["In The Nor'-West", The West Australian, Saturday 02 November 1907, page 8]
IN THE NOR'-WEST.
PEARL-DIVERS AND THEIR PERILS.
ON THE BED OF THE OCEAN.
A LIVING MARINE GARDEN.
VALUE OF THE PEARLNG INDUSTRY.
II.
(By our Special Representative.)
Divers can work down to 15 fathoms, or even deeper, but not for long. They follow the tide closely, scanning the rocky bottom, covered with lovely aquatic vegetation. Long, waving weeds, sea anemones, sponges, and fantastic cups and flagon-shaped vessels fashioned by coral insects, impede his path, and at his approach crabs, crayfish, and strangely-beautiful starfish scuttle away under ledges and peer out curiously. Even the pearl oysters with mouths agape sucking in nourishment from the water running between their parted lips receive warning and close up in the fond but illusive hope that danger is past. Even an oyster has friends, and most of them shelter a shrimp or tiny fish of some sort. This lodger patrols the locality, and on the slightest hint of danger darts home and tells his land lord to barricade the door. The plate glass window of the diver's helmet magnifies objects in the clear water, and the big unwieldly oyster could not travel an inch in six months, even if he were afforded the chance, so with a little wrench he is detached and placed in the basket. All sorts and conditions of fish rush up to look at the strange monster marching steadily on through their kingdom. A big old-man schnapper leading a school of others will approach quite close and then rush off at terrific speed, coming back later on to have another look. Now and again a shark will cruise leisurely around, scaring smaller fish away, but for attacking a diver they aparently have no inclination. The chief peril of the diver is not from the denizens of the deep but from paralysis of the limbs. In the Broome Hospital there are usually several cases of paralysis arising from the natural desire or divers to make the most of their opportunities whilst on the bed of the ocean. They may strike a good patch of shell and in their eagerness to collect as much of it as possible they remain below too long. The pressure of the water at 15 fathoms is very great, and anything deeper is almost certainly fatal unless signals to be hauled up are very promptly given. The floor of the ocean round about Broome is uneven and full of deep holes, into which the diver may plunge unless he is careful, so that when he descends he literally carries his life in his hands. Tough old Diver McLachlan, of Fremantle, who salvaged many wrecks, went up to Broome with a lugger and worked for 12 months with a white crew, going below himself. A year satisfied him that there was neither profit nor pleasure in the game, so he gave up diving himself and now employs coloured labour. Instead of a couple of pump hands, he employs an oil engine to force air to the diver below, and any fear of a cessation of the supply is overcome by an accumulator which stores enough for half an hour's operations should anything go wrong above. Divers' paralysis is bad enough, but it is accentuated by the habit, common among the Japs. especially, of dashing boiling water over the loins of the man affected. The skin peels off and treatment in the hospital is rendered doubly difficult. The unfortunate patient bears the agonising pain stoically and smilingly acknowledges the greetings of the nurses, who are as attentive to him as to any European. In cases of suffering no distinction is shown. En passant, Broome Hospital is a bright, cheerful, well-ventilated corrugated iron structure, but wants re-painting and a general overhaul badly. Also the townspeople want to have it placed under their control, and it is more than probable that it will be handed over to a board of management, consisting of the Mayor and two councillors, three representatives of the Pearlers' Association, and the Resident Magistrate--a good representative body, well qualified to run the institution on modern lines. At present owners of luggers mostly pay a fee of £5 per annum for each boat to the resident medical officer, and 6s. per day has to be paid for each patient whilst in hospital. Should some poor fellow be treated without being able to pay the 6s. daily, he is branded as a pauper, and the fact is not in any way kept private. It is, of course, quite right that persons of means should pay for their medical treatment, whether inside or outside the hospital, but as the institution at Broome is partly supported by Government, no man or woman should be branded as a God-forgotten pauper under any circumstances. Hence it is to be hoped that the people of Broome will soon be entrusted with the management of their own hospital, and things are happily trending that way--so Mr. Arthur Male, member for the district assures me. It is proposed that a referendum of ratepayers should be taken on the subject, contemporaneously with the annual election of Mayor and councillors, and the result is a foregone conclusion. Both the hospital and water supply, as well as the control of the street railway connecting