AN INDIAN RIP VAN WINKLE.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 2135, 27 May 1889, Page 2

AN INDIAN RIP VAN WINKLE.

Under this heading the "Oiloutta Statesman" writes:— "ln tbe Oaloutte High Oourt, the wonderiul history ot a Hindoo ' claimant' occupied tbe attention of Mr Justice Norrls for some dayj Nundo Lail Pal, aoourding to his story, left the family bouse In Jorasanko, Oaloutta, some forty-seven years ago, In oonsequenoa of the harsh treatment be reoeived from his brothers. He was tben seventeen years of age, and after wandering for some days In tbe streets, and sleeping at nights m the sweetmeat shops, he fell In with an emigration agent, wno purauaded him to ship to the Mauritius under the name of Peer Bakkus. He took service there as a ooolle sirdar under his Mebommertan name, and m time forgot tbe language of his fathers, but retained a recollection of bis family history, Fot many years be oontinued to serve m a strange land, Hading himself unable to save enough money for his return passage ; and after sending home one letter, he relinquished as hopeless the attempt to oommunloste wlh bis relatives. Eventually he obtained a passage to India from tho Emigration Agency on aooount of his being too old to work, and he tben made his way to the ancestral dwelling house, where he found his nephews m possession. His contemporaries, with the exception of some of the ladies of tbe family, were all dead, but the latter professed to recognise him, and introduced him as "Uncle," On his putting m a claim to a thare m the family property he was, however, met with a good mbny questions, and it was decided to treat him as an impostor. His story, as tcld m the witness-box m broken Hindustani, of the events of bis boyhood, bore upon it the semblance of truth; but it was urged with some force that the oiaim, even if a true one, was barred by limitaiod uuder the Aot of 1859, as the plaintiff had not participated m the profits of the joint fami y estate during hij absonoe from India. Whether this Act or the subsequent ones applied to tue case ia a very dffioult question, whiob it beoame unnecessary to decide, as the nephews agreed ta allow their anoieut relative an annuity for the remainder of his life. It is not often m this country that a Rip Van Winkle returns to life after a prolonged sojourn m a foreign Itmd, having survived two generations during an expatriation of nearly half a oeutury. Nundo Lall Pal's absenoe oovers a period tbat has witnessed the oomplete transformation of India.