DEALER IN DIAMONDS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIX, Issue 99, 27 March 1939, Page 9

DEALER IN DIAMONDS.

AN INTERESTING VISITOR

Per Press Association. WELLINGTON, March 25

A man who estimates that in the past forty years he has bought on behalf of syndicates a hundred million pounds’ worth of diamonds produced from South African fields discussed with a reporter to-day the position of the diamond market. He is Colonel Sir David Harris, of Kimberley. Eighty-seven years of age, lie has, in his own words, liad a strenuous life, and he is taking things quietly. On this 1 iis first visit to New Zealand he is accompanied on a round trip by a nurse, Sister S. V. Satherley, who is a New Zealander.

A .seasoned traveller by virtue of ltis business, Sir David Harris has crossed the Line more than fifty times between South Africa and the Old Country. Diamonds are just an article of commerce to Sir David. To-day he talked of the state of the market and the control that exercised to prevent its being flooded, reducing the price to an uneconomic level. He said they were mined, in just sufficient cju.antities to keep the market supplied. 'There was no indication that the output would ever fail to meet the demand, and valuable discoveries had been made in recent years in ISama<|ualan<l. Illicit diamoud-buving was still going on, but nothing like the extent in the past. The supervision exercised was so rigid that olfendeis found it exceedingly difficult to do much, but then diamonds wore so small that they could l>c concealed readily. Illicit buying was likely to be carried on regardless of control, but its ofleet on the market was not serious by any means.