NAMAQUALAND DIAMONDS

Waikato Times, Volume 105, Issue 17605, 9 January 1929, Page 4

NAMAQUALAND DIAMONDS

FOUND TEN YEARS AGO. PROSPECTOR KILLED IN LONDONIt is a strange freak of fortune (says the London Daily, Mail) that the immensely rich new diamond field now being w'orked in Namaqualand by the South African Government with such profit should have been discovered nearly ten years ago by one of the ablest and most daring explorers and adventurers of our race. The man in question was F. C. Cornell, whose career was worthy of romance.

He loved to prospect and hunt in the most unfrequented regions of the world. One of his favourite haunts was the 6ountry on both sides of the lower Orange River, which he believed to be extraordinarily rich in precious stones. The casual traveller regards 'it as among the dreariest of deserts. But it was here that in 1920 Cornell came upon: the new diamond field on one of his many wanderings. And it was in the same region, not far from this field, that he found on certain of the terraces, under the barren cliffs of the lower Orange River, equally extraordinary wealth of semiprecious stones. Diamond-cutting Plan. All these facts, he stated to a friend in London in February, 1921, he was in this country to make arrangements for the exploitation of his discoveries. He intended to cut the semiprecious stones on the spot, in South Africa, with the aid of Kaffir labour, as he was convinced it could be done. He had with him many specimens of these semi-precious stones of extreme beauty, blue, green, red, topaz-yellow, brown. His one fear was that unless the supply was placed very carefully on the market the price would drop violently. Wealth beyond the dreams of imagination was within his grasp when, just as he was about to complete his arrangements, death intervened. On March. 5, 1921, he was taken by a friend in a side-car through London; the driver stopped suddenly and Cornell was thrown out’ violently on his head. He died 24 hours later. ■ He served in the Boer War and in the Great War—in the latter as Intelligence Officer under Botha - in German South-West Africa.