RUSSIA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 13096, 8 February 1906, Page 5

RUSSIA.

BOMB ACCIDENTS.

" HOIST WITH HIS OWN

PETARD."

By Telegraph.—Press Association.Copyright. St. Petersburg, February 6. A bomb exploded in the lodgings of a workman at Sosnowice, in Poland, yesterday and killed five persons. Another bomb accident is reported from Bielostok, in Lithuania. A bomb that was being conveyed in a cab exploded and killed the driver and two youths. BARBAROUS PEASANTS. SHOCKING TREATMENT OF ANIMALS. St. Petersburg, February 6. Reports are to hand of barbarous conduct on the part of' peasants. Peasants in the Cherson district have destroyed many mansions and killed or maimed the cattle and horses of the landowners. They have fastened horses to the arms of windmills and thus caused the animals to be whirled in the air and dashed to pieces. , Straw soaked in kerosene has been tied to the tails of horses and then lighted. The horses so treated stampeded until they died of exhaustion. THE NATIONAL DUMA. ELECTIONS IN APRIL. St. Petersburg, February 6. The elections for the National Duma take place on April 7, and the members meet for the first time on April 28. It is reported that the reactionaries are scheming for the issue cf a decree before the meeting of the Duma providing for the retention of the bureaucratic system. FATHER JOHN OF CRONSTADT. NEW SECT TO WORSHIP HIM. St. Petersburg, February 6. A new sect has been started at Tsaritsyn, on the River Volga, for the worship of Father John of Cronstadt. The members have decided that it is necessary to offer human sacrifices, and it is reported that a woman has offered to permit herself to be slain. Many strange sects have sprung up among the ignorant peasants of Russia, and in not a few of them resort has been had to human sacrifice. Father John of Cronstadt is venerated by many Russians, but since the revolution began lis has lost much of his influence owing to his opposition to reform.