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PEARLS FROM ASIA
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125
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of
years. The original suggestion was that they should be leased for
thirty years in consideration of an annual rental of £13,000 or
Rs.195,-000, together with a share of the net profits after payment of
a reasonable rate of interest on the investment; and later it was
suggested that the rental be Rs. 100,000 a year and twenty per cent,
of the profits after seven per cent, on capital had been paid to the
shareholders. But the government preferred a definite money payment
without any rights to share in the profits realized; and after lengthy
negotiations this was fixed at Rs.310,000 annually, with certain
preliminary payments. Accordingly, on November 30, 1905, a
preliminary agreement was executed between the crown agents for the
colonies, acting on behalf of the government of Ceylon, and
representatives of the Ceylon Company of Pearl Fishers, Limited. On
February 27, 1906, this agreement was confirmed and made effective by
special ordinance1 of the governor and legislative council
of Ceylon, and the crown agents were authorized to execute the lease as
of January 1, 1906.
The
principal financial terms of this lease required the company to
purchase the expensive Dixon pearl-washing machine at a cost of Rs.
120,000, which was Rs.42,000 less than it cost the government during
the preceding two years; to purchase at a cost of Rs.62,501 the
steamship Violet, which the government had used in its
experimental oyster-culture; to reimburse the government each year the
amount spent in policing, sanitation and hospital services at the
fishery camp, which had in some individual seasons amounted to more
than Rs.200,000; to expend each year from Rs.50,000 to Rs. 150,000 in
the development of pearl-oyster culture; and to pay an annual rental of
Rs.315,000, a rate based roughly on the average return of the
preceding twenty years, including the record year of 1905.
The
company was authorized to take up the pearl-oysters by means of divers,
or by steam dredges, or by such other mechanical means as might appear
most advantageous, and to carry on such experiments with the immature
oysters as appeared most conducive to the profitable working of the
fisheries, provided they do nothing to make the resources less
valuable at the expiration of the lease.
One
of the most interesting features of the lease is that relating to the
power of the colonial government to grant an exclusive right of fishing
on the banks outside the three-mile limit. The question of this
exclusive right arose in 1890, but was not conclusively determined.
Fearing lest this authority did not exist, the terms in which the right
of fishing was conveyed were carefully chosen by the attorney general
to protect the government from liability "should any inter-
1 Ordinance No. 8 of 1906.
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