THE SOUTH AFRICAN DIAMOND FIELDS.

Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1142, 26 March 1872, Page 4

THE SOUTH AFRICAN DIAMOND FIELDS.

•Dr Moran,-Roman Catholic Bishop of Duuedin, has delivered- a lecture in tho Schoolhouae, Roxburgh, the subject being "South Africa and its Diamond Fields." DrMoran devoted a considerable portion of his lecture to the Diamond Fields, and stated that the first diamond discovered there was entrusted to his care for exhibition at the Paris Exhibition, on his leaving the Cape Colony for England. He also said that he had most opportunely received by the last mail from the Cape, letters from his successor at Grahamstown, Dr Rickards, giving minute accounts of the progress of the diamond, fields. The audience were favored with several extracts from the letter, by which it appears there are upwards of 70,000 people at present engaged in working on' the fields, and also in prospecting. At a place where the latest finds have been made, the claims measuring 30 feet square were being sold for fromLlOOO to LI6OO each— the locality being the basin, or crater, of an extinct volcano — and that although a great number of valuable diamonds have been bound within the circle of the crater, none have yet been found outside it. He also narrated some individual instances of remarkable succes?, but said that unfortunately great numbers of miners have been very unlucky, and have left the field in a state of poverty. He said the expense of travelling from Port Elizabeth to the Diamond Fields was very great, although the cost of living is not what might be considered high. The climate of Grahamstown and on the seacoast he described as very genial, and that almost every description of fruit can be grown without any trouble; but the Diamond Fields, owing to their distance inland and high elevation, are not favored so much in that respect, rheumatism, diarrhoea, and dyssentry being very prelent. In o >nclusion, he strongly advised no one to go at present, unless more extensive fields were discovered ; and in no case for anyone to think of going without having a tidy amount of money with him for payment of expenses on the journey, and as a stand-by in the event of failure, as he considered that it would be useless to rely upon getting other employment in the Cape Colony.