INDIA.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume IX, Issue 900, 18 March 1854, Page 3

INDIA.

We extract from the Melbourne Argus the following Indian news, which was Drought to Melbourne by the ship Stoarthmore. It extends to the 24th of December : — The Governor-General had sailed for Rangoon on the 9th of December. The Coinmander-in-Chief, Sir W. Gomm, and Lady Gomm, arrived at Agra on the 10lh, and left for Gwalior after a stay of foUr or five days. The troops under Colonel Cotton employed in establishing a fort in the Kohat pass, one of the two entrances from cential Asia into India, had a brUk encounter with the Aifreedies, in the Booree Valley. After having burnt the village of the Boorees, who it appears have been guilty of a great many acts of violence and depredation, they retreated, harassed by the fire of the enemy, with a loss of 39 men killed and wounded. Of the enemy few were injured. This afiair is believed to have had no connection with the erection of the fort, to which the inhabitants of the Pass have submitted. The Peshawur Valley continues very unhealthy as regards the troops, and the shock of an earthquake was felt there on the Ist of December. A letter from Decca, dated the 12th instant, mentions that cholera has been raging fearfully, and that strangers are flying away. The average number of deaths is six daily. Burmah. — A plot of the Burmese, to exterminate the British, had been discovered, and about twenty of the ringleaders were placed in custody. Suspicion at'ached to the Government at Ava. Several hundreds of men were to have gone under the guise of pajing their offerings, and to have taken possession of the guns. This aflair had prevented the further withdrawal of troops from Rangoon. A new and most significant fact in Indian politics is, that the native press has begun to criticise the conduct of those in authority. The Hindoo Patriot thus speaks of the distinction made between the English inhabitants and the natives. " One principal section of the community, though small in numbers, command, from the possession of various fictitious advantages, an unbounded influence over the acts of the civic authorities ;' »hile another, though forming the majority subject to their jurisdiction, fail to engage even a legitimate share of attention to their wants and desires.. The urgent necessities of the latter class are postponed to the superfluous conveniences of the former. And even where no possible collision could take place between the interests of the favored few, and of the unfavoured many, restrictions, wholly unnecessary, are placed upon the liberty of the native inhabitants of the town, to gratify some whim which our chief n.agistrate shares with his Christian co -residents." A private letter from Rangoon describes the inhabitants of the annexed upper provinces as rallying round the British officers placed in charge, if only for the simple reason, that in supporting the new domination, they see their sole hope of rescue from anarchy and thorough disorganisation. Captain Latter and Captain Smith have had no end of labour on their hands, but the present disposition of the people to co operate with them lightens what otherwise would have been a dispiriting task. The cause of order, as Louis Napoleon would term it, i& the cause of all, and we may fairly anticipate that the ravages of ihe robbers will conduce to the rapid consolidation of our new acquisitions. The cholera still continued its ravages at Rangoon.

Madras. — The apprehension of famine in the northern provinces of this presidency has led to a prohibition on the exportation of rce, and large orders received for shipments to England and ihe Mauritius could not be executed.

Calcutta. — The pilot? having refused to take charge of ships in distress, the GovernorGeneral, with the concurrence of the marine authorities, had issued orders that a certain addition should be made to the penal code, by which any pilot refusing to take charge of a ship in distress, or under the plea of danger, so long as the captain and crew remain on board, shall be liable to summary and severe punishment on conviction before a Marine court. The trial of a Seik Sepoy, who had murdered his superior officer in the fort, had excited a good deal of interest, owing to his sentence having been commuted to transportation ; which, however, it is asserted,, is a greater punishment than death to natives of rank. The Alfred, with troops on board, had gone on shore near Vizapatam. Two steamers hail been sent to her assistance, and all the people got off safely. She had been kept afloat until the arrival of the steamers by two skilful divers amongst the crew having been sent several times under to examine every part of her bottom ; and the injury having been discovered, a sail, properly prepared, was passed under the stern, and the leak stopped. Lieutenant Stewart, while out hunting, was severely injured by a tiger which had been wounded in a previous part of the day.