value of pearls and shells obtained along the coast in 1874 was set down at nearly £75,000.
The industry in 1875 was exceedingly lucrative, and magnificent pearls were discovered. The conditions of life among the Malays and natives were not conducive to good health, and one report says that there were forty deaths from scurvy among the Malays on four boats in 1874-5. Regulations were framed by the Dutch Government at Timor, designed to protect the Malays, and secure their better treatment. The authorities there were informed that the treatment meted out to the divers was harsh and brutal. There is no doubt that exaggerated reports were circulated, but there were phases of pearling which would not bear publication. This is not true of the whole fleet, but certain disreputable members placed no value on human life; so long as they might get good returns they cared nothing for the suffering of the ignorant divers, and the slave driver himself was not more inhuman. A special correspondent of the Inquirer, in April, 1875, wrote: "Does the local Government accept any responsibility—moral—concerning the life of the Malay diver? If so, why not publish statistics of mortality amongst these degraded creatures? I apprehend such a list of casualties would appear, even at this last season, as would appal every right-minded man. The thirst for shells, for pearls, for success, in fact, brutalises and unchristianises the pearling speculator or diver. No day is respected. No dark man's life is valued in the economising of that life, but the utmost amount of diving must be sucked out of the man, kill him or not; for who knows who will be his owner next season?"
Of the employment of Australian natives, the same writer speaks still more plainly. He declares that deeds were done in the dark which were worse than those in the slave states of America. In the latter place the slaves cost dollars; in the north-west they cost nothing, except a little flour. No clothes or comforts were given them, and no pay but the flour. Under the Act, the native was bound over to work for a year, and the pearler kept him to work sometimes with open brutality. One prominent resident locked his natives up "in a kind of second Calcutta black hole," so that they might not run away. If the Act were carried out in its integrity, the writer declared, such a state of things could not stand. An effort was made by an Amending Pearl Fishery Act, passed in 1875, to prevent this objectionable traffic, but the exigencies of pearling were such that no Acts of Parliament could possibly protect the divers when in the employ of cruel masters. Towards 1880 the engagement of Malays became unpopular because of the difference in expense between them and the Australian natives.
Ninety-three vessels and boats comprised the Western Australian pearl fleet in 1876, and pearls and shells of over £80,000 in value were exported. The year was ushered in disastrously. On 29th December, 1875, a violent gale broke upon a pearling fleet in Exmouth Gulf, and continued until midnight on 1st January, 1876. Within that time 61 lives were known to be lost. As the gale increased in intensity the Wild Wave parted her chains, and was driven on the rocks where she sank immediately. There were 4 white men and 27 natives on board; all, with the exception of one white man, were drowned. He, and the owner of the craft, Mr. Charles Gill, clung to the mast head for several hours, and at last Gill, finding his strength failing, shook hands with his companion, and dropped into the waves out of sight. Kennington (the other man) was picked up on the beach next morning, and passed three days in delirium. The Lily of the Lake ran for shelter to the Bay of Rest, where she capsized and went down, head foremost, with all on hoard. Her crew numbered 4 whites and about 25 Malays, and all perished. The Blossom was swamped, and her crew lost; the Subahain was driven ashore and her crew saved. Several people watched the catastrophe from the shore, but the storm was so terrific that they could render no assistance. Captain J.S. Roe received a letter from one of them, who, on 2nd January wrote—"We have had nothing but dead bodies floating about our vessel for the last two days, with enormous sharks devouring them. I took on shore the body of Gill, and gave it Christian burial."
What with discoveries of valuable pearls, the treatment of divers, and wrecks during storms, pearling was not devoid of startling incidents. Pearls and pearl shell declined in price in 1876, but good profits could still be made. In 1877-8, owing to the small quantities gleaned, the value of export greatly decreased. This was due to some extent to lower prices ruling in England, and to the older banks yielding less shell. An export duty of £4 per ton on the best shell was charged in 1878, and on Sharks Bay shell of £1 per ton. The annual returns as valued by the compilers of the Blue Book were:—
| Year. | Pearl Shell. | Pearls. | ||
| 1869 | 54 | tons | £6,490 | — |
| 1870 | 80 | " | 9,431 | £50 |
| 1871 | 92 | " | 12,895 | — |
| 1872 | 185 | " | 25,890 | — |
| 1873 | 149 | " | 28,262 | £6,000 |
| 1874 | 308 | " | 61,600 | 12,000 |
| 1875 | 321 | " | 60,842 | 12,000 |
| 1876 | 390 | " | 74,142 | 8,000 |
| 1877 | 103 | " | 12,450 | 10,000 |
| 1878 | 202 | " | 24,300 | 12,000 |
Not reckoned in these figures were returns from Sharks Bay shells which were of less value. In 1873, £126; in 1874, £562; in 1875, 380 tons, £3,800; in 1876, 288 tons, £1,150; and in 1878, 340 tons, £1,352. Tortoise shell collected on the north-west coast supplied fair profits to the gatherers. In 1869, 643 lbs., £482; in 1870, £270; in 1872, 600 lbs., £450; and 1873, 340 lbs., £255.
Since the hurried and unsuccessful exploitation of the guano deposits on the north-west coast in 1850 and subsequent years, interest in the trade had quite lapsed. Little was heard of guano until 1876, when a somewhat amusing difficulty arose. In June of that year Mr. Roberts, an American, landed from the French barque Forca de la Roquette on the Lacapede Islands, north-west coast, and planted the American flag, considering that as the islands were more than a league from the Australian coast they could not be claimed as British territory. Some little time previously rich guano deposits had been found on the islands, and the Western Australian Government had allowed a Melbourne firm, Messrs. Poole, Picken, and Co., represented by Mr. Geddes, to load, charging a royalty of 10s. a ton. Mr. Roberts, on the authority of the American consul in Melbourne, laid claim to the cargoes of these vessels being loaded by Mr. Geddes, a claim which the latter would not recognise. Mr. Geddes proceeded to Roebourne, laid a complaint before the Government Resident, was sworn in as a special constable, and returning attached the French vessel chartered by Mr. Roberts. The latter now publicly proclaimed American rights to the islands, and claimed £30,000 as compensation for wrongful appropriation and damages sustained. Mr. Sholl, the Government Resident at Roebourne, did not see the matter in the same light as Mr. Roberts, and fined him £100, and ordered the captain of the barque to pay the costs. The captain was discreet and proceeded to Fremantle, paid the royalty of 10s. on the guano which he had loaded, and went over to Mauritius to discharge his cargo.
In Melbourne the Emily, a vessel of Messrs. Poole, Picken, and Co., was put in check by the American consul, who seized the cargo on behalf of his Government, and, it is said, sent instructions to
