THE NEW EL DORADO.

Manawatu Herald, Volume II, Issue 279, 16 July 1889, Page 3

THE NEW EL DORADO.

[Contributed.] , They have the valuable fisheries o* Tajble Bay entirely in their hands, and, are a -well-to-do but"un4eßirabie body of colonists. Like their coreligionißtoin Constantinople, they arevdry dirty in their and For continuation of reading matter ies *■ ;,'._.. fourth page, rt -,r= r

the (qfttaarter «f the town ia whiol they live is in a most unsanitary condition. It is therefore scarcely surprising that when the small-poj epidemic was raging in Cape Tow* in 1882, its ravages should have been most severely felt amongst thest unclean and unvaeeinated ! followers oj the Propb et. Not wishing, however to monopolise entirely the disease they used to drop in the street • valuable silk handkerchiefs, soch as thej all wear, that had been taken from the bodies of those that had died from this loathsome complaint. 01 course when this became known, a public inotioe was issued by the authorities warning the unwary against pickingftUem up. The other principal towns of ih« colony are Port Elizabeth and East London on the east coast, and Graham c town and King Willianastown, inland. The c'iniate of the Cape Colony is a most agreeable one to live in It is somewhat warmer and far drier than that of New Zealand ; indeed in the winter scarcely any rain fal s and a cloud will not be seen in the sky for months at a time. This excessive dryness although no doubt pleasant and beneficial enough to the invalids suffering from consumption and rheumatism that visit the country in large numbers, is a serious drawback to the colony from an industrial point of view. The pleasanc pastures of vivid green that greet the eye on every side in New Zealand are never seen there, but the veldt — as^ it is called — has always a brown, dried up appearance. Butter and cheese are consequently imported luxuries, attainable only by the tew, whilst the inut!o j and beef are of a most inferior quality when compared to the succulent joints we are accustomed to here. A little butter is made at times in the neighbourhood of Capetown, where it will fetch 8s to os per lb iv the open market, but the greater part of the butter consumed is imported from the continent of Europe in lib tins, and I used to give 3s each for these tins when on military service on the frontier. Potatoes and cab 1 ages are also very scarce, and in some parts of the colony quite impossible to obain, but awee* potatoes— some-, thing like kumura's pumpkins and watermelons are plentiful enough, whilst in the season grapes cannot be g'ven away. The chief industries In the country are Ostrich farming, which. i\s c. rriwl on extensively in the vicinity of < a etowu, together with the manufacture of brandy. In parts of the c lony a good number of the Cupe sheep are farmed. This species of she^p is endowed with a ail nearly as large, and a great deal t'attet than its body, which is not saying much, howevi r ; and the sheep's ta 1 is a luxury that iigur«s prouainentlj on Cape Town bills of fare. As a matter of fact however, the only two iuduptries that ever cause " good times " in South Afric - are mi iug and war, and what with the mineral wealth of the country, and the turbulent character of the vast hordes of Kaffirs that surround the colony, they are not often long without one or other of these attractions. f| he enormously rich Liai.ond mines discovered in 1867 in Griquland east, 800 miles north east ot Cape Town, and cal'ed Kimborloy are now a matter of history. Fiv.m the d«te of their discovery to the yi-ar 1880, Diamonds to the value of over forty millions of money were discovered, most y by men who started with nothing, but siuco then the claims have all been 'acquired by companies, and the vast wealth of these splendid mines now flows into the hands of a select few. It has been stated that Sir Hercules Eobiuson has made amiliioo of money by speculating in these companies. This he denies, but that some very large fortune has been made is beyond doubt. For instance a Mr Ehodes, the son of anEng ish clergyman, who only went out to the colony a few years ago, and invested when the shares in the companies were low, lias now an income of £100 per day. It was not however always by honest digging, or legitimate speculation that "arise" was made at Kimberley. In South Africa it is not as a rule customary for white men to do manual labour, and the claimowners used to employ Kaffirs to work in their claims, i his even tually led to a great deal of business being transacted between a number of unscrupulous speculators and the Kaffir labourers. For instance a Kaffir wou'd find in the claim a stone worth £500 or £1000. Instead of handing it over to his employer, lv would hide it in his mouth, and after his days \* ork was over would sell it to one of these investors for £5 or £10. Sometimes fearing discovery the Kaffir would swallow the diamond. One of them died suddenly at Kimberley, anl si spicion being aroused a post mortem examination was held, which revealed no less than forty small diamondsin this enterprising aborigine's stomach! On another occa •>.-.. on » Kaffir was seen to put a diamond into his mouth by his employer, who seized him by the throat and made him disgorge his- booty. Diamond field&pnbtid opinion would have justified the claimownnr if hehad shot die man but he considerately handed him over to justice as rapresentid on the fields, and the luckless Kaffir was sentenced to 12 years penal servitgde and five hundred laehea.

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