CULLINAN DIAMONDS.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 856, 30 June 1910, Page 5

CULLINAN DIAMONDS.

PRESENTED TO THE QUEEN. By Telegraph—Press Association-Copyright. London, Juuo 28. Tho High Commissioner for South Africa (Sir Richard Solomon), on behalf of the Union, presented Queen Mary with a magnificent pendant and ring, containing some of the famous Cullinan diamonds. It was originally intended to present the pendant and ring to Queen Mary if, as Princess of Wales, she wont to South Africa with her husband to open the first Union Parliament, but the death of King Edward, and her consequent inability to make the visit, rendered other arrangements necessary.

[The Cullinan diamond was scooped out of a cutting in tho Premier niino at Johannesburg with a pocket-knifo by an overseer who was going his rounds on tho evening of January 20, 1905. When weighed it proved to ba far and away the largest diamond over found, tho weight being 30253 English carats, or over 1 l-31b. avoirdupois. The diamond was bought ou time-payment by the Transvaal Government, and, after being cut at Amsterdam, tho principal stones wero presented to King Edward in commemoration of the grant of self-government to the Transvaal. The}' wero afterwards added to tho Crown jewels. During the cutting process tho diamond was insured for .£250,000.]