Page:Scented isles and coral gardens- Torres Straits, German New Guinea and the Dutch East Indies, by C.D. Mackellar, 1912.pdf/72

46 chance until it is removed from the Australian Commonwealth jurisdiction. The Government refused to give land to a syndicate which introduced tobacco, and opposed all tobacco plantations—why, no one can understand—whilst now German New Guinea tobacco and cigars can be had all over Germany. This possession of ours is only four hundred miles by sea from Cooktown, in Queensland, but it yet remains half unexplored and without any definite aim in its government. Once it is entirely separated from Australian interference—if that can ever be now—it will progress as any other place does. May that day come soon.

At or near Triton Bay, on the west coast of Dutch New Guinea, are remains of stone houses and piers, said to have been an English settlement many years ago—in 1623 or so. Who these people could have been, and on what grounds it is supposed they were English, no one seems to have any idea.

The pearl shell—used for mother-o’-pearl articles—is the great industry here, not pearls, though they sometimes find good ones. A fleet of perhaps fifteen or twenty boats, mostly built in Sydney and from 5 to 12 tons, is sent away to the fishing-ground with only natives on board and the Kanaka divers, who get £20 a month and so much per ton. The divers now always use the diving-dress, though formerly they worked without it. They are paid by the results of the cruise, according to the amount of shells they bring back. They tell me that my desire to go away with the fleet for a week or so is impossible of attainment, as, with only natives, I would have a comfortless time; but all that could be arranged, and I know I would enjoy it. However, it cannot be now, as I must return south again when the City of Melbourne comes in.