TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Press, Volume L, Issue 8593, 21 September 1893, Page 4

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

A diamond which is claimed A Modern to be the largest ever Golconda. found has recently been

discovered in the New J Jagersfontein Company's mine, in the j Orange Free State, South Africa. Most i mines have histories, and this particular enterprise is no exception, while it possesses unusual interest for Australians from the fact of its having been founded, and being still partly owned and managed by some Australian miners. A correspondent of an Australian contemporary recently told the history of the mine, from which it appears that a good many years ago the locality, where diamonds had a long time previously been discovered, was visited by Mr Samuel Kerr, an Australian pioneer miner, who came to an agreement with the owner of the place, a Dutch farmer, as to the terms on which he should test the nature of the ground. It says much for Mr Kerr's generosity that he stipulated for the right of taking up claims for all his old mining friends, and when pay dirt was found many of his old mates thus became wealthy men without touching their claims. The place was rushed by Companies, who spent fortunes in working the ground, but so tempting offer would induce Mr Kerr and hie brother to part with their claims. They were joined by other brothers from Australia, and as time went on they grew richer and more powerful. Working themselves from sunrise until sunset, they employed 1400 men. The scheme of Mr Rhodes, then Premier of Cape Colony, for the amalgamation of the diamond mines of South Africa was successful in all buc the important exception of the Kerr Brothers, who, says the correspondent, declined all offers.

But the house of the Rothschilds were the prime movers in the scheme of amalgamation, and had put about £10,000,000 into the business, and in order to compel the brothers to join in the scheme pressure was brought to bear on the diamond markets of the world, with the result that there was no sale for the Kerr Brothers' diamonds. When this was effected the agent for the scheme waited on the brothers, and told them he was instructed to pay them any price they asked for their mine.

The Kerrs climbed down and sold the agent two-thirds of their interest at a long price, retaining the remainder. After then the Kerrs retired, and the Company which had been formed to work the mine had varying luck for some time. Fortune is now smiling again. The original discoverers of the mine are now members of the Board, and the last meeting of shareholders was informed that the Board (who, by the way, together with the managing director, accept no fees) hoped to pay 40 per cent, this year. The Company pays away in the course of the year a quarter of a million sterling in wages. It need hardly be said that the original proprietor of the land became very wealthy.

Strictly speaking, the "Jagers-

A fontein Excelsior," as diaPriceless mond referred to above is called, Jewel is not " priceless." Its value is

estimated, however, by experts at anything between £150,000 and .£3,000,000, so the word may be allowed to pass. It weighs 971| carats, three-quarters of an ounce less than half a pound avoirdupois (imagine a diamond weighing nearly half a pound !), its height is about three inches and its width about two. A Birmingham resident in the Orange Free ■State recently sent to the Birmingham Daily Post a plaster of Paris model of the monster gem, from which it is seen that it is in the form of a sloping cone, flattened on two sides, and standing on an oval base, which measures nearly two inches by one and a quarter. Hβ describes its colour as bluewhite, and almost perfect. It has ono black spot in it, which the owners state will cut out. The lucky finder was a Kaffir working in the mine, who picked it up just after blasting. It appears that the Kaffirs are encouraged by the present of a lump sum of money to take any diamonds they may find in the mine into the compound (the enclosure in which they are strictly kept during their terra of service) and hand them over to the managers, the extent of their reward depending on the value of the stone. Xnis is done so that the men may not hand over their finds to their overseers, in whom the Company apparently place scanty confidence. The lucky Kaffir in this case happened to be talking to hi 3 "boss" when he saw the diamond shine, and putting his foot over it hid it until the overseer had gone away, when he took the stone to the manager. He was rewarded with £150, a horae, saddle and bridle, and went on his way rejoicing. A peculiar circumstance ia connection with the discovery was that it was almost the last stone to be found >on June 30th, the date of expiry of the contract under which a syndicate bought, at so much a carat, all the stones, good, bad, or indifferent, which were found in the mine. ~owing to this the Company will not profit so much as they would have' done had the diamond been found next day, when a new contract more favourable to them came into force. This magnificent gem surpasses all the famous diamonds of history. The Kohi-i-noor, now in the possession of the Queen, weighed nearly two hundred carats less, and yet according to Haydn. £2,000,000 has been mentioned as a justifiable price for it, if calculated by the scale employed by the trade. What will be the ultimate destination of this new "Mountain of Light " 'i. Fortune surely never came in such a portable but unsaleable shape. The purchasers of half-a-pound diamonds are not to be found every day, and even the American millionaire, with all his love for specimen atones, will have, to think twice before he writes a cheque for this splendid jeweL

A London trousseau-maker What Some has been indiscreet enough Weddings to reveal to a newspaper Cost. contributor some of the details of the business. He starts by the announcement that last year he made a wedding dreas which cost £2500. The dresses for Royal weddings, however, are not so expensive;. it is the American millionaire, or wealthy banker, who spares no expense. The lace on a bridal costume is, we learn, about as costly as anything, except the jewels, and one family in London was mentioned who possessed lace worth tens of thousands of pounds. A ball dress was made for one of this family recently, of which the bertha alone was worth £950. The figures are imposing, bat we must confess horrible ignorance as to what a bertha is. Lace, it seems, can cost anything from £6 a yard up to £80. The bride's people, the writer was told, paid for all the bridal finery, and on the occasion of a recent big Jewish wedding, the speaker said he would be well within the mark by stating that the bill which the bride's father had to pay for all the expenses connected with the function was a good deal more than £2500. There was, it appears, only one smart wedding in 1890, which must have been a cold year for London milliners, and that one was entirely arranged by thi? trousseau maker, who even looked after the cake and the waiters. His bill for that affair was more like £3000 than £2000. For a very smart wedding such uaconsidersd' trifiea a* the bridesmaids' .drawee coat from £30 to

£150 each. The laudable practice of making a reduction on taking a quantity holds good in this case, however, as he said that if there were six he made a slight concession. In only one direction 13 there a indication of less extravagance, and in that case the custom was killed by its abuse. Whereas at one time people would spend hundreds in floral decorations, the use of flowers at weddings is now much less common than it used to be. Paris prices are notorious, but two "creations ,, of Worth's are quoted as being a trifle out of the ordinary. The great man-milliner some years ago was paid £6000 for a single gown, the lace alone costing £5100, and recently he sold a cloak for £2500, of which £2440 was the cost of the fur. We used the word "indiscreet" at the commencement advisedly, for such revelations as the aboce cannot tend in the direction of inducing the men to propose. It is small consolation for Edwin to know that Angelina's father foots the bill for her wedding. What troubles him is the reflection that a young lady who enters married life under such gorgeous i circumstances will hardly put up with the 1 tapering-off policy which must ensue if she consents to share his fortunes. The natural sequence of the publication of such details is, as far as we can see, a seriou3 falling off in the marriage rate.