BIG DIAMOND RUSH.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 8 October 1924, Page 3

BIG DIAMOND RUSH.

IN SOUTH AFRICA. GIRLS, CLERKS, AND DIGGERS JOIN IN. CAPETOWN, July 18. c llliee thousand people, including poor whites, ’ experienced diggers. students clerks, and even girls, ° took part m the wild race to peg claims on the new diamond diggings at Zeekoetontem on. the banks ,of the" Vail River, this week. . A few weeks ago a Mr. J. J. Tramp bought a farm in this vicinity, a poor despferate sort oi farm hidden away on a lonely part of the veld. Once in possession of the farm, however, lie discovered diamondiferous .soil, and began working a valuable claim with some 200 natives, which is now returning him an average of. from £2OOO to £3OOO a week. According to general practice, therefore, the Government declared the area surrounding pile farm a proclaimed area., and fixed a day this week for the rush. No. fewer' than 2000 claim licenses were taken out dur-j ing the three days preceding the rush. I which thus made the event'one of the biggest diamond rushes ever held in ] South Africa.. ! On. the day appointed nearly 2000 ! men and boys formed the far-flung line behind the mining commissioner, Mr. O. M. Jack, and his detachment of mounted police. • A few athletic girls showed prominently in the waiting cr.owd. The long proclamation was read as the runners clashed their iron pegs and impatiently swayed in readiness to rush. Soon after eleven o’clock the last words of the proclamation were read, and the line of flags was lowered in unison. So began the greatest rush ever seen by the mining commissioner, who has had many years of experience in the Transvaal. For 5(!0 yards the path was cleared. Youngsters in shorts and football jerseys and . hardened old diggers drew ahead. Twenty donkeys charged before the oncoming rush, and thousands of Kaffirs on flanking kopjes raised a. continuous cheering. A volley of curses ran out here and there as the more impetuous stumbled against their fellow-runners or blundered over boulders to the ground. Trousers were torn and ripped by the thorn bushes, and many of the runners fell by the way. But the great mass rushed on down the gully which rapidly closed over the final 400 yards to where the site of the rich alluvial deposits lav around the owner’s mine, which extends from the edge of the running water in the great sandy riverbed. For 100 yards between the rocky ridges pegs were feverishly driven in. Several disputed occurred, but these were quietly settled by the officials. Mr. J. J. Tramp, interviewed, said : “I can see c r erv little valuable ground left for those who are digging to-day. Not 50 per cent, or my farm liars alluvial deposit, and what there is ! hold.” Mr. Tramp expressed himself as willing to do whatever he could for the poorer men. “A lot of expensive apparatus is required to mine my ground,” lie saicl. “but I shall increase my workings and lake on a lot of white men, but most will be gone from here within a month.” To show the richness of his reserve claims, Mr. Tramp stated that his was the heaviest gravel he had seen during 15 years oi‘ prospecting on alluvial diamond fields, and his returns were equivalent to the highest obtained from any hluo-gronnd pipes in South Africa.

l 'My largest stone,” Mr. Trnmp said, ‘‘has boon one of .‘til carats, and it was a Cape Eyewater stone : hut T am receiving from CTO to -C57 per carat for the finest class of my scones, and that is a price above the average for South African diamonds.”