SOUTH AFRICAN GEMS. The Wonderful Diamond Fields at Kimberley.

Te Aroha News, Volume III, Issue 134, 26 December 1885, Page 3

SOUTH AFRICAN GEMS. The Wonderful Diamond Fields at Kimberley.

jAtao&G vfchfe »•*• callosities!* of ooinmeroe " •tm majW; pfcrtion^ol.the ,exjpbfWdfrbin faduth^A'frictf' is Simply usefr Vklueexgpite^pfjejJqO.OOO^gstrpifeaib^ers, *cb,m;e tp^uiope.gr JJ t he United, States from alametopjtiaT; Eastern, '/(tQoks,^ from^tjie, ]Bfeaßtx;prAdv,%^f ; nawe^in Brazil ana elsey w|erei 'w^re 'calwjatect po ; y,iel<l nq£ i^g?e than £ ( 60,000 in. the yeswp, To,' day, pitjuaijes in, ihe. midst of a wjde-ajire&h-' iiig. plain, affording ,at all Rdints a isea'f line.lhbjcfeojtt.jo* flat •* veldt," ft* find c popula^on of wealthy and^ well-to-do people, and a large native population earning every 1 year more than dBiiQGip.OOO, in wages. And from this mining oasis in the agricultural desert uas been sent' in .the last fifteen yew 8 Joniething like £40,000,000, worth, of diamonds in 1 the rough,' which with the cost of cutting, .setting and selling must hftvettaken. from the pockets of consumers something approaching £100,f)00,000. As all "the " world tnows,' tjhe South Afrioan diamond mines, have , their own, story of, unexpected at die least as startling as that of any. field or 1 6th^r rich' mineral deposit in the world. 'in' 1 lB67"the first diamond was found, tiie favourite, toy of a Httle Boer girl, Which she had .picked out from the .roots of an oj[d tree, Its genuineness was not long in doubt, and in a few months the bed of the , Vaal, ' river was known as a 'profitable diamond region. Prospecting became the | rage, and. here and there on the open, •flat, grassy veldt, diamonds were found in 'Bpota, with common peculiarities of soil and so forth. In three yeara' time the secret of the diamond deposits had been so far fath:omed as to prove that they were strange circular deposits or patches of peculiar earth, isolated from one another and few in number. These were at once " rushed,' I and a regulation digging community took possession the new district. Private individuals, previous proprietor and governments, fought for the claims to these new rainer.aj riches^' but despite J these squabbles the practical worU was carried on of marking ojit these circular patches in diggers' claims over the, flat surface. At first the rule was each digger for him-, self, and with pick and shovel diamonds were brought to grass in such profusion , that the whole mining world was startled by a discovery exceeding in maghi . tude, real and prospective, any previous find. But as men dug deeper in their .claims, so. they found it necessary to arrange and amalgamate with their neighbours ; moreover, the deeper they went the more necessary for machinery to hoist the soil to the surface. And then, as. they passed on through the top "yellow," they came upon a "blue" soil which was yet more rich in diamonds. Suffice it to say that in ten years' time each one of these greater circular areas has been so far emptied of soil as to represent great quarries 100 to 200 yards across and 300 to 400 feet deep.