THE GREAT: DIAMOND MINE OF SOUTH AFRICA.

Te Aroha News, Volume I, Issue 16, 19 April 1884, Page 5

THE GREAT: DIAMOND MINE OF SOUTH AFRICA.

In his chatty volume, "Kennedy at the Cape," Mr David Kennedy, junior, gives the following description of the great diamond mine of Kimberley :— " We made it our first business to go and see the world-famous mine, only a few minutes' walk from the hotel ; for the town is built close to the edge of the mine. You come to the end of a street, and see a slight rise— all that remains of the old Colesberg "koppie." A few steps further, and you stand on the clear-cut brink of the biggest hole that man has ever dug. A vast crater yawns at your feet. It is shaped like a bowl, has sloping sides of light-coloured rock, stretching down to the blue diamondiferous soil at the bottom. Such is the expanse of the mine that in the first hasty glance you may actually fail to note for a few moments that it is alive with human beings ; but there are more men down there than would people half a dozen villages. You see thousands of blacks working in the claims at the botcom, and dotted like ants on the sides. You see every nook and corner, every man in the mine, every one of the many "interests that centre here, all displayed at once. The claims lie clearly spread out beneath you like a map— an expanse of small blocks, which do not look to be thirty feet square. These present great irregularities, as some of the claims are being worked faster than others. If a claim stands idle, the adjoining workers, digging down on either side, leave it standing like a square tower; but there is a law which compels a man to work if his claim is becoming dangerous to those around him. You see the blacks busily toiling round sheer clay battlements at one place, shovelling on the edge of steep precipices here, climbing up naked pillars of earth there, the column being marked with tiny holes, the only foothold of the daring worker. Square pools of water gleam in several places, and walls of dark blue clay cross and re-cross the whole bed of the mine. Hound the maigin of this deep bowl circles a fringe of steam machinery, working the buckets that run up and Sown on wires, and convey the "blue," as the diamondiferous soil is called, to the surface. These wires converge from all sides into the bottom of the mine. They are not very large, but very numerous. They stand out like threads of silver when struck by the sun's rays ; but in some lights, or when viewed against the darker side of the mine, are not visible at all. The mingled hum of voices rising from the seething mass of labour below, the whirring of the many buckets flying through the air, the iEolian murmur of the wind playing over the web of wires, the far and near rumble of vehicles running round the edge of the mine—- are every whit as wonderful to the ear as the sight is strange to the eye. At one place there has been a shaft sunk by Baring, Gould, and Co., so as to do away with an aerial tramway ; and at another, a tramway has been run down through a narrow cleft, cut deeply into the lip of the mine, in order to diminish the gradient. Once we saw the mine late in the afternoon, when the men were leaving work. The spectacle was extraordinary. Out from the depths of the mine the Kaffirs were swarming like bees from a disturbed hive. Some were crawling up the steep slopes ; some skipping along narrow tracks, where, from our distant standpoint, we could see no foothold ; some jumping from ledge to ledge; here and there a couple of them coming up in a bucket, with other Kaffirs hanging on to the bottom of it by the runners, flying through the air on such a lengthy journey that you could scarcely believe a man could suspend himself by the arms so long. On all sides the Kaffirs were scrambling up to the surface— laughing, shouting, and singing, as merry as boys released from school. A dense continuous file of Kaffirs was all the time walking up the tramway : Kaffirs half-clad, Kaffirs in old great-coats, Kaffirs in jackets made out of sacks, Kaffirs in shirts, Kaffirs in corduroy. Large numbers of them, too, had on old soldiers' coats, which generally showed up in bright red specks all over the workings. As the men were dispersing, the blasting operations commenced. A bell is supposed to ring as the signal for the firing ; but on this occasion several shots were fired before the warning rang out, and before the mine had been emptied of its dusky labourers. The charges are lit by one or two of the " boys " belonging to the different claims, while the proprietors look down from the brink. One claimowner standing near us wished he had an opera-glass, so that he could see if his Kaffir was lighting the fuse properly. Every few moments a quick puff of smoke burst from the floor of the mine, followed by a dull rumbling sound, and an immense mass of rock would heave slowly over with a grinding crash. When a more than usually good shot went off, the Kaffirs clapped their hands and hurrahed, the mine echoing and re-echoing with their shouts. Frequently the hard clay would fly up viciously, and everybody ducked their heads behind the edge, though there seemed little fear of fragments reaching us at such an elevation. It was most exciting to see two or three blasts simultaneously— the whole crater-like mine seeming in volcanic convulsion, and the Kaffir stragglers, in a state of scare, leaping behind clay walls, running into holes, or dashing excitedly up the sides. We overheard a claim-owner remark, rubbing his hands gleefully as he saw the flying pieces of rock : "Aha ! that shot has landed a rich lump on my claim 1" In a few minutes, the huge basin, so lately a scene of busy life, was as silent as an open grave. Soon the sunlight faded away from the opposite brink, and the dark blue of twilight gradually settled down in the bottom of the mine. One look at the mine is not sufficient for anyone to form an idea of it, nor will anyone ever be satisfied with one visit. It exercises a continual fascination, and one must go at least once a day and gaze down into tho wonderful abyss. About as full a conception of its magnitude that you can have is obtained from .seeing the immense hills of sifted sand that stretch from the mouth of the hole. You begin to realise that for eight years from 8,000 to 10,000 men have been engaged in excavating that wondrous Colesberg "koppie." Little did anyone dream, a few years ago, that that gently swelling hill, then unknown and unnamed, rising in the midst of a dreary barren country, was soon to be heard of in all ends of the earth. " All kindreds, and nations, and tribes " flocked to the magic ground. The hill disappeared as if by enchantment, as one might chip an egg, or uncover a pie, previous to scooping it out. The ground was marked off into 700 plots. Twelve roadways, each fifteen feet wide, were left across the "koppie." In those days no less than 30,000 men, white and blaok, with every description of primitive appliance, were working at once. As they dug, vast trenches began to form on each side of the roadways, which soon stood up in perilous isolation —now and then a cart and horse, or dray and bullocks, falling over into the workings. Great landslips took place and killed many of the diggers. Then these roadways were removed, and the

koppie transformed into a wide-stretching basin, which by degrees deepened into the present enormous crater. The mine is 300 feet deep, a quarter of a mile wide, and three-quarters of a mile in circumference, occupying about twelve acres. It has been assessed at £1,500,000. The Dutch farm on which it stands was bought originally for £6,000, but could not be purchased now for £4,000,000. The diamondiferous " blue " is a hard clay, so hard that it has to be picked, and quarried, and blasted like rock, The mine is a vast matrix, in which this geological accident of "blue" lies embedded. The surrounding rock, in which no diamonds are found, is called the "reef." As the mining operations proceed, this reef has continually to be removed, so as to lay bare the precious "blue." This alone costs annually £100,000. All the claims are taxed for this, a claim valued at £4,000 paying as its share £240 a-year. The "blue," when it has been brought to the surface, is carted off to the ground of the proprietor. Here it ii spread out for two or three weeks, to dessicate by exposure and the action of rain. If there be no rain, then the stuff has to be watered and raked in the puddling-troughs. The stones all fall to the bottom, and with them, of course, the diamonds, which are the heaviest stones of all. We once saw two gentlemen engaged in turning over the dark, washed gravel, which is wet so as to display any stray gem that may turn up. During the three minutes to wliich our visit extended, the men had found a diamond each. Diamond-sifting, like lovemaking, is a dull business to an uninterested party."