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Southland Times, Issue 20201, 11 June 1927, Page 13 (Supplement)

ODD PAPERS

DIAMOND RUSHES

(By

an Old Digger.)

From time to time diamond rushes are chronicled in the daily Press as having occurred in South Africa and these recall old memories of twenty to twenty-five years ago, when the writer was trying his luck on the Vaal River diggings, with varying suecess. All sorts and conditions of men have taken a hand at diamond digging, from the younger sons of peers, university undergraduates down to the humbler bywoner or poor white as he is termed. Some have made a rise and struck it rich while others have hardly made tucker for themselves and their Kaffir labourers, although the latter only earned half-a-crown a day. It was always a pure gamble and appealed to those out in search of easy money. The Vaal River rises in Natal on the east coast, bordering Zululand, wends its way some four hundred miles due west forming the boundary line between the Transvaal and the old Orange Free State, until it enters Griqualand, thence flowing onward to the Orange River, ultimately to empty itself on the South West African coast, some few hundred miles north of Gape Town, into the South Atlantic Ocean. It is to this point along the beach that the latest rush has taken place. It was known sometime during the Great War—and when our troops were fighting against the Germans, from whom we recovered German West Africa —that diamonds had been found in this locality. The Vaal is a very dirty sluggish river and only when the rainy season sets in, does it carry much water. The river diggings are purely and simply alluvial and extend only a few chains wide on either or both banks from the water s edge. When it is very low and below normal the diggers peg out in the dry parts of the bed and boulders, with often gratifying results. The diamonds found in these fields are far superior to the deep mine stones. Why this is so experts can offer no reason, but the legitimate buyers can always tell a river stone from a deep mine one and correspondingly pay a much higher price per carat. There is an unwritten law or code of honour amongst diggers that on the first sale of a stone, or stones, the storekeepers’ claim is the first to be paid. They will invariably give a bona fide digger unlimited credit for stores and all materials required, so long as he is a worker and a trier, and therefore a not very large amount of capital is required to make a start. The men may sometimes live in a small wooden hut, but invariably they have bell tents for themselves, cooks and labourers. The procedure generally adopted by the new chum digger is as follows: He looks out a likely looking plot, of ground, having the appearance of good gravel, coupled with the astute information gained from old timers that his prospective next door neighbour has shown good results. He must then apply to the Veld-Cornet, who holds the government position for granting licences as does a Warden of the Land Courts of New Zealand, to whom he pays his licence fee of five shillings per month. He can then peg out his claim of thirty feet square. His implementa consists of picks, shovels, tubs for washing, screens, cradle and sieves, a sorting table and if procurable a large tank for storage purposes—about all the tools he requires.

His next trouble is to secure labour, coloured, of course, which is sometimes difficult to procure, and may mean a trip to some far distant Kraal (native village) for recruiting purposes. His span of boys are often of very mixed races and it is not uncommon to have a dozen different species working in one gang, comprising Kaffirs, Hottentots, Bushman, Cape boys (coffee and milk colour), Fingoes, Zulus or Basutos, but of the whole lot of them, commend me to the last named tribe, who are on the whole, industrious, cleanly, honest and most to be trusted. By way of digression let me say here I had one of the Basuto tribe working for me once, who rejoiced in a very fine moustache, but like all natives’ hair, it was crinkly and curly. He hit upon the plan of pulling it out to its fullest, extremities and twisting about half a reel of white cotton on either side of his mouth. He kept it in curl for many moons, but thinking it would pull out straight as any white man’s, he unwound it. Wow! It sprang back again like a concertina! Having succeeded in obtaining the necessary labour, (a white man seldom does manual labour in South Africa except in very highly skilled callings and then the most intricate and scientific portion of it), he puts his Kaffirs to work in the claim digging the gravel and throwing it back into a large heap, in readiness for washing, which generally takes place on the Friday of each week. Water which is drawn from the Vaal, is rather an expensive item, a large quantity being required for the wash up. Mulecarts ply for hire, to fill up all tubs and tanks at a stated price—the owners of which make a very good thing out of it, when it is considered that many hundreds are working along the r.ver, some miles in extent. 'To be Continued,,