STRANGE BUT TRUE

Hokitika Guardian, 20 July 1929, Page 1

STRANGE BUT TRUE

WALKING DIAMOND MINES. One of the most extraordinary diamond stories ever recounted is reported by the Johannesburg correspondent of the London Daily Telegraph, and vouched for., lit is declared that, following the discovery of diamonds in the crops of ostriches, natives and Europeans are hunting birds and reaping appreciable fortunes. 'lbe story came to light through two'Pretoria hunters', who wore shooting on the fringes of the Kalahari Desert. They shot two cock birds in whose crops they found 70 diamonds. One had 53 and the other 17.

Natives in the past have sporadically hunted ostriches which lived on diamond-iferous ground in Namaqauland and occasionally found diamonds in their crops and sold them to white men. Scientists declare that is quite natural for ostriches to swallow diamonds. Two hunters are now organising a hunt on a large scale under a permit from the Administration of SouthWest Africa. One of the hunters declared that the ncWs had spread rapidly among the bushmen and natives, and that these had latterly made concerted attacks on flocks of ostriches. This had caused the birds to take to wilder country.

The lninteF adds: “The countryside is a shambles. Not only ostriches are shot but all birds, and their crops torn out.”