THE CAPE DIAMOND FIELDS.

Dunstan Times, Issue 625, 10 April 1874, Page 3

THE CAPE DIAMOND FIELDS.

(from the auss guard: ax.) A letter from Mr. W. B. Forster, late of Boss, dated Kymberley, November 22, 187.1, has be°n kindly placed at our disposal, and from which we make the followins extracts : “ We have cot comfortably settled, and although we did not like the place at first, I think I acted very wisely in leaving Ross when I did. The first nine months I was here T had constant work at the tools (carpentering), and left 2os. per day to go diamond digging, which 1 call no work at all ; in, fact, it is the easiest time I ever Lad in my life. Wo have two claim- going one of thorn belongs to ourselves, that three of ns bought for 450/, and I am working with the other mate in the other claim on per oontage. We got, two-thirds of all the stones we find, and have to pay all expenses. We have twenty Kaffirs working"; for ns at 10s. per week ami as ranch ground maize as they can eat. Wehavo been in this claim ten weeks. It was very poor the first three weeks, and wo were 211 out of pocket; then it began to pay better. I think this past six weeks we have got 550/. ont of it. Wo got about 130/. last week—one stone was worth 70/., another 8/., and several small ones. My other mates g o t about 300/. worth in six woeks. They are talking about selling ont and going to tbe gold-delds. I must toll you that there was some gold discovered six months ago, about five hundred miles from here, at a place called Leydcnhurg. The Dutchmen and Kaffirs worked with only middling success for a time, until about twenty of their Australian shipmates joined them, and set into the creeks, and 1 am happy to say they are mostly all doing very well, and have written to some more of their shipmates to go up. ] knowthree of them who got 200/. per man in six months from the time" they left here, and it took them six weeks to get there. They say it is a king of a place to what this is, hut it is rather hot at present. 1 do not think this is any warmer than Melbourne. There are waggons‘ leaving here every week for the gold-diggings : fare, about S/., with 2 l 'olb. of luggage The coaches charge 14/., with 201b. luggage ; but they will take you through ill six days. If 1 was doing nothing here, I would bo off in the moraine ; but 1 will not leave these fields as long as'my claims shape anything at all near the mark. There was a Native War commenced in Natal last week, and four of the white volunteers got shot dead, and several were wounded. The Kaffirs come to the diamond-fields to work for three or four months, fur as much money as will buy a gun. and then off home again. They are a,lino race of people. When they come here they are as thin as lamp-posts, and go away as fat as butter. 1 firmly believe that South Africa will bo a thriving country before long, as tbe Transval s full of minerals of all descriptions.