1959-06-09 — Page 4

THE 'CHINA MAIL, TUESDAY, JUNE 9, 1959.

The Colony's newest industry gets under-way this month....

PEARLS

IN Japan women dive, men sigh for it; in Hongkong men dive,' women sigh for it. It's a multi-million-dollar for- tune embodied in a beautiful little thing lying deep in the ocean the cultured pearl.

And now, Hongkongites, it's yours for the picking. For, with whopping success, experiments in our waters have produced thousands of the precious things big as thumb- nails as if screaming, "It can be done!" Also a law has been passed for it.

1 Toto Harbour and along oysters Inadvertently opened

our coflern toast,

there vd their valvea. myriads of bearl-dystery-small

otherwise

The moment they did so, Pin Unda Murtensi and

tuligs were Jer in

pirs of springed Penguins

Inerted between shells to keep known as Wings.

them open.

The former is good for the culture of the small luxurious roud part while the latter, the big half-pearl, zalas bilster peal after the way it clings to the inside of a shell during cul- ture.

Power

NIC A

Pinctadas

hig elan throughout Southeast Asia whereas Wings, a rure minority, none of which is fouml in Japa and which Hongkong particul- arly Deeds to conserve,

The patter to form a pearl How in the mantle, a growing

the tizane lilita

inside of aheite of all peori-opsters.

The mantle keepa on seerei- Ing a shiny substance called the mother-of-pearl which forms new layers on the inske of the shell while the outside rows bigger api older. It takes four months to grow a layer of one inillimetre.

Anything embedded in the mule will be covered up with the mother-of-pearl

Then a blunt knife slipped half ball of lala nucleus in between the shell and the mantic. Poor Gyslers! Each of them had to accommodate at least two nuclel, one in either shell.

Titus, the oysters went into wire cages, about three to a Page. measuring 13 inches square by six inches high.

Oysters in cuges, suspended 12 feet from the floating bamboo rafts, were then submerged in

water.

Orie trouble Hongkong enemantired was oysters spawn- ing from June to October when embedding thould take place.

To get around spawning, tary forced the oysters to lay POWX in advance by raising the water temperature, This was done by lifting the cages up to one or two feel below Water urface

higher

fentature. a Ame

goes on. A foreign body willy. Billy insertest in the mantle as a timelts will in time come off

prari.

as

was for this mollur-of- pesel that nut long ago divers in helmets and suits were sent down to collect oysters in Bong kong's experiments,

In Kut O, as offshore island ea of Shatoukok, and in Tols Harbour, thousands of Wing uysters were collected and stored away fu buckets of water.

جزائر

Thinged down through wing, the oysters were then fattened up before embedding -

Oysters, however, found a deadly preyer in a snail called an "oyster drill which can bore a hole through the shell with its teeth and stick i tongue through to suck up the Jusies, kitting the helpless

victims.

in

made Hongkong

By David Lan

Photo by J. C. C. Walden.

ne

At the end of six months, the eared oysters were trieved for harvesting when all of them were killed for their pearls.

the peri eut blister and

Two blister pearls may be willed to form one round pearl,

The real round pearl is cul- lured in a different way-by transplantation of the growing Issue into the gonad or the foot musete.

The Pinctada mantle is first peeled off and cut up into 1 mm quares. The technician then sats a wound in the gonad or foot of the oyster. He next Inserts a piece of the mantle, following up immediately with a nucleus.

A

The transplanted maulle. being fast-growing tissue. bsorbs nutrition from the neighbouring tissues and con- tinues secreting the mother-of- pearl which enfolds the nucleus and, in tine, turns it into a per- fectly round pearl of rich lustre.

In Japon the culture of Plaetada pearl takes two years In Hongkong, according to an expert, A may take less time, say one and a half years, because of our wormer temperature.

Round pearls are good for necklaces,

The longer the time of culture, the belter the lustre but also the resulting in baroque pearls. greater the dunger for deformity,

Nuclei are usually made of polished shell, tole stone or, the

test, plastic material.

The most delicate matter in

being opened.

