dependent
on the pearl-oyster fishery. The population approximates 1600,
consisting largely of Japanese, Malays, Cingalese, Pacific islanders,
and Australian aborigines, with specimens from nearly every Asiatic and
European nationality, and some from America and Africa. The Japanese
predominate, their influx dating from 1891 ; and at present the
industry is largely dependent on these Scotchmen of the Orient for its
most skilful workmen. The heterogeneous nationalities, and the
abundance of sand-flies, mosquitos, etc., make this island rather less
desirable as a place of residence than it is interesting from a
political and ethnological point of view.
The
Queensland fishery in 1905 employed 348 vessels, and yielded 543 tons
of shell, according to the government returns. In 1904, 353 vessels
were engaged, and the catch was 798 tons of shell.
During
the last fifteen years there has been a very steady decrease in the
average catch of pearl-oysters per boat in the Australian fishery. The
average catch in the Queensland fleet in 1890 approximated 7 tons per
boat; from 1898 to 1903 it was about 3 tons annually; in 1904 it was
only 234 tons, and in 1905 a trifle more than iy2 tons.
The yearly increasing number of boats would naturally lower the
average, but the decrease is generally ascribed to the denudation of
the reefs, due to close working for thirty-five years without giving
them a chance to recuperate.
The
small yield in Queensland in 1904 and 1905 was due largely to the
extended rough weather and the accompanying thick or muddy water, which
presented an obstacle to the prosecution of the work. Mr. Hugh Milman,
the government resident at Thursday Island, states that each year the
beds in the more sheltered spots have been extensively fished,
rendering it necessary for the fleet to go farther afield in places
where the depth of water is greater, and where the vessels are more
exposed to the full force of the southeast winds which prevail for
about seven months of the year, and which were unusually severe in 1905.1 The
general denudation of the beds is not the principal cause of the
decreased take. An additional cause for the falling-off in 1905 was the
deflection of a large percentage of the fleet to new fields of
operation, no vessels leaving for the Aru Islands in the Arafura Sea,
when the season was about half finished.
For
vessels using diving apparatus, the season continues throughout the
year, but it is frequently interrupted by storms, which may cause the
boats to lie in harbor for ten days, or even two weeks at a time. The
nude divers suspend work from December to March, and also during the
season of gales.
1 During the month of June, 1908, a severe storm destroyed a pearling fleet, with a loss of
40 vessels and 270 lives.
