Birmingham age-herald., 1895-09-03
ROYAL Baking Powder Absolutely Pure
DIGGING FOR DIAMONDS.
Elaborate Precautions Against Theft in the
 South African Mines.

Elaborate Precautions Against Theft in the
 South African Mines.
 "The south African diamond mines are worked almost entirely by native labor ers-the Kaffirs, Zulus, Hottentots and the rest" said a diamond merchant to New York Evening Sun reporter. "These receive good wages, about $125 per month, and are hired for a. term of three months. During this period they are confined in compounds located on the edge of the mines. The compounds consist of rows of buildings of corrugated iron, forming a hollow square, surrounded by a hign board fence and covering several acres of ground. Within this corral are stores, hospital. boarding houses and other con veniences Wood and water are fur nished free but no alcoholic liquors are allowed. During their term of service the natives are not allowed to have any com munication with the outside world, and are under a system of close personal surveillance in order to prevent the theft of diamonds. When they come up from the mine shaft they are carefully searched. and many ingenious methods are adopted to reduce the loss from this source to minimum.
 Notwithstanding all that is done, however, the theft of diamonds still con tinues. It is estimated that from 10 to 20 per cent of the diamonds found are stolen every year. In order to prevent this very stringent law was passed. providing that all rough diamonds should be registered with the detective bureau of the government as soon as they were found, and that every man who sold diamond must give with it a certificate of registry.
 "The penalty for having unregistered rough diamond is seven years on the Cape Town breakwater, and the mere fact of possession is prima facie evidence and will secure conviction So 1t happens that if one laborer wants to do up an- other he manages to slip a rough dia- mond into another laborer's coat or into his room, and then tells the police to keep a sharp lookout. Of course, the po- lice make a search, the contraband stone is found and the man IS in Tor a-term of seven years. A great many unjust sentences have unquestionably been se- cured in this way. but despite the opposi- tion to the law, the company is power ful enough to keep it in force
 'There are other diamond fields out side of the Kimberly district but they are difficult working and are mainly ex- plotted by diggers working on their own account. The total product is not large and the work is very arduouS, the dig gers being mostly men who have been thrown out of work by the consohda- ton of the Kimberly mines into one vast corporation and the subsequent re- striction of production. This latter. by the way has had curious effect upon the town of Kimberly itself. As late as four years ago Kimberly had pop ulation of 25,oOO to 30.000 people. It was laid out for great city, and enjoyed forl a time big boom.
 Fine brick blocks and residences were built, hotels and theaters and water works and everything pertaining to modern city Now good third of these places are empty and Kimberly is as dead as a New England town that is dependent upon q single mill. All the supplies and machinery for the mines are now bought, of course. by a single company, so that more than two-thrds of the business of the town is gone. There is nothing there to sustain town except the mine, and with the opening up of the gold fields much of the popula- tion moved north to Johannesburg.
 Although the existence of gold in the Transvaal had been known for years,