TOO MANY DIAMONDS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 281, 26 November 1937, Page 6

TOO MANY DIAMONDS.

THE NAMAQUALAND FIELD.

EMBARRASSMENT OF RICHES

Fields equal in richness to those at Xamaqnaland, from which millions of pounds' wortli of diamonds were taken, are said to have been discovered at Verneuk Pan, the dried-up South African lake bed on which Sir Malcolm Campbell made speed records in 1929.

Whether they will prove an advantage to the diamond trade or to South Africa, however, is extremely doubtful. The Xamaqualand fields were closed to stabilise the market; if all the fields known to-day were exploited and all the available stones were thrown on the market, the price would collapse.

Diamond prices are entirely artificial, regulated by a highly organised trade. jThe stones are worth what the trade can get for them, and the trade, long accustomed to dealing in the lure of precious stones, gets as much as it can. As the mines of South Africa can already supply much more than the demands of the world's markets, producers have found it expedient to have an agreement limiting production and sales. As a result, periodica,' agreements have been entered into between the London Diamond Syndicate and the four chief producers in South Africa—de Beers, South-West Africa, Premier and Jagersfontein. Nor does South Africa any longer have a virtual monopoly of diamond production. Formidable competitors to-day include Angola, Belgian Congo, British Guiana and West Africa. The new field is likely to provide a further serious problem for the trade. Famous Stones. Although South Africa is first in the diamond market to-day, all the famous diamonds of antiquity were . Indian stones. Among them is the Orloff, stolen by a French soldier from the eye of an idol in a Brahmin terkiple, stolen again from him by a ship's captain, bought by Prince Orloff for £90,000, and given to the Empress Catherine IL It weighs 194J carats and was among the Russian Crown jewels.

The Koh-i-noor, perhaps the best known of all diamonds, was in 1739 in the possession of Nadir Shah, the Persian conqueror, and in 1813 in that of the Rajah of Lahore. It passed into the hands of the East India Company and was by them presented to Queen Victoria in 1850. It then weighed 186j carats, but it was recut by London and Amsterdam workmen and now weighs 106J carats. These are but small stones, however, compared with such monsters as the Cullinan diamond, found in the Premier mine in the Transvaal, which was cut into nine large stones and a number of small brilliants. Such. stories as that of the Orloff diamond, and of others, to whieh a mysterious fatality is supposed to attach, have provided material for innumerable romances. To-day, however, the diamond trade is not so much concerned with romance as with the prosaic figures of production. It suffers an embarrassment of riches. The problem of over-supply in the midst of want, not uncommon among necessary commodities is, in this instance, repeated in the luxury trade. The diamond trade will not thank you for discovering more stones to-day. Indeed, if a considerable number of the fields now known could be closed for a centnrv it would, no doubt, lie a caime of gratification to many of the world's most famous jewel houses.