A licence fee on boats and a tax on shells has been imposed by the Legislature; laws for the protection of aboriginal divers and Malays have been enacted.

I shall immediately have a Government cutter on the north-west coast for police and customs purposes, which will also be useful in cases of shipwreck amongst the islands and inlets, and in searching for and reporting the position of reefs, of anchorages, and of new banks of pearl oysters.

It will probably hereafter become advisable to let areas for pearling under certain regulations as in Ceylon, but this could not well be done with our present means and knowledge.
19.

To turn now to the more settled industries, first in importance is that of agriculture.

It is chiefly in the hands of men of little capital, and is carried on in a very slovenly way by the greater part of them.