the jetty with the town should be vested in the municipality for the benefit of the town itself. The importance of the pearling industry to Broome and to the whole of the State will be recognised when it is considered that 350 vessels and over 3,000 men are employed all the year round, for even at lay-up time the crews are busily engaged in re-painting and overhauling during the ten or twelve weeks they are ashore. Broome is decidedly lively during lay-up season, but there is very little rowdyism, as shown by the fact that no augmentation of the slender police force is necessary. To start pearling with only one lugger is pretty expensive. A twelve-ton boat costs £350 ex Fremantle, and to get her up to Broome entails a further sum of £60. Pump to supply air, diving dress, and other apparatus runs the cost up to about £600 and another £100 at least is required for advances to the crew, which has to be engaged at Singapore. Together with provisions for the first three months and other expenses, the cost of starting would be at least £800, and to guard against failure the owner of the lugger ought to have at least £200 in hand. It will be seen, therefore, that to make a good start, clear of debt or danger, £1,000 is necessary for each lugger. Schooners are, of course, much more costly, and it is safe to assume that the value of the entire pearling fleet is at least £400,000. Men working on the schooners get higher rates of pay than on luggers. The white-opener ranks as mate on the schooner, and gets 10s. per ton on the shell, whilst the skipper is entitled to a lay of £2 per ton, which makes a substantial increase to his salary of not less than £20 per month. Duty has to be paid on all stores used on the pearling vessels, although they work far outside the shore limit, and in the new tariff divers' hose, formerly free, has to pay 20 per cent., a pretty stiff impost. The life of crews on board luggers is monotonous in the extreme, but they are fed well, and few men in mining camps fare better. The monthly rations for six men consist of 2cwt. of rice, 1001b. flour, 24 tins meat, 21b. each; 4 tins herrings, 4 tins sardines, 4 tins each of milk and jam, 1lb tea, 2lb. coffee. 24lb. sugar, 4 bottles pickles, and 2 of vinegar, pepper and salt, 4 tins curry-powder, and 2 of dripping, potatoes and onions, with as much fresh fish as the crew can catch. In addition, fresh meat and vegetables are sent out. whenever opportunity offers, so that although the life is hard and horribly dull, the food is good and plentiful. Broome is a solid contributor to the Customs revenue, the amount of duty collected as far back as 1906, having been £20,023, and under the revised tariff a larger sum will almost certainly be collected this year. As a large quantity of goods comes from Fremantle, upon which duty was paid there, the import trade of the Pearl City has aesumed large proportions. In addition to about £120,000 worth of pearl shell exported last year, there were shipped beche de mer of the value of £800: wool valued at £280, and about 800 head of cattle, besides miscellaneous alticles worth another couple of thousand pounds. Assessing the value of the pearling industry to the State, the Chief Inspector of Fisheries lamented the fact that it did not contribute anything like an amount to the revenue commensurate with the magnitude of operations carried on, but he must have overlooked the fact that pearlers have to bear rather more than a fair share of local taxation. Here are some of the imposts they have to put up with :--For every boat a licence fee of £1 is charged, and another £1 has to be paid for lighting. Water is charged for at the rate of £1. and 3s. per ton is charged for wharfage. in addition to abnormally heavy freight charges over the Harbour Department's tramline. For each schooner a berthing charge of 10s. is levied, and luggers have to pay 2s. 6d. for the same privilege. Scant facilities for handling cargo are provided--no crane being available for raising the heavy cases of shell from the luggers to the lofty jetty above, and the jetty itself is very poorly lighted. Instead of suggesting that pearlers should contribute more to the revenue the Chief Inspector of Fisheries ought to have advocated some form of relief, as the charges I have given are by no means all the exactions forced from those engaged in the industry by a Perth Government that was none too sympathetic in the past. It is, however, gratifying to know from Mr. Arthur Male, member for one of the biggest constituencies in the State, that matters connected with water supply, the hospital, a crane to lift pearl shell from luggers, and other local requirements are all well on the road to final settlement. The dwellers in Pearl City are not hungry suppliants--they only ask for what is their just and fair due. Isolated, as they are, from the seat of Government by an ocean journey of over twelve hundred miles, they are placed at a great disadvantage, but fortunately they have a member to represent them thoroughly conversant with the requirements of the people and district.
