Madras fisheries bulletin

32
dirty muddy sand. The quantity fished is large and
amounts to from 1,00,000 to 1,20,000 per annum. They
are mostly obtained from beds lying 7 to 8 miles east of
the villages of 1 iruppalagudi and Mudirampattanam.
whereof we have statistics,
During the only two years
1,45,206 full-sized shells were fished off the Tiruppalagudi
coast and 23,158 off Rameswaram; the latter number
is, however, believed to be considerably below a normal
average, the disparity in the catches from these two places
being due to the fact that the Government officers were
thwarted by underground influence from getting a suffi-
ciency of the Kilakarai divers, who are necessary for
this section of the fishery.
The rates paid to the divers by the lessee are usually
h'orher than those rulino- at Tuticorin as the divers incur
from home. The
extra expenses having to work away
great majority are Muhammadans (Labbais) from Kilakarai
Twelve years ago the rate for chanks fished to
the north of Rameswaram" Island and as far as the island
of Kachchetivu was Rs. 30 per 1,000, Rs. 27 per 1,000
for those from the beds between Pamban and Tondi, the
port of the Sivaganga zamindari, and Rs. 50 for those
taken off the Kilakarai coast. At the present time
rather higher rates rule, Rs. 40 being reputed to be
paid to imported Labbai divers fishing in Palk Bay and
Rs. 25 to 30 to the local divers who may either be
Roman Catholics or Hindus of the Karaiyar caste. The
employers by means of the advance system keep the men
eternally in their debt and power. A certain contribution
or tithe of their catch is generally set on one side
by the divers for the benefit of one of their mosques
In 1904, the question of the jurisdiction of the Raja
of Ramnad over certain chank beds lying from 5 to 7
miles from shore in the vicinity of Mudirampattanam
was brought before the High Court of Judicature at
Madras in the case of Annakumaru Filial versus Muthupayal
and others The defendants or their agents had
removed chanks from the chank bed at the place named
and were charged at the instance of the Raja with theft
of property (chanks) belonging to him. The defendants
relied chiefiy on the fact that the place whence the shells
were taken lay beyond three miles from shore ; they
arguedthat theplace was in the open sea beyond territorial