DIAMONDS IN CANTERBURY.

Press, Volume LIII, Issue 9520, 12 September 1896, Page 5

DIAMONDS IN CANTERBURY.

TO THK EDITOR OF THE _ B.ESS.-. SIR, —I continually read of the vast quantity of diamonds that- have been extracted in the last few yeai*3 from the "four volcanic pipes" ot the old volcano at' Kirn-" Africa, and I wonder that our wandering population—half -miners and half loafers and swaggers—do not turn their attention to tho different extinct volcanoes in Canterbury. This class of people seem to be quite content jiist now with writing letters to you about '•Cheap Money"; or in trying to get the Government or anyone else to support them until next harvest, or rather for the rest of -their, natural lives. I am sure we have plenty of played out volcanoes in our neighbourhood. There isl Burnt Hill, near Oxford; Mount Horrible, not far from Timaru; even the great hill of Geraldine was, I suppose, once a V oleano ; and then there are plenty of open craters in Banks Peninsula. I would not, however, recommend the latter just at present; for it would ba difficult to peg out one's claim in Lyttelton or Akaroa harbours. But, seriously speaking, it would not, I imagine, be very hard for an experienced miner to find out the original pipe through which once spouted up the black mass of Burnt Hill, and why should it not contain diamonds as well as Kimberley. —I am, &c, D. B.