MILLIONS IN SAND

Hokitika Guardian, 17 October 1930, Page 5

MILLIONS IN SAND

DIAAIOND-STRE-WN COAST.

AFRICAN DISCOVERY.

AUCKLAND, October 14. , Expected to yield' about £16,000,000 worth of gems, a new diamond field has been discovered recently on the West Coast of South Africa, according to Mi- J. J. AlcAlenamin, a South African M.P., who arrived by the Ulimaroa to-day. • Air AlcMenamin is a New Zealander. ; ’

Diamonds in huge quantities \ had been found-in the sand, said Mr-Mc-Menamin, and it was thought that they had been washed down by the river and then swept up again by the sea. An official party had visited the beach one afternoon, and in a few hours bad picked -up diamonds worth £150,000. ; 1 “Diamonds valued ait £6,000,000 were taken out ,of this field alone last year,” Air AlcMenamin said, “and it is expected that the total yield will be about £16,000,000. The- field is owned and operated entirely by the Government, and the section of coast where the work is being carried out is as difficult to access' to ; an ordinary person as a powder magazine on ja battleship. The whole place is .ja mass of barbed-wire entanglements, and special bodies of guards are orn duty day and 1 night. The mines are .worked by native' labour, and evecy day before the natives leave they a£e search thoroughly for hidden diamonds. , Frequently when it is expected that a man may have swallowed a diamond jn, order to smuggle it through the guards ah X-ray examination is made. 1 ” '

“The diamond market had dropped considerably during recent years,” Mr AfcMenamjn concluded. “As , a result of the slump on the., Wall Street Stock Exchange the export of diamonds i|> the. United States had been considerable curtailed.” , t-