bases for the beche-de-mer and pearling industries which previously had operated outside its jurisdiction. During the 1880s, a pearling station operated on Hammond Island and in 1889, gold was discovered on the island. A number of prospectors and miners began moving to the island in September 1889 and these deposits were quickly exhausted. An Aboriginal reserve was gazetted on Hammond Island by the Queensland Government in 1881. J.F.G. Foxton, W.E. Parry-Okeden and Dr W. Roth were appointed trustees of the reserve in February 1900. 1900–1950 The majority of the Kaurareg people were moved to Hammond Island in the first decade of the 20th century. The Annual Report of the Chief Protector of Aboriginals for 1913 stated that around 80 Kaurareg people were living on Hammond Island, comprising "representatives from all Islands adjacent to Thursday Island". Strenuous efforts were made by the government in 1913 to encourage the Hammond Islanders to move to a new settlement on Moa Island, but without success. The Kaurareg people on Hammond Island were neglected by the government and received no school or medical facilities. Thirteen people died the following year, when an influenza epidemic swept through the island community. By the 1920s, the Queensland Government was determined to move the Kaurareg people from Hammond Island, publicly stating that their close proximity to Thursday Island encouraged drunkenness and immorality in the community. Preparations for the removal began in 1921, with the construction of new quarters at Adam village on Moa. In March 1922 the Kaurareg community was forcibly removed by the government authorities from Hammond Island and transported to Moa Island on a Papuan Industries vessel named the Goodwill. Three members of the Hammond Island community, who protested against the removal, were arrested without charge by police armed with revolvers. From the 1880s onwards, many Filipino immigrant workers living in the Torres Strait married local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women. These marriages were conducted by the Catholic Church. During the 1920s, the presence of mixed-race families on Thursday Island was an embarrassment to the government authorities, who were applying strict racial legislation to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. In 1928, the Catholic Church on Thursday Island obtained permission to establish a mission settlement for families of Filipino ancestry at Hammond Island. St Joseph’s Catholic mission station was officially inaugurated at Hammond Island on Ascension Thursday in 1929. The mission was administered by Catholic priests