["Pearling Industry", The West Australian, Saturday 26 April 1913, page 11]
PEARLING INDUSTRY.
WHITE V. COLOURED LABOUR.
CAPTAIN TALBOYS'S EXPERIENCE.
Having been continuously engaged for 25 years on the North-West coast, during which time he has built up several fine pearling fleets, Captain Talboys, lately master of the s.s. Australind and of the s.s. Karrakatta, returned to Fremantle by the s.s. Warilda this week from Adelaide, where he had been spending a short holiday.
When asked yesterday by a representative of the "West Australian" to express his views on the coloured labour question in connection with pearling, Captain Talboys unhesitatingly stated that the white diver was an impossibility. He had, he said, always hoped that the white man would be a successful diver, but after a very lengthy experiment the idea had been abandoned. The divers, six or eight of them, who were brought to Australia by the master pearlers from Sebie Gorman and Co. and Henkie and Co., submarine engineers in England, about two years ago, were all either dead or paralysed. The Government, early last year, issued a manifesto stating that after January of this year no Asiatic divers would be allowed to operate in Australian waters. When this time expired, a further Government minute was issued extending the time until 12 months later, and this alteration was, apparently, a sign that even the Government saw the impossibility of bringing about the desired change. Many persons were of the opinion that the master pearlers had opposed the idea of securing white divers, but that this was not so was shown by the fact that the Pearlers' Association, consisting of men interested in about 400 boats, formed a scheme whereby each boat was to contribute £5 towards the establishment of a training school for white divers. A schooner and a fleet of six luggers were procured, and all preparations were made to give white men a good training for the diving occupation. In the British Isles, and throughout Australasia, invitations to men desirous of learning, the work were advertised, but not one application was received. In order to assist the master pearlers in shouldering the additional expense caused by the employment of the white diver, the association approached the Government with a request that it should offer a subsidy for all shell raised by white men, but this was refused, and apparently, beyond issuing notices prohibiting the employment of the Asiatics, the Government was prepared to do nothing.
Captain Talboys detailed the results of his own personal experience with the white diver. A lugger with the white diver and white tender, and with an Asiatic in charge to direct them to the pearling grounds, was sent out. In another lugger with his Asiatic diver and tender the captain followed and anchored about 20 yards away from the other boat. After having taken about half an hour to adjust his apparatus – the Japanese with Captain Talbot had done this while the boat was going to the location – the white diver descended, and after five minutes he came up again empty-handed. Meanwhile the Japanese had been under the water for 10 minutes and had raised 12 large shells, weighing about a quarter of a hundred weight. The Japanese after 10 minutes descended again and brought another load to the surface. Meanwhile the white man had been resting for half an hour. Again the white man descended, and spent eight minutes under water, but on his reappearance he had no shell with him. Throughout the afternoon the Japanese made two dips to the white man's one, and finally, having raised nothing in four dips, the white man left. As the result of a year's diving, the best returns of any of the white divers did not exceed a ton, whilst the average yield of an Asiatic's work was between four and five tons. When it was considered that the Asiatic worked for from £2 to £3 per month plus a commission on shell raised, while the white man received £14 per month with a similar commission, in addition to which the cost of keen for the white man was about three times that expended on the Asiatic, one could understand that, in the circumstances, the master pearler was not unreasonable in his request that the Government opposition to the Asiatic diver should be recalled.
When asked what he thought would be the result of carrying into effect the Government's proposal to abolish Asiatic divers Captain Talboys stated that he hat no doubt, that so far as Australia was concerned, the pearling industry would no longer add to the revenue of the country, for master pearlers would have to shift their headquarters to Kopang or some other of the islands in its vicinity, and conduct their operations under the Dutch flag.
