Brighouse & Rastrick Gazette. — 1888-03-24 (Brighouse, West Yorkshire, England)

RUSSIANS IN CENTRAL ASIA.  According to an appendix to the last report of the Russian Department of Agriculture, an abstract of whiel has been laid before Parliament, Russian colonisation in the remoter parts of Central Asia is not very successful. The province of Semirechinsk on the borders of Chinese Turkestan is specially referred. The immigrants from Russia are either Ckissacki or peasant settlers; the former are described as a rough, savage race, givrn to drunkenness and vice, thievish, cowardly, and destructive; while the peasant settlers rarely come direct from Russia, but have originally emigrated to Siberia, whence they have 'been driven south by the cold and by the iktriordinary restlessness of the Dittle 'Russian character. They acquire a taste for a nomad life which destroys laborious habits, and ruins their usefulness as colonists. Whole communities, apparently settled down in comfort, will wander away aimlessly for the slightest cause—the vague rumour by a passing soldier that the Government are allotting lands near Tashkenci or Merv, stories of the wealthy region through which the Transcaspian Railway passes, and the like. The case is mentioned of one well-to-do, colonist who abandoned an excellent farm to goWandering south, merely be6tuse he had been told that a peculiar kind of weed which gave him trouble ceased to grow beyond a certain limit. The Dungan and Tarantchi immigrants from Chinese territory are growing very numerous, and are regarded as ,a. serious hindrance to the rapid Rumsitication of the Country: They lower the price of agricultural products, and, being familiar with the local system of irrigation, become dangerous competitors to the 'Russian peasants, who are thereby led to abandon their settlements and wander off in the vain search for some new Eldorado furtlier south. They give the towns and villages an Asiatic appearance ; but it is hoped that the spread .of education will strengthen ithe Russian element against the growth of toe Dungans and Tarantchis, who bring with them "all the seductions of Kitayisrn (Chineseisni), beginning with the cultivation of rice and ending with the filth, the shanielessness, the raids, and the opium-smoking of Chin." The total .population of thevast province is only 78,253, 595,000 being Kirghiz, 75,000 Dungans and Tatutitchis and 44,600 Russians, including Cossarkg.  At Edinburgh Robert Kerr, batik clerk, formerly employed by the British Linen Banking Company at Coldstream, has been sentenced to 15 months' imprisonment or stealing ill,loo in hank antes. He hid the notes in his father's haystack, and next day confessed. It was alleged thst he was weak in his mind, and almost irresponsible.  Mr. J. C. Flynn„ M.P., Wa4 released on Friday from Cork gaol on the conipietion of three weeks' iMprisonthent imposed unon him under the Crimes Act, for ad vocati ig the 'Plain Of Campaign in a speech delivered near Ksnturic. Mr. Flynn w 3,4 met outside the gaol by_the. inaYer..pl !are.: number of citizens, and two hands, and was escorted to his residence. Addressing the people he ,-aid he was determined to, repeat 66'0110'1dt' ft-n-10nel' lie had,bsen imprisoned.  General Annenkotf, the constructor of the Russian railway! from the Caspian to .I.3okhara, has left Central Asia for Siberia, where he is to examine the proposed lisle of raihvav to the Pacific. He expresses himself confident that he can Complete a railroad from European Russia to yladivostock in three years. Residents in the neighbourhood of Clifton Suspension Bridge have been again startled by another suicide from the structure' which spans the River Avon, at a height of 2501 t, and from which, since its erection, nearly a score of persons have taken their lives. On this occasion the victim r.ppeared to be a middle-aged man, respectably dressed. He was seen to mount the parapet on the Somerset side of the bridge, and instantly leap into the river, lie floated down the river some 60 yards, and then disappeared.  • • . , . e • s . • / 174  /  1 4, 4 : . '" i 0 <  .  Ii  U. 010138.  Contracts.  1  [