INDIA.

Wellington Independent, Volume II, Issue 111, 4 November 1846, Page 4

INDIA.

Some little time ago, it wasstUed in the papers, that the Governorship" of Scinde was to be abolished. The Bombay Times now states, that Sir Charles Napier's salary is to be raised from 6 to 8,000 Rs. a month, aad thus placed on an equality with that of the Governor of the NorthWest Provinces. His arrival in the Camp after the war was over excited some little surprize; but it should be remembered that he was invited to the Punjab before tbe victory of Sobraon, when it could not be known that the campaign would terminate so speedily, and when it wa3 supposed that there would be ample occasion for the exercise of his military genius. The Englishman alludes to the sale yesterday of a batch of Australian wines, the first ever brought to Calcutta. They were the produce of the vineyards of Messrs. Macarthur, to whom the colony is indebted for no small share of its prosperity. Should the wines find favor with the community, the trade will form a new link between those distant possessions from whence we import little but horses. Strange to say, our imports from all the colonies in New Holland and its dependencies last year, did not exceed £15,000, and our exports fell short of £3000.

The Bombay Times notices a new Military punishment invented by Sir Charles Napier, but we do not see that there is anything to object to, beyond its novelty. Capt. Clarkson, who presided over a Native Court Martial, allowed the Court to pass an illegal sentence ; and His Excellency condemus him—to " write out with bis own hand the Articles of War from Article 75 to 79 inclusive." When they are written out the Major General wiil forward them to Sir Charles for his inspection. Our western contemporary is very facetious on the subject, but we doubt not Capt. Clarkson infinitely prefers this punishment to a month's suspension from pay, and that he will feel grateful to His Excellency for having adopted co effectual a mode of writing the Articles on the tablets of his memory.

The Aorra Ukhbar states, that all Europeans and Americans in Sikh service are to be dismissed, and that none are to be entertained except those appointed or sanctioned by our Government. He farther states that the Sikh army is in future io consist of Twenty thousand Infantry, and Twelve Thousand Cavalry and that the number is not to be increased without the permission of the British Government.

The fact that a portion of the indemnity which the British Government has exacted of the Sikhs has been paid in Spanish doubloons, has excited considerable curiosity. The matter is thus explained by a correspondent of the Hurkaru. They, and many oiher sorts of European coinage, find their way from Trebizonde and Erzeroum through Mosul and Bagdad to Ispahan and thence to Herat also from AlK'ppo, Smyrna, Mecca and other parts of Turkey in Asia—the Lohanis get them at Herat and Cabul in payment for Indian goods.