INDIAN INTELLIGENCE.

Westport Times, Volume V, Issue 871, 7 October 1871, Page 2

INDIAN INTELLIGENCE.

The latest news from Kabul is that the Commander-in-Chief, Faramoorz Khan, has been murdered in his tent, and that Aslum Khan and his son are being sent to Kabul under escort as suspected of being guilty of Ihe murder, or instigating it. Lord Mayo has written to the Amir advising him to come to terms with his son 1 akub and Yakub is said to be on his way to Kabul to meet the Amir. Each battery of Horse and Field Artillery in India is to be increased by twelve drivers, and each garrison battery by twelve gunners, in consequence of the breaking up of the E. brigade of Horse Artillery, and the 25th brigade of Garrison Artillery. The Emperor of China has conferred a title and decoration on Sir Jang Bahadur for his services to the British during the mutiny. It is reported that the Viceroy will hold a grand durbar at the commencement of the next «old season, either at Agra cr Lucknow.

The consumption of opium amongst the people of Assam ia rapidly increasing. Four young Italians, members of a band at Simla, have been crushed to death by the falling of a rock on a cart in which they were travelling. Floods have carried away the railway bridge over the Gaggar on the Panjab. There is a report that the Russians have dethroned and imprisoned the King of Bokhara and appointed Sardar Bohtnan Khan of Affghanistan his successor.

The Indian sea borne trade for last year showß an increase of upwards of three millions over that of the previous year.

A Hindu lady has given a lecture on Female Education at Madras.

On the 29th of June the Ganges rose ten feet and a half at Allahabad, and altogether during June thirty-five feet. It has now fallen again to twenty-one feet.

Small-pox, during May last, caused 10,116 deaths in the North-Western Provinces. More than one-third of the 56th Regiment, at Puna, are lads under twenty years of age. The wheat crop has proved a comparative failure in the Dashtustan districts in Persia, and starvation was increasing. In the Bagdad district also the crops have turned out badly, and business is almost at a standstil.

Two officers of the 21st Fusiliers, at B.ingalore, Ensigns Lambart and Frere, have beeu badly wounded by some Eurasians, to whose house they went at eight o'clock at night to take revenge for an assault previously committed on Ensign, Lambert by one of the residents. The officers are both getting better of their wounds, and the case is being investigated by the magistrate.

Cattle disease has destroyed nearly all the working bullocks in Manipur, and the Rajah has ordered each family to cultivate at least au acre of land by hand labour.

Another mutineer of 1857, for whoa a reward of 7,500 rupees was offered, has lately been arrested, disguised as a faqueer, at Mirzapur. An attack by the Chinese on Yunchanfu, Tunan, was repulsed by the Panthays ; and it is thought that the Chinese forces will soon be driven out of the entire province. A wild elephant in the Mandla districts of the Central Provinces killed twenty-one persons in January and February last, and devoured several of its victims.

The tea planters in Kutnaon are making complaints of the scarcity of labourers. The Gurkhas from Nipal are the best labourers they can procure.

During one month rewards were paid at Bangalore for the destruction of 1,313 snakes, but Dr Nicholson on examination found that only 123 were really poisonous. The cultivators in Oudh are complaining of injury to their crops by the heavy rain, but food grains still continue very cheap. The son of the Rajah of Jodhpur has captured a gang of 300 Meena robbers in his father's territories.

Owing to the raina the fighting between the Chinese and Pantbays in Tunan has been supended, but the Chinese still hold possession of the trade routes. The King of Barmah has invested a lakh of rupees in piece goods, and is underselling the traders in the Mandalay bazaars. A Sepoy of the 2nd 'Bengal Cavalry has been hanged at Barciily for the murder of his troop officer.

An officer t\the Madras Army has invented a water velocipede. Letters have been received by the Commander-in-Chief in India from Count "Bismarck and the French authorities, returning thanks for the contributions of the Indian Army to the Sick and Wounded Funds.

Auother fight has taken place between the Hindus and Muhammadan butchers at Ludhiana, in which ten persons were killed.

An annual return is' to be made from all Government offices, of the number of pens and sheets of paper used by each person in the office. The Bev. Mr Wallis, chaplain of Berhampur, is reported to have committed suicide.

The attempt to introduce English midwifery amongst the natives at Dacca, lias totally failed.

The Maharajah of Bhartpur has established workshops with steam machinery for the instruction of his people. A committee has been appointed at Simla, to consider the question of horse breeding in the Panjab. Landslips, caused by heavy rains, have almost stopped communication between the different parts of Simla. The native papers are again complaining loudly of the insults to which natives are exposed when travelling by railway. The Madras Government has resolved to manufacture snorting gunpowder at their powder manufactory. The pontoon over the Ganges, at Cawnpore, was carried away by a flood on Wednesday, July 26. The deaths of Major Ellis and Captain Cumberland, tea planters in the Kumaon district have been reported. According to a veterinary surgeon, the late horse show at A.hma~ •dabad, gives every prospect of a useful ■class of horses for artillery and ■cavalry purposes being bred in that district.

The King of Siam has ordered the abolition of slavery in his dominions from the, Ist of January next. H.M.S Pluto has had an engagement with the pirates at Salengore, in which one officer, Lieutenant Maude, and six men were wounded.