force.
A large illicit trade has been carried on at Christiana for many years
in diamonds stolen in Kimberley and the river diggings in the Cape
Colony. A few years ago the Government of the late South African
Republic passed certain laws in reference to the registration of
diamonds, but these laws were not stringent enough to stop the illicit
traffic. Diamonds have also been found at Rietfontein, near Pretoria,
but up to the present time the total yield has been very small. A few
years ago there was a remarkable occurrence of diamonds in the
conglomerate gold ores from the mines at Klerksdorp, when several green
diamonds were found in the battery box. As the conglomerate is a
sedimentary formation, the diamonds may have been washed into it from
some crater in a similar manner to the depositing of diamonds in the
itacolumite of Brazil.
Outside of South Africa the diamond fields of any determined value are in Brazil, India, New South Wales, and Borneo.
Brazil. There
was a revival of the diamond-mining industry to some extent in the
Brazilian fields, owing to the diminution of the South African product
by the Transvaal War. The State places a duty of 16 per cent on the
valuation of all diamonds produced, and there is in addition a tax of 1
per cent demanded by the municipalities. Owing to the tax evasion, it
is difficult to determine the total annual product. The value of
exports from Minas Geraes during the first half of 1900 was reported at
250,000 milreis, $140,000.
Mr.
A. de Jaeger has estimated the total production of Brazilian stones
from the time of the discovery of the diamond fields at 12,000,000
carats, valued roundly at $100,000,000. It is stated, however, in " The
Mineral Industry," presenting probably the best extant record, that the
best available statistics show that the total output of Brazil, up to
and including 1898, was 13,105,000 carats.1
Dr.
Le Neve Foster, one of his Majesty's inspectors of mines, in his Annual
Report on Mines for 1899, says: "Compared with the output of
Kimberley, the total production of
