THE CULLINAN DIAMOND

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVII, 22 November 1927, Page 6

THE CULLINAN DIAMOND

LOST HALF OF A KING’S JEWEL.

Somewhere in the world, but nobody knows where, there is the other half of the Cullinan diamond (writes a South African in the “Daily Mail”). . When the mighty stone that was found 22 years ago at Premier Mine, Pretoria, was examined it was noticed that one side was formed by a fracture. This indicated plainly that it was only a portion of what must in some past age have been a stone of at least double the size.

Though it has been kept strictly secret, it is generally known in South African mining circles that the Premier Company has put itself to considerable pains and expense in searching for the missing half, but hitherto, without success. Possibly the lost half may still be somewhere in the blue clap pipe that descends 4o unknown depths into the bowels of the earth. Nature may have split it into fragments, or it may have been found and stolen.

About 20 years ago a circumstantial story was current in Pretoria that the lost half of the Cullinan had been found and stolen by a native worker, who was endeavouring to get a good price for it. This, however, was not easy until Fourie, a notorious criminal of the day determined to lay his hands on it. He carefully spread the report in the underworld of Pretoria that he was out to buy the stone, and one day was approached by a native, who said his brother had a big white diamond for which he wanted £lOOO. Fournie agreed, and made an appointment in the bush. The native turned up and demanded to see the cash. Fourie produced a heavy bag and opened it to disclose - layer of sovereigns. Suspicious, the native plunged in his hand and revealed metal washers underneath the gold coins. At once he took to his heels, but not before Fourie and the companions with him had caught a glimpse of a huge white diamond. The native was never caught, and shortly afterwards Fourie was hanged for poisoning a native chieftain, so that the police are unable to state whether the stone he so nearly illicitly bought was really the lost half of the Cullinan or not.