Oysters died on their valver

Then a round peart culture is colour control, drins big as around the penci

Among the mojor factors through the shell at the base of affecting the colour of a pearl contact, The peart was then are: quality of the oyster mantle, cut off the base and polished for

food supplied, temperature, can- To accelerate the growth of oysters and their secretion of marketing. Blister pearls are

dition of water (e.g, salinity), the mother-of-pearl,

colour of nucleus, minerat con- hormones good for earrings and brooches,

tents of water, and last but the were injected and temperature The oyster ment is still good least desirable. the staining raised.

for consumption,

method.

In general, oysters do not like

What with fatigue of muscles, the sun. Their optimal tum- what with the need to breathe perature ranges from 60°F, to

fresh

water, the Wing 83°F.

iti

́ROUND-UP

Colour control Is to clusively techniem) that only a Kew Japanese know the werel

And well do they deserve it. Mikimoto, the king of cultured ocarls, went broke several times in search of the secret, nnd his compally is still burning up hundreds of pounds of inferior Pearls annually to keep up the quality".

Before the invention of new technique, pearling industry was a highly perilous venture." And It happened in Hongkong cen- turies ago.

'Let's turn the clock back 1.243 years (716 A. D. in the Tang dimasty) when pearls were first found and fished in the ca acar Old Taipo

the Market in

New Terri- torics.

The method of collecting the pearls then was crude, A man with

weighted rope was dropped over the side of a boat. and left until he was hauled uu again at the discretion of those in charge of the boat.

Pearls delighted the emperors but the loss of life was so enormous that the Industry was started and stopped fine and again down the centuries until it was finally prohibited 583 years ago (1574 A.D. in the

Ming dynasty).

Al the height of the enler-

Ilongkong's

modern

www pearling experiment inilisted by an enterprising businessman at Kat. O. Island where 1,000 cages of Wing oysters were employed in the test from August, 1956, to January, 1957, for enllure of Llister pearls with the ass- tabre of three Japanese technicians

Photo by Mr John C. C. Walden,

Now, just bow big is the and it takes years for a spat potential of the industry in (baby oyster) to grow into a Hongkong?

mature oyster. This is where conservation comes in. well-informed source A said, "At present, no exnet

The Director of Agriculture, Grure is pemible but I'm s Fisheries and Forestry Depart- it is a multi-million-dollar ment, Mr W. J. Blockle, who enterprise.”

announced in the Government Gazelle last Friday, three areas for pearl-oyster cultivation are open for applica-

on, said,

A

about wond

prat keting. Jupan leads in production. The cut of Francs and Italy is From July, 1957, to December, negligible, while Australia is still experimenting down under.

1947, another businessman con- ducted a second exptriment in Tola Harbour with 100 cages of Wing oysters.

In both cases, tale stone nuetzi were used, And the results?

g-size blister pearls up to

20 mm in diameter with excel- Int lustre.

This opened นค a Печ horizon, heralding a new era of Hongkong's pearling in- dustry.

prise, 8.000 troops were stagioned in Old Talpa Market for protec- Eight months after the tion of the pearling industry 995, successful conclusion of the years ago (864 A. D. in the second experiment, the Legisla- Southern Ilan dynasty) and 700 tive Council passed the Pearl families of boatmen were ap- Culture (Control) Ordinance on pointed offelaj collectors of August 23, 1958, for the pur- pearls on government payroll. pode of conserving the resources 060 years ago (1299 A, D. In. of pearl-oysters and regulating the Yuen dynasty).

pearl culture in Hongkong.

In 1959, Japon pouted tons of pearls into the ocean to keep down the quantity, and keep up the price Like diamends, the pearls are among a few of the

world's ecomodities that enjoy

a steady market.

that

"In developing 籍 new Industry such as this, every care and attention' must be given to the conservation of the natural oystern. Thereform the legislation which has been enacted by the Government bas in mind this Important neoemily for the preservation of the industry.

