Weekly News. — 1892-03-31 (Blandford, Dorset, England)

AGRARIAN RIOT IN INDIA.  The Indian papers contain the text of the judg. went of Kr. Aston, the Sessions Judge of Rutwherry, which gives some curious glimpses of life in an agricultural village in the Konkan. Five men were put upon their trial, two on a charge of dacoity and three for aiding and abetting, the total number originally charged having been 23. All five were acquitted on the ground of absence of satisfactory identification. The prisoners were all residents of a small hamlet in the Rutnagherry district, and were tenants of a family of five, who shared in the proceeds of the rents in such a way that each of the five took one year's rent in every five years, the others taking in rotation. The prosecutor, Ragonath, was one of these co-owners, and lived on such very bad terms with his tenants, the prisoners, that an attack upon him by them was in itself a probable event. On the night of December 15th Ragonat was staying at a farmhouse, whither he had gone to collect his dues. A number of the villagers went to the farmhouse, and while some of them cried out "Panther," to raise a false alarm and divert assistance, others entered the house, beat Ragonath and his son, and carried off two bundles of papers and accounts relating to the amounts due from the tenants. Before doing this they had consulted a priest, whose evidence was to this effect: "I am an augur of the goddess Lakshmi, and through me the village deity is consulted by such as come from a sign. Bapu and Rama and Ragho came to me saying, 'We desire an omen, because the Brahmin, meaning Ragonath, is to be beaten.' And I rebuked them saying, 'Do not do this evil thing,' and they eparted." It appeared that Ragonath was a money-lender as well as landowner, so that, as he said, all the tenanta except four or five were in his debt; and he admitted that he had levied a special exaction on all the tenants to recoup himself certain legal expenses to which he had been put in recovering debts from some of them. Some of them had paid this illegal flax willingly; others had objected, and it was in consequence of his having obtained warrants against a number of the latter that the riot took place. The Judge regarded the evidence of identification as wholly untrustworthy; the assessors agreed with him, and the prisoners were discharged. A curious point in the case was that Ragonath had succeeded in some mysterious way in obtaining the assistance of revenue bailiffs to enforce a levy which was unlawful in itself and for which he had the decree of so tribunal.  Mr. John Henry Ferns, a solicitor, of Truro, and a member of the Truro City Council, has committed suicide by shooting himself with a pistol. He had been greatly depressed since the death of his wife, about two months since, and on Saturday morning he was found lying across his wife's grave with a pistol-shot through his head. An outbreak among the Chinese in Sydney is During the recent scare in connection with the feared, owing to a quarrel amongst them, arising Government Savings Bank in Sydney, nearly out of a gambling-saloon dispute. £lOO,OOO was drawn out by depositors in one day. An important part of the village of Sevelen, in Thieves and swindlers are said to have made a fine the Swiss Canton of St. Gall, has been destroyed harvest before the depositors came to their senses by fire during a gale which was blowing very and reinvested their money. sharply. Eighty houses were burned down; there The wife of a settler near Melbourne was recently was, however, no loss of life. bitten on the finger by a snake. To prevent the About 7 o'clock on Friday morning the econci• poison entering her system she placed the finger on misers at Bridgewater Mill, Blackburn, owned by a block, and asked her husband to cut it off, which Messrs. D. and W. Taylor, cotton-spinners and be did with an axe. He then drove his wife 17 manufacturers, exploded, wrecking the boiler-house eillps to the nearest town. On arrival she was ma and severely injuring the fire-beater, who was taken stake of collapse, but the strychnine remedy was to the infirmary with several broken ribs and severs applied with success, and the weedeti Is new eilt d i scalds. Two others, an engineinan and a mechanic, danger. I were also badly scalded. . nese, flume tpointing to mummy): 'tale was The mangled body of a youth was found on Satur- i photographer : "That is certainty a good picture I she priest, I ~___A day on a ledge near the not of Beachy Head, and for an amateur; very good. How did you manage to a great age." Tourist: "Was his last illeffsi was removed to Eastbourne by a coastguard. He to get such a pleasant expression on the gentle- fatal r, "Yes, very fatal." "What a wonder,,e' was the son of a grocer in the town, named man's face?" Amateur: "I told him I wasn't thing that we see him now permanently cured? 'tb Sandifer. i going to charge anything." I Her present.—Agent: "What's the matter wt_e , The Bell Hotel, Hampton Court, was burned ; The court: "You wish to withdraw your offen- your last place ?" the wisest man of his time. He Domestic: "Oi dont like