GREAT DIAMOND FIRM.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 14925, 24 February 1912, Page 2 (Supplement)

GREAT DIAMOND FIRM.

A ROMANTIC ORIGIN. • Another chapter in the successful and romantic life of the famous firm of Wernher, Beit, and Co., closed with the end of 1911. From January 1 the diamond business of the- firm was dissolved by mutual consent. This business will now be carried on under the style of L. Breitmeyer and Co., who have taken over all the business of the old company. It is believed that the change hat been made partly because of the advancing years of Sir Julius Wernher. who desires to reduce his business cares. It will be remembered that, about a years ago the bulk of the firm's business and that of the allied Johannesburg undertaking of H. Eckstein and Co. was transferred to the Central Mining and Investment Corporation, while a number of its share assets were taken over by Rand Mines, Ltd. Sir Julius retains his chairmanship of the Central Mining Corporation—among other important directorships. I With the discovcryof diamonds at Kimberley in the early TO's, Sir Julius Wernher, then a clerk in a Continental house, joined hands with a fellow clerk, Alfred Beit, and proceeded to South Africa. With the latter's uncle, a Mr. Porges, negotiations were carried on with the fate Cecil Rhodes, which led to the formation of the great diamond monopoly of De Beers.

Sir Julius Wernher,- it will bo remembered, was the victim—to the extent of £60,0000f the- notorious Lemoine, the Frenchman who alleged that he was the discoverer of tho secret of making artificial diamonds.