The De Beers ComI'anv. 39 



ton, and costs in extracting about S-y. lOd. per 

 load, realizing a profit of 206;, to ?)0,s. per carat 

 sold. The annual amount of money ])aid aM'ay in 

 interest and dividends exceeds 1,300,000/. The 

 dividends might have been mucli larger, but the 

 policy of the present Board of Directors appears to 

 be to restrict the production of diamonds to the 

 quantity the world can easily absorb, to maintain 

 the price of the diamonds at a fair level from 28.v. 

 to 32.9. per carat, and, in order the better to carry 

 out this policy, to accumulate a very large cash 

 reserve. I believe that the reserve already accu- 

 mulated amounts to nearly a million, and that this 

 amount is to be doubled in the course of the next 

 year or two, when the board will feel that they 

 have occupied for their shareholders a position un- 

 assailable by any of the changes and chances of 

 commerce. In the working of the mine there are 

 employed about 1300 Europeans and 5700 natives. 

 The wages paid range high, and figures concerning 

 them may interest the English artisan. Mechanics 

 and engine-drivers receiA'e from G/. to 7/-. per 

 week, miners from 5/. to 6L, guards and tally-men 

 from 4/. to 5/. ; natives in the undero'round works 

 are paid from As. to 5,s'. per day. In the work on 

 the '' floors," which is all surface work, overseers 

 receive from 3/= 12.v. to 4/. 2s., machine men and 

 assorters from 5/. to 6/., and ordinary native 

 labourers from 17.s'. 6./. to 21.9. per week. In 

 addition, every employe on the " floors " has a per- 

 centage on the value of diamonds found by himself, 

 the white employes receiving 1.5. 6(?., and the 



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