51["The Pearling Industry", The West Australian, Monday 29 July 1912, page 4]

The Pearling Industry.

Its Political Aspect.

(By W. M.)

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The irony of fate! At Carnarvon on June 7 the Minister for Works (Mr. W. D. Johnson), with the confident assertiveness begotten of utter lack of power to grip the complexity of the subject, let himself go on the pearling industry. He assured his audience that "white men were able to escape the dreaded paralysis and would prove more capable than colored divers. The difficulty facing white divers at present was that they were not being shown where and how to find shell. That would be soon overcome and the experiment would prove wholly successful." Throughout the same day, on board a lugger between La Perouse and Broome, the tide of life of William Webber, a white diver, was slowly ebbing away under the influence of the diver's dread disease--paralysis. What a terrible answer to the irresponsible vapourings of a mere mortal! Undaunted by the severe rebuke received by his leader, the member for Roebourne has, presumably with the sanction of the Government, forecasted an attack upon the present system of employment of Asiatic divers. Considering that the Commonwealth Government have appointed a Royal Commission into the pearling industry, the State Government might stay their hand in the expectation that the inquiries made and the facts elicited by the Commission might be of use in enabling them to deal sensibly with the question.

The poor white diver William Webber seems to have neglected largely the precautionary measures usually adopted as a safeguard against seizure by paralysis. The lengthy and gradual methods of reaching the surface were disregarded. He was apparently too impatient and his life was the penalty claimed and paid. I remember, upon his arrival in the State, his almost contemptuous summary of the dangers of deep diving--fast running tides, treacherous bottoms, etc. He had dived all over the world in all sorts of waters under every adverse condition possible; he was not afraid. Further, he had educated and trained divers in every clime and circumstance, was an admitted master hand, up to each point of the game, prepared to stake his reputation that under his tuition he and his companions would almost revolutionise the diving industry of the Nor'-West. Now, poor fellow, he is gone--the first victim to the white diver fetish.

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