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Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 17, Issue 911, 7 January 1871, Page 2

By the way of Mauritius we have news from the Cape of Good Hope to October 5. The Cape Standard of that date reports :—=•*' The diamond-fields continue the centre of attraction, though the great body of the diggers are unsuccessful Fortunes are made by about 5 per cent, of the diggers ; some others pay expenses ; the vast majority are losers. Fever is said to have made its appearance among the diggers, and it is anticipated that as summer advances sickness will increase at the fields," The correspondent of the Port Louis Gazette, writes : —*' It is estimated that there are now about 7,000 people at the diamond-fields, working industriously, and, as we kuow, finding iairly. The largest recent find is reported to have been a diamond of sixtytwo carats, about the size of a pigeon's egg, and worth about J£25,0u0. There is no question ahout the fruiti'ulness of the territory. The Customs returns alone would attest that if nothing else did, diamonds to the value of fully .£300,000 having been already exported; to say nothing of the many carried away by the owners themselves or their friends in their private pockets, about which the customs, of course, never knew anything." The diggers, it appears, refused to recognise the magistrates sent by the Transvaal RepuMc t and demand British rule*