A DIAMOND FIELD IN CANTERBURY.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume X, Issue 1209, 24 November 1882, Page 2

A DIAMOND FIELD IN CANTERBURY.

The following is taken from the “Daily Telegraph of the 18th instant .“ It will be within the recollection of some of our readers that some two or three years ago Mr J. S. M. Jacobsen announced that he had discovered a field in Canterbury, where crystals which he believed to be diamonds were plentiful. He has now brought the matter before the Industrial Association by urging that body to request the Government to offer a bonus for the discovery of such a field. The Association, though by no means satisfied that the specimens held by Mr Jacobsen are diamonds, to some extent concur with the proposal. Several of the ratepayers have a large experience of the Colony, and think it quite possible that diamonds may be found, if not in Canterbury in other places, and a committee has been appointed to confer with Mr Jacobsen on this subject. Mr Rees stated at the meeting that a man with whom he was acquainted found a large crystal in a claim on the West Coast some years ago. Whether it was a diamond or not Mr Rees could not say, but the man who found it prized it so highly that he sent it Home, and had it cut and mounted in gold. Mr Jacobsen has, it appears, been very unfortunate in his endeavors to have these crystals tested. Shortly after he found the field he sent some specimens home to a firm of experts, but the only reply that he got was a request that ho would send some more, This hardly suited Mr Jacobsen’s idea, and he waited until a friend was going Home and sent his best and largest specimen with him. That was two years ago, and he has heard nothing of it since. Mr Jacobsen declares that he will not disclose the field until a bonus is offered by the. Government. His reason is that part of the field is private property, and part in the hands of the Government, and of course without a special permit he could work neither. He showed some of his specimens to Mr Kellar, of the Royal Illusionists, and that gentleman, who is an old diamond digger, said that they were undoubtedly diamonds, but soft. At the Association’s meeting last evening Mr Sandstein said he had had some 35 years’ experience of jewels, and though he had frequently seen diamonds broken in the setting, he had never heard of such a thing as a soft diamond, as every one knew extreme hardness was one of the principal features of this stone. He, however, would not like to say that these specimens were not diamonds, but if Mr Jacobsen liked he would send the specimens home to his agents in London or to his brother and have them thoroughly tested ; and if not Mr Jacobsen might send them cither to Dr. Hector or Professor Von Haast, and probably either of those gentlemen could determine the nature of the crystals.”