MR. RHODES : THE' DIAMOND OCTOPUS.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XVIII, Issue 4, 23 May 1890, Page 18

MR. RHODES : THE DIAMOND OCTOPUS.

Excessite competition reduced the price of diamonds to its lowest ebb. The fortune of .Kimberley hung in the balance. Only one thine could save them— amalgamation. But that, with so many and such conflicting inteiests, seemed at first impossible. The man who sjlved i he difficulty was a young fellow who had recently taken a pumpingcontract in De Beers " Guided by Mr. Cecil Rhodes and bis fellow worker, Mr. Bent— both of tbem now millionaires- the De Beers Company began secretly and steadily, through agents, to acquire the main interest in all the others, until one fine day it was found that tbey were masters of the situation. Remoulding itself into the "De Beers Consolidated," with a trust dead empowering them toengage in any and every undertaking conducive to their end, the company in this way amalgamated first De Beers and then all the other mines into one colossal syndicate. A few last outstandiog companies were being baught in the very week I spent in Kimberley ; and as the company has acquired also a preponderant interest in the only other diamond diggings which need be considered, it controls to-day the diamond industry of the world. Bhafts have bean sunk to depths of seven and eight hundred feet through the fallen reef and through the hard mass outside the mine ; the price per carat of diamonds has been doubled ; the joint yearly output amounts to three and a-balf million pounds' worth a year ; and while buying water at a fabulous rate, and coal at £9 a ton ; while paying wag's to the tune of £20,000 a week, wi h total working expenses of #130,000 a month, the company pnticipates an annual profit of £2,400,000, and after paying 51 per cent, on its 2{ millions of debentures, divided 10 per cent, in August last for the six mouths to June 30 on its share capital of £3,950,000. Now the world spends £4,000,000 in diamonds every year ; and, as year by year it grows more wealthy and populous, it will certainly, unless the taste dies out, not spend a penny less. The world, then will go on buying its £4,000,000 worth of diamonds every year, and of those at least £3,500,000 worth will have to come out of Kimberley aud De Bears. That, at £2 the carat, mean* £1,750,000 carats from the two, or roughly 1,300,000 loads. That, at 15s a load, means a total of yearly working expenses of about £1,000,000. That leaves a net yea- )y profit of 2£ millions of money ; or, taking the capital as £4,000 000, about 60 percent.— the best mining investment, I suDDose in the world.— Pall Mall Gazette. y