THE AUSTRALIAN DIAMOND INDUSTRY.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1507, 2 November 1886, Page 3

THE AUSTRALIAN DIAMOND INDUSTRY.

Bingera, the seat of the New South Wales diamond-mining industry, is a post town in the county of Murchison, I within easy easy reach of Tarn worth and Glen lones. Diamonds have from time to time been obtained from {hat locality, but, as systematic mining was never taken in hand, the partia' yields were for a long time passed over witlr scarce a thought of "the immense importance of the industry. Strange to say, the experience of the two other great diaraond-feroua countries of the world has been similar. In Brazil the stODes were for a longtime considered as almost whilst at the Gape they were discovered long before then.true value wasknown, Up. .toeighteen months ago the Bingera mines were in the same position, for it was generally believed throughout colonial mining circles that the Australian diamond was not equal to. the Cape or Brazilian one. Recent experiments have completely overthrown the hypothesis of the small value of the Australian diamond, for Gape atones of a similar size have only a current value of from 14s to 15s per carat. The extreme hardness, which was one of the, principal pbiectiofis against the Australian: diamond; as adding to the cost of cutting, has heen found actually to increase its value, as when cut it shows' a brilliancy and life that makes it far superior to the softer and less lustrous stone of the Cape fields.; Coster, the great diamond cutter of Amsterdam, and the greatest authority in the world on the subject, to whoon the cutting of the Koh-i-noor was entrusted.,' is said to have pronounced most favorably as to the quality of the Bingera stones, and to have considered them finer and better than those from the Cape. ___^______