*Covernment

to

intends develop it slowly and surely and

Japan in 1966 produced a total one of the conditions imposed of 26,51937 kg of pearls of on licensees is that they cul- which 23,402,46 kg was far ex- tivate the natural oysters within port valued a± ÙS$13,321,559. the area of their operollen in in 1967, her output cămbed to order that there will be a con- 30.937.37 kg of which 25,868.61 (inuous supply." ky when for export valued at US316,493,721 and the figure keeps growing anmplly,

Now we are ready to begin. When the industry gels under- way. Hongkong may really But every pearl taken out of deserve her attractive. tile--the a shell means an oyster killed, Pearl of the Orient..

"ARMY" NEEDS LEAVE TO BANG

BEFORE the Salvation Army in Bognor Regis can bang a drum

or blow a trumpet, trombone or saxophone, they must get permission in writing from the local planning authority. This condition was tuld down by Bognor Regis counelt in granting pinning permission for a new Saivallon Aring headquarters. The only musical instruments which they are to be allowed to play without express authority are an organ, plano or concertinu. The chairman of the Planning Committee, Mr William Adair says the Salvation Army is in full agreement with this measure designed to restrict noise. ̧

NEW TELESCOPE TO COST £660,000

NEW 98-inch aperture 100-ton telescope is to be built in the grounds of the Royal Greenwich Observatory at Hurst- monceux, Sussex. It will be called the Isant Newión Telescope after the inventor of the first reflecting telescope, This project, sponsored by the Royal Society and the Royal Astronomlenl Saclety, had been approved in principle but lack of funds prevented work from being put in hand,

Headache

Do not wait patiently for your suffering to end. Take 1-2 tablets of CAFASPIN dissolved in half a gloss of water, and headache will soon vanish

POPULAR

GFASPIN

CONCLUDING

F

I LIVE IN UNEASY ST., W.10

To put it mildly-so unlike

THIS is the final report in a three-day inquiry by a reporter into what it feels like to actually live in London, W. 10:

Already reported: the disturbing tension between black and white. Today: Looking ahead to what can be done to make London, W. 10 a problem area no longer.

"South Ken'

the

corner

by ANNE SHARPLEY

fow

Kensington that refuse in the streets, household able stench when the sun begins f great sweep-through by so that many of the extortionate

of rubbish in the gutter roots bare,

In South that I had memorised on could never happen. I thought, the first day of living in reflecting how at least a hundred W.10.

retired colonels would be fuss- ing over the fallen beauty, in Kensington should lose another distress that ecute

South

to act сп their

Good will

The chief clerk denied that Those milk bottles that stand of South Kensington. How clean AT

South Kensington is, I thought. there was any difference in the in great grey masses by almost Edenham Street and saw an aspen tree that had servicing of North and South every door(outside one in St

The houses Square. It Kensington, Kensal Place was the fallen in Colville

were Stephen's Gardens there were had fallen a long time ago, for overcrowded. There was

an112) providing ready fuel same melancholy

and street fights and

And one cocid see the truth mess the rain had washed the upend- insufficiency of dustbins

They were holding meetings an unbelies of this. The East End had had to publicise the rent tribunals- people

their

unwashed downers, dens and outspoken rents being demanded could be Interiors? Couldn't something "We have cut down the be done? And if the borough fin councillors at the tum of the reduced. Many West Indians littor bins because they this case Paddington) won't do

were not century.

aware of such basle rights. were putting the house- it--shouldn't the Government? "Whereas the East End ન

The good work is beginning. hold refuse in those," ho

cbsolutely fell of settlements. Such bodies os the Institute explained.

