to advantage, and he nearly doubled his
revenue by liberal, judicious expenditure. A change for the worse came
with Sir Charles Mac-Carthy, whose one windfall of ,£51,000 in 1863
simply went to swell Mr. Cardwell's appropriation of local revenue for
so-called past-due Military contributions. It is noteworthy that the
yield in 1863 was the largest in any one year since 1814, until the
splendid return of ,£59,868 came from the present year's fishery. Sir
Hercules Robinson did not receive a rupee from the Pearl Fishery, and
Sir Wm. Gregory only ,£10,140 in 1874, and about £ 19,000
during the year he left, which fell properly to his successor. Sir
James Longden has therefore to be debited with the proceeds of four
Pearl Fisheries—aggregating ;£ 108,000, against £30,000 of expenditure.
The
expenditure has of recent years averaged ,£8,000 per annum when there
is a Fishery, and less than ,£5,000 without Fishery expenses. The
Ceylon Pearl Fishery Establishment consists of 1 Superintendent (the
Govern, ment Agent for the Northern Province) ; 1 Inspector with an
allowance of Ri,ooo (the Master Attandant, Colombo); 4 Coxswains of
inspection boats, 16 Divers, and 16 Munducks (Divers' attendants); and
1 Steam Launch and her crew. During Inspections and Fisheries, a native
craft is chartered for the establishment to live in. The Inspector
conducts inspections and determines when a bed should be fished, and
directs the fishery of the same. The Superintendent conducts the
operations of the Fishery on shore, sells the oysters, &c, but has
nothing to do afloat. The divers employed during the Fishery supply
their own boats, and these are arranged in squadrons, payment being
made by a certain proportion of the oysters fished. The Ceylon (Arfppu)
Fishery usually takes place in the months of March and April, when the
sea is calm and the currents least perceptible. The boats assembled are
numbered and divided into two squadrons, the Red and the White, each
consisting generally of 60 or 70 boats. The squadrons fish alternately.
Each boat has its Tindal and Today or water bailers and a guard, five
diving stones, and two divers and twb munducks to each Stone. The
squadron starts, usually, between 11 and 12 p.m., so as to reach the
fishing ground by sunrise ;'the banRs are about 12 to 16 miles from the
shore. On their return from the banks, as the boats reach the beach,
they let go their anchors opposite the Government " Kottu." When the
oysteri, are landed they were divided into four heaps. In two hours the
whole of the 75 boats are unloaded, the divers' share removed and three-fourths belonging
to Government left in the Kottu, piled into heaps and numbered
corresponding to the number of the boat from which they were taken; the
doors are locked, guards stationed, and everything is in readiness for
the Kachcheri sale,
It
will be observed that the prices paid for the oysters differs greatly
in different years. Thus, less then three millions of oysters in i860
yielded three times the amount that 26 millions did during 1880! The
average price realized (£12 17s per 1,000) in 1860 was however quite
unprecedented. Of course a good deal depends of the age and character
of the pearls, but sometimes, as in 1879, and again during last year,
the native traders who assemble at Arippu from different parts of India
and Ceylon combine to try and keep down the price and sometimes with
partial success. The Ceylon Government derives a small amount—a few
thousands of rupees—annually from a fishery in the Tambalagam lake near
Triqcomalee, but the oysters in this case (the Placuna placenta of naturalists, the same as that said to be found in the Persian Gulf and China Seas) is not the true pearl oyster (tttleagrina ntargaritifera) of the Arippu pearl banks.
