DIAMOND DISCOVERIES.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XVIII, Issue XXIV, 12 June 1897, Page 747

DIAMOND DISCOVERIES.

The stories connected with the discovery of the various great diamond fields of the world are all of most romantic interest. Perhaps the most remarkable of them relates to the South African field. _ For many years the rumour of a magnificent diamond, said to be in the possession of a far away tribe of natives, had been current. Many had gone in search of it, but in vain. About this time, in 1869. a Dutch farmer named Van Neikerk got on the track. He wandered from tribe to tribe, from village to village—one day hopeful of success and the next despondent. At length he was directed to a certain witch doctor residing in a Kaffir village, and after a good deal of palaver and plenty of stuff to drink, discovered him to be possessed of a pure white stone of extraordinary size and lustre. The witcb doctor, however, was unwilling to part with it, and would not give it up until the Dutchman agreed to pay over all his oxen, his tent, waggon, and about everything else he had. The offer finally brought the witch doctor to terms, and Van Neikerk carried off the gem. It was a good bargain, for it proved to be a flawless diamond of the purest water and worth 5125 "00. The stone is now owned by the Countess of Dudley. Its discovery first .stracted serious attention to the South African diamond field. There is, nevertheless, another story

which relates that the Dutch farmer showed a stranger some bright pebbh a with which hie children played, and that the stranger honestly told him that he suspected them to be diamonds. Subsequently thia proved to be the case, so that the poor man became vety rich. A similar account is given of a poor gardener of Golconda, in India, who, finding in his garden a beautiful stone, sold it for enough to provide himself with a competence. It was a poor neggress who, in July, 1853, found in the sands of Bag age m, Brazil, the Star of the South, a pure white gem of 254 carats. The blue clay which contains the diamonds of Kimberley, in South Africa, is brought from deep mines to the suifaee of the ground, and spread out so as to expose it to the influence of the sun and moisture. Thus treated it soon crumbles, so that at the end of three months it may be put into great washing machines, in which, by means of running water, the gems are separated from the blue stuff. Then the residue is placed in large gobs on tables, where it is sorted with small trowels. The diamonds occur in all shades, from deep yellow to bine white, and in a great variety of greens, bines, and pinks. They vary in size from a pin’s bead upward. Next, the diamonds are cleaned by boiling them in acids, after which they are carefully sorted as to size, colour, and purity. On an average, 100 tons of blue clay will yield 100 carats of diamonds. The diamonds are sold in parcels to local buyers, who represent the leading diamond mei chants of Europe. In one instance nearly 250,000 carats were sold in one lot to a single purchaser. The company sustains a loss of from 10 to 15 per cent, of its production by stealing, it is reckoned. The native workmen are engaged for a period of three months, during which time they are confined in a compound surrounded by a high wall. Un retiring from each day’s work they are obliged to strip off their clothes. Stark naked they proceed to the searching room, where their mouths, their hair, their toes, in fact, every part of their bodies are subjected to an elaborated examination.