The Patea Mail. Established 1875. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 1883. NEW ZEALAND DIAMONDS.

Patea Mail, Volume VIII, Issue 995, 9 February 1883, Page 2

The Patea Mail. Established 1875. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 1883. NEW ZEALAND DIAMONDS.

The news lias been telegraphed from Auckland that diamonds have been found in that district. We fail to see, however, that there is anything very exciting in the intelligence. Of course, if it were clearly ascertained that genuine hundred carat diamonds of the first water could be,dug up like new potatoes in a well sown field, there might be some little ground for a rush. But that is by no means the actual state of the case. There is nothing to show that the stones found are diamonds, still less that if they are they are of any size or quality worth speaking of, or that there are enough of them to pay for the working. On the other hand, as there have been several attempts lately to delude the Government into the notion of offering a big reward for finding or “developing” a diamond field, there is some reason for scrutinizing the alleged discovery closely before any action is taken upon it. Quite lately and for some months past Mr Jacobsen, of Christchurch, and the Industrial Association, which appears to be a body chiefly industrious in talking about local industries and doing nothing, have been urging the Government to examine some Canterbury diamonds in their possession. These diamonds, 23 in number, were recently forwarded to Wellington, and on their being examined by experts, it was found that not one of them was either a diamond or anything like it, except one stone, which was avowedly a Cape diamond, and sent by Messrs Jacobsen and Co., to test the other stones by. All the rest were quartz, felspar, and spinel ; and entirely valueless. One ingenious Yankee who professed himself an expert, and to whom they were submitted, oracularly declared them to be “ soft diamonds,” but whether the softness was in his own or in the discoverers’ brains, we have not yet learnt. Wc have never heard of soft diamonds, they are up to the present lime quite unknown to mineralogists, and if there were such things, they would be utterly useless, the hardness of the gem constituting its special attraction and usefulness. With regard to the Auckland diamonds, the telegram tells us that

a Mr Com limy, who appears to bo nn authority, describes them as genuine diamonds from the Cape, planted, we presume, hy some gentlemen with a keen eye to speculators and to the chance of' a reward from the Government. It was not long back that another batch of explorers professed to have discovered a diamond mine, and without showing any of their diamonds asked the Government for the modest reward of £IO,OOO, for their magnificent services to the State, On being informed that they would receive £IOO on some genuine Auckland diamonds being forwarded, they wore disgusted, and nothing more was hoard of the claimants. It transpired that what they wanted was a reward for “developing’' whatever that may be —a diamond fl-ld, and that the said field was not at Auckland, but somewhere near Picton.

Provisionally, we have no belief in the existence of these diamond fields, as the alleged discoveries come before ns in a remarkably questionable shape, and seem to ho always very closely connected with claims on the Government, for rewards. Of course it is quite possible that diamonds may be foun I at Auckland, just as it is possible that the moon may bo made of green cheese, and that Welshmen uGy ride to heaven on the backs of maggots ; but then there is no proof that that is the case. And if some real diamonds were found it would not follow that the public would be greatly the richer. The Cape diamond fields even, which have actually produced largo numbers of unusually big diamonds, have impoverished more people than they have enriched. Diamond finding is something like gold finding intensified. A very small number of large prizes are drawn in the lottery, and a very large number of blanks. The prizes in due course are copiously advertised j the blanks are not. Even in Victoria where, beyond, a doubt, the gold fields were exceptionally rich, the Government statistics for several years disclosed the fact that-the average earnings of miners were only about 30s a week for alluvial and £2 a week for quartz miners. As this pay was something less.than that of unskilled labourers, and the work far harder, the occupation of gold mining does not seem to have been very profitable on the average in the past; nor is it particularly so at present. Diamond and gold finding are dazzling but delusive, and far more money is made by the plodding work of farming and grazing. Novel industries arc all very well in their way, but we should like to see them proved remunerative, before encouraging people to embark in them.