This was a

centres, clubs and all that--ia of Group Studies (Mr Richard this area there is nothing. Just Hawser and his wife Hephzibah curious form of remedy, I

one club maintained by Rugby Menubin) are hard at work. I went to see some

of the School that pointed out.

in any way - Father Tarvor Huddleston people who are doing something. pares with what you find main moved

The Into I spoke to the street-sweeper

Guthority A front room at Cambridge Gar- tained by universities,

The schools I rang up the Chief Clerk of do?" he asked. They did what dens which Mr Das Cher and do-good bodies in the East Palington

ot Kensington and $18.00 in Kensal Road. His little green the Royal Borough. Why wes

handcari

have consultative would have

they could, he said, even those worth, en LCC member

for FodTM

committees to there only one collection of restering bomb sites that I com- North Kensington, has taken as 18.00 crammed to over-flowing if he dustbins In

handle racial North Kensington mented on. They were the his on-the-spot headquarters. 18.00 had started on even the first two when it was all

feet of Edenham Street,

Loo clearly owners responsibility, but

-the

This particular evening they quite inadequate? 25.00

borough had to clear them when were holding a working com Why, when in the East

End they became a danger, to pubile mittee meeting for a "Good-will boroughs like

Berraondary health.

Week" to be held in the neigh- Bethnal Green and Stopney (not

bourhood at the beginning of

PUBLICATIONS

Chinoso Creeds & Customs Vol, F Chinese Croads & Customs Vol. II Chinese Croods & Customs Vol. III

Baby Book..

King George VI

Express Annual

Rupert Annual

Rupert Magazines

Ten Points About Pearls

Points on Judging Jadö

Gitor Annual

Hong Kong Business Symposium

On Sale At

7.50

Four days Dow, and every morning I had checked that particular corner and it had not yet been swept, And the same sould be sald, I suspected, of the whole lamentable vista.

Litter

· 1,50 road-sweeping,

back

there

toák up

tree.

Inadequate

"What can a local

July. The strain

area.

Challenge

Something like the problems. great wave of xoud that bad'shaken the East End to its grimy voets is noad- ed now in North Kensing

has

will best the extremists' (Fascist With any luck the moderates

and Chummmunist) who were already exploiting the situation Mr in Notting Hill.

9.00 He swept bli stretch twice a to mention the more comparable Hampstead and 4.50 day, he said. He was from Tip- Marylebone,

A modest but commendable perary. and he'd swept the collections of refuse, did these Westminster) they had two

scheme for dences, steel bands

Even single 1.00 Famous distance

Genteel South Kensington was and calypsos, cricket matches, Chemoth explains), like the I walked back to.. my cock-

and 1.50 many u time in the four and a shameful streets have only one? clearly feeling the strain of its essay competitions

so on siccl-chrom Eveścisza half years since ho

having maches through those mean, vas sketchell out *The ecomo- (South Kensington

timeült, multi-racial twin. has a second supplementary kerbside It is no good expecting the mies of it all are rather shaky nowhere to rehearse, boome a but so meaningful streets, where scluble problem. He bas one of the most important Footless new arrivals to behave explained It was raining now-freshen- service to shops, hotels, blocks 3b retired Empire builders: young (white) surveyor from arrengel for them to use an old challenges to this

Mr Keith LJC, 4.50ing those share and Inescapable of flats, etc.

country is being only fitfully faced. West Those, well-rame stucco houses East Africa, on long leave 35.00 bdours from the usually dies Indian asked

why South dustbins. Dampening the waste- Kensington should have this that gleamingly harbour a few doing this work voluntarity. paper on the pavements into a privilege and

well-behaved denizens of the "the Good-will Week is an effort

And i wondered: Have not. North, he mile-class sad and horrid stodge.

when

they cross by people of good will and much

we really got the grace, There was not a litter. told that people in South Kensington's Mason-Diasun line people are 'invariably, · Impaca-

Kensington "ale bin to be seen,' Just the commitee member

more by the. become arowded, peeling incu- nious.”

the guts and the sheer he proached!)

common sense to solve the problema of W 10%..

SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST LTD. |{

HONGKONG

KOWLOON

When a

a

acbook

and

A start

Plans for a social centre were ap balors, for dozeris of emigrania, Social amenities in W19 - and begun and would, be confirmand

Yet the Royal Borough was thereabouts were infinitely fewer in a few daysanne "This was North Kensington, And where were tha liter proud to claim they got the same then in the main zad, mplainted was by 20 incelte all that was And I thought inevitably of bine for North Kensington?

service.

Mr Cheeworth.

nooded—a was a start,

*(Einsdon Eryrics Service),,