COLLAPSE AT THE DIAMOND FIELDS.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XII, Issue 5, 5 January 1877, Page 4

COLLAPSE AT THE DIAMOND FIELDS.

A correspondent of the Scotsman r dating August 24, writes as follows as to the collapse at the Diamond fields of South Africa:— ~-v.:o fc; . . ':.■■ ■ .-'■ -.. ;•_• : .When last. l wrote you it was to give some idea of the' Diamond fields .."of South Africa at,_the height of „ their 1 prosperity. I now do so to con^e^ to you, some idea, of the same fields in their state of collapse. For sis years, past we bave. been exporting to Europe from a million arid a half tp two million of diamonds per annum, taken from the four mines in the division of Kimberley, aod the result of this has been the springing into existence of four towns in tb,is r distant territory, , tbe chief of which ig; quite equal in point of landed property co any second-rate town in Africa The chief township naturally clustered round the richest of the mines ■—Kimberley— -from which at (east twothirds of the diamonds bave been taken. It is estimated tbat tbe four years' yield of this one mine has been £6,ooQsqq of diamonds. During Ctjae time that it has taken to extract that wealth from the mine,; population from all parts of the world has been coming into the fields. Not. only have villa residences, streets,, add shops with plate-glass fronts been built, but we have large church .buildings, chapels, theatres, and all the institutions, con-, sidered necessary, to the life of civilised people. We bave a Government . and Legislature both based upon British constitutional principles, and we con-, aider ourselves "a people" in, the same aenae as if Kimberley was the capital . of a nation entitled to: be heard .when tbe powers of the earth consult together. ; « About six weeks since, apparently without warning, it was discovered tbat a monetary crisis had arrived. No one appears to have expected it, and few could tejl how it bad been brought, about. All that was generally known was that there was no money to he had. The banks announced tbat they had no more money to lend, aud when they were accused of putting on tbe screw with a via m, to: " squeeze" their customers, they pointed to the statement published the first week in July, whioh. showed that they bad over half a million of money invested in the Fields— the chief security for which are claims in (he /Kimberley mine. Attempts bad been made to realise upon these in, vain —no sales of" claims could be effected when, the banks would discount no libger.- In- one of the banks on a Monday morning £6000 of promisory notes were due, and but £209 was forthcoming. The crisis at once became ,a collapse. .The banks, saw it was of co use to sue because if they pushed their securities into the market for public sale there would be no purchasers, and they would only be adding Co their losses by going to law, as they would have to pay the law expeceses themselves. Trouble always comes in battalions, ln tbe midst of tbis consternation itwas discovered, just as the crisis came upon us, that there was a split io the roof of the Kimberley mine at the south end, which would prevent aoy more work being done there until some thousands of pounds had /been spent by the Mining Board in making tbat portion of the mine safe for : working purposes. We had just received a circular from Messrs Pilton, Levison and Co., the eminent raining merchants of London informing !M9 that the London marnet was. so glutted with diamonds tbat, if we did not stop producing for a year, diamonds would become valueless, and we should aU' be rained. This split in the reef stopped the. working without our consent being asked, and bad it not done so tbe shareholders had no money to pay for labor, for up to that time 6000 discbargad natives had gone norna 'to their wilds in one month. Then' bad news having been received io the Cape Colony regarding the wool, tha merchants there began to press for remittances from the dealers fitere, whom they had been, supporting, wit^v capitaU ; These things continued to get worse aod worse, aod aa if to pot" the finishing stroke to our calamities, a fortnight since a large portion of ! our diamondiferous ground at the north- ' eaut of the rniae, on wfaict Mr W. A. Hall's engines and machinery for grampfag odt the mine were fixed, fell io, j and butted engines and machinery beneath the deposited rock and soil. Mr Hall has the sola contract for pumping out tbe mine,, and^ aot. only has he lost thousands of pounds by this crash, but 4be water, no longer pumped away, has been rushing in from every spring, , deluging the claims aud drowning out tbe "diggers; from their work. The Kimheray is about 220 feet deep, and covers in one; great open digging of ' about ' 9 acre*. There is now 20ft of water in tbe mine, increasing in depth hourly. The claimhoiders, who could have easily obtained £4,000 per claim for, their claims six months siace, cannot get £400, ia some places not £200. The distress following upon ail tbis is so great that 7000 diggers white and black, left the fields last rnontb, and every vehicle tbat leaves Kimberley for the Cape Colony goes away loaded. This day two years ago, tibe sopulation of the diamond field was .estimated at 45,000; there are not snore lhaa 15,000 all told to-day. There' are .mep here who were men of siargo property -, a few months since, bnt who are now, penniless.; capitalists who were lending large sums ,pf ijaopey at sbaavy/iiotereat who -are positively de- , gteadent tbeir neighbors for bread.

Firms with immense stocks of general merchandise on hand are going into liquidation. Tbe Old de Beers, Dv Toit's Pau and Bultfonteen mines are nearly all deserted, and the Bank rate of interest is 24 per cent, per annum. Men in Europe can hardly realize a .collapse such as this in a colonial mining j community,- nor. conceive how men with large "properties oan be reduced in so short a time as sis weeks (o the verge, of want. One main reason , is. our sale staple is a luxury, and not, an article of consumption as wheat, or wool, or cotton.