THE CAPE DIAMOND FIELDS.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume I, Issue 8, 21 June 1873, Page 10

THE CAPE DIAMOND FIELDS.

Diamond-hotting has not improved the morals of the Maritzburg people. A correspondent, writing to a Natal paper, says:— "The diamond fields have not only affected our material wealth, they have injured our morals and tainted our social habits. The gambling mania, which has reached such vile proportions on the fields, has also been imported into the colony, and is spreading with a rapidity most baneful to society. The evil grows unheeded, and there are houses in our midst which many will live to curse the day they ever beheld them. Gambling and drunkenness go hand in hand, and the number of victims continues to increase."

The ' Diamond News ' has the following.-— Cabbage «. Luxury. Two small cabbages, after some spirited competition at the New Rush market on Saturday morning, were declared sold at ten shillings !-— The Turf. — Preparations are making for the autumn lace meeting.—— Native Labor Wanted.— The IS ative Register Officer reports that 4,000 natives are wanted to fill up the vacancies oaused by the departure of native servants for their own country. This number is imperatively wanted. Distressing.— lt was reported yesterday that 2,000 native* in one cluster had arrived from the interior to within a few miles of the New Rush but, with the exception of 12 men, had completely broken down for want of food and water. They were all prostrate, so the men who came in said and could not move a mile further.— Sign of the Times. — We hear that last week one of the best fitted and most fashionable of the gambling saloons at the New Rush, was finally closed, and the entire building offered for sale. It is said that two more of theae nbominatioua will be shut up next week, the proprietors leaving, we suppose, with a " pile," for Europe. Cobb's coach has been capsized in the Modder River ; two men narrowly escaped drowning. A portmanteau, containing over £3,000 was washed away, and had not been recovered when the down coach passed. The money consisted mostly of notes obtained from the Standard Bani, payment of which has been stopped. , The 288fc carat Diamond, the enormous gem which has made such talk in England, has been displayed in the Grahamatown Commercial Exchange. In company with it there was also to be seen what is known as the " Fly Diamond," so called from there being in the centre of the stone some black substance, which if not actually a fly is the exact likeness of one. Nobody here appears to know what it is, but no donbfc s»me expert geologist in England will unravel what seems certaiuly very mysterious. The stone itself weighs 62£ carats,and is of a very fair color, though considerably removed from being a diamond of the first water. The large 288J- carat stone is strawcoloured and of a good shape, though the surface is slightly flawed. Its value is a matter of great uncertainty, as it will have to bo cut down by one-half, though in weight it surpasses all known stones. The Koh-i-noor, we may remark, was originally 800 carats, but it has by cutting been reduced to 102£ carats. Mr Spalding the fortunate possessor of these stones, intends proceeding to England, and he contemplates exhibiting the diamouds subsequently at the Vicuna Exhibition.