DECLINE OF THE DIAMOND FIELDS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 3257, 15 July 1872, Page 3

DECLINE OF THE DIAMOND FIELDS.

{Pail Mali (iasrttr.) We learn from South Africa that great despondency prevails at the diamond fields, and wo do not wonder that diggers are disgusted. The lifq was a hard one at best, even to men to the manner born, while io tho»e middle-class adventurers who flocked thither in such numbers, nothing but great success could make it even tolerable. It is no joke breaking ground as a navvy in shadeless sand under a scorching sun. When you are used to your little comforts it is disagreeable to have to ration yourself frugally on" tough ox-flesh, dispensing with bread and vegetables, and buying condiments at the price of, gold dust ; to -sleep through rain and heat .under a bush or a -waggon, or, if very luxurious, a' flimsy bell-tent. Burning thirst has its compensations, but it turns to torment when you can only slake it in tepid water sorely in need of the filter. - Still, y.Jien hope was young, and the diggings pretty nearly virgin, men made up their winds to endure this sort of thing. Thorns were the days when the stories made the round.of the camps of diamonds boughfv from natives to-day for a waggon and. a team and,, resold., to-morrow for several thousands sterling ; of clay huts, run up in haste, whose sun-baked walls when they dried were seen to; Bparkle with; gems. In these days .diggers not only* believed in their finds, but exaggerated ,the;r value,, and the prices, bid by middlejmeri arid merchants fostered their fond illusions. Patriotic arid sanguine South Africans seem to have'assumed that the atones from the. Vaal river roust, necessarily be of water aa pure as. those from {Jolconda or Minas-Geraes., When they ,came to remit their purchases to Europe, fthey found in many instances that they 3tad -burned-- their, fingers. Dealers in London and Amsterdam shook their heads : and pronounced the consignments valuable and curioußjbut of decidedly inferior Equality. Besides^ 'markets .whose custoV sTuers—are, necessarily-select..jnust_v.ery-speedilybc glutted-, When stones differ widely in lustre and purity^it is difficult | : to quote a jmce, but on receipt of figures .from home, buyers at the mines drew back into'excessive caution. Then those lof the diggers-'who' could afford to hold' declined altogether to deal therei. Some ; of the richest speculated in their neighbours' gems, and embarked for England i with their prices., Tli'ey. .amused them- ! selves on the voyage by building castles ;in the air, arid counted confidently •on a jcompetency for,,the, rest of, their ; days., We know of cages' -where" those who reckoned in. thia.way found cmum to wgret bitterly that they had not Vthrown away" their bargains at the mines. They were reduced' to. the 'option of doing it here, tv of laying;aside their lockod-up capital in thehope of rawing, it tobetter purpose in some indefinite future. The»e,, be it remembered, were tlie lucky one*,

and we tepeat that we do not wonder that diggers are disgusted. The probabilityis that tlie population of the once thriving canvas cities will thin fast, and the mines be left to Home knots of plodding adventurers who can resign themselves to severe work and moderate pay, when the work is sweetened-to them by a dash of speculation. Meantime it seems likely that before judgment is given in the arbitration between the rival potentates of tlie Free State and the Transvaal liepublic, the bo»ic of contention may be hardly worth tho picking.