DEMERARA DIAMONDS.
NEW DISCOVERY IN A VERY OLD
COLONY
There is fresh hope for that old colony t , British Gxiiana. Real diamonds have been found there, and are now in London. They are called Demerara diamonds. For a long while British Guiana has beeii trying to get to the front. It was next door, on the Orinoco, that Raleigh unsuccessfully tried to find El Dorado. Now another explorer, Mr Edward Gilkes, a native, has been searching, and the product of his quest is in the offices of Messrs Conrad and Co., BasinghaJl street, E.C.
Mr Julius Conrad told a Daily Mail representative something about the diamond find. " About 10 years ago," he said, "Mr Gilkos went right up the- Maserana River in British Guiana, and in the back country found lying about on the surface what he took to be diamonds. He sent them to London, and they were found, at the Museum of Practical Geology, Jermyn street, to be genuine diamonds. They fetched a good ]iricc, but the man, with whom Gilkes was working died, and nothing more was /lone until recently. ' " About five or six months ago' Gilkes again went up .country and returned . with a few diamonds. Upon* the strength of his find -a small syndicate helped him, and in January he made a tlfird journey. He returned wth 282 stones, which I am about to have cut. I do not say they arc valuable diamonds, but they look ju&t like the others, and I think they will turn out right.
"They have been valued in the ro\ip;h at £350, but you cannot tell a diamond's real value until it is cut. If they prove to be good stones we shall extend our investigations, ancl sec what can he done with the discovery. At present wo do not wish to. colour the prospect too highly.
" v< Apart from diamonds, gold is being exported from British Guiana, at the rate of 10,000oz or 12,0000z a month. A great splash was made recently when Rhodesia produced 5000oz a month. . That shows what the value of British Giiiana is, apart from the possibility of diamond fields. "As the oldest" resident — I have lived there 45 years — I believe the colony to be a new and wealthiei India, only nobody knows whera it is and nobody invests in it. If people knew that it is one of the oldest, if not the oldest, British colony they might give it a lift. It is within 10 days' sail of England, and the climate is splendid." Mr Conrad gave a very glowing picture of British Guiana, which he ||&ys is full ef-rich imworked raw material. Tiut he expressed, no more than a strong hope that Demerari diamonds will be the thing of the future.
" The worst of it is,"' he said, "no on* knows anything about the place." The thin£ to remember is that the Demerara diamondi like Demerara sugar, comes from British, Guiana, in South America.
New Name foe Liebig Coutant's Extract. — We notice that Liebig's Extract o£ Meat Company have decided to put another distinguishing mark upon their Extract, iit addition to the well-known blue signature, "J., V. Liebig." On and after the Ist of January; 1900, all their jars will have an additional label bearing Liebig's Extract of Meat Gompany's initials, L.E.M.CO., by which narn^ their Extract .will sQon. be generalise fesgwa,^s
DEMERARA DIAMONDS.
Otago Witness, Issue 2433, 31 October 1900, Page 9
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