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["The Pearling Industry", Broome Chronicle (WA), Saturday 13 March 1909]
The Pearling Industry.
The Perth 'Truth' of the 20th Feb., just to hand, contains the following chat with our Mr. Davis, which we feel sure, at the present juncture, will be read with much interest:--
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You accept some extraordinary stories as to the value of pearls found. For instance, there was a yarn going the rounds of the press some time ago, as to the finding of a pearl worth from £10,000 to £12,000. No such gem has ever been found in the waters of this coast. That special pearl, for which a special value was claimed, went round all the purchasers of London, and came back to Broome unsold, and eventually I bought it for my firm at £750. All the stories of pearls of great price want a big discount off. There was another story of a gem in the shape of a cross which was worth £10,000. It was not worth a tenner, and no dealer would have given so much for it. But being in the particular form it had assumed, there was a value attached to it by a section of the community, and it might have been sold for any money to some one or other of the superstitious.
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