VICTORIA.

Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1133, 15 March 1872, Page 2

VICTORIA.

*» . [from our ow> f correspondent.] • March 5. The negotiations between the Victorian and New Zealand Governments, aneht Webb's line of steamers, New Zealand being represented by Mr Yogel, have riot yet been decided. The feeling of the public, however, is in favor of the Californian line being supported, but it is. thought Mr Yogel asked for too much in demanding L 25,000 as Victoria's share of the subsidy. The opinion here is that your Treasurer is slightly cornered, and as our astute statesman, Mr Duffy, will not scruple to take every advantage of this, it is highly improbable he will get nearly so much. ; The Parliamentary recess ends next month, and as there is every prospect of an appeal to the country then, Ministers have been " feeding round" to win.pbpuT larity . and strength, though hot always with the happiest results. . A scene unrivalled, save by the demolition of the interior cf a hell in New York, as toldby Haywardin one of his works, occurred on the night of Wednesday last, the Mechanics' Arms, in Little Collins street east, a notorious, house of assignation, having been the. locale of the outrage. Tho then 'tenant, it appears, had, gone to some considerable expense in furnishing the house in a manner worthy of his patrons in the full auticipatibn -of the reward of the license, but unfortunately for his calculations the Magistrates would not allow of the house being relicensed. The house, however, still continued to be occupied, and on the. abovementioned day, the ground landlord, 1 a well-known brewer in town, sent a strojig party of special bailiffs to take possession, to distrain for arrears of rent. ' On arriving at the house they managed' to gain admittance, though with some difficulty, ahd after a struggle succeeded in incontinentiy ejecting the tenatits into the street. Their triumph, however, was not for long. The .went straightway, to the classic 'retirements of Little Bourke street and Bilking square, iv a very few minutes

organised a force of the most lawless and determined "larrikins 11 in Melbourne, and hastened back to the scene of action. The besiegers then essayed entrance from the front, rear, and even roof of the premises, succeeding eventually in forcing an entrance through an unprotected window, and then ensued a fierce struggle. Chair and table legs were wrenched off and used in the now unequal encounter.' Oaths, cries, and blows made a. frightful ,medley of sounds — " Up to the heavens went that wild halloo I" till, at length numbers prevailed, and the bailiffs were in their turn thrown into the street, one man bleeding frightfully from a gash in his cheek, and all the rest more or less bruised or cut from theirsrough handling. ' And now commenced the work of destruction. Determined nothing of any value should be left in the house, after they had nailed up doors arid windows, they with axes arid hammers demolished furniture, fittings, crockery, pier-glasses, &c, and as they had strong waters in abundance the carnival was complete. At one time during the melee the leader of the ' ' larrikins" was arrested by the police, who were on the ground to the number of six or seven, but by a determined rush he succeeded in eluding their grasp and joining his friends, and the blue;coated gentry did not seem ambitious to attempt his recapture, and so the party of disorder were left masters of the situation. \"< The long-talked-of Government House, to be erected on the Botanical Reserve, is at length to be commenced, tenders having been issued for the foundations, &c Whether "its issue and progress will be as rapid as that of Parliament House, future generations will yet discover. - - '.-.•,;,. Melbourne just now is unusually full of amusements. A rather successful season of .Madame States' Italian Opera Troupe, assisted by members of Lyster's English Opera Troupe, is proceeding at the Princess's. The subscription nights occupy every alternate evening, while the off nights are devoted to English opera, at million prices. So great is the rush that . numbers had to be refused admittance when Offenbach's popular^ " Grand Duchess" was given. In the/^ favorite operetta, Miss Alice May assumes' the leading part with -tolerable success. At the. Royal, Miss Ernstone, a : young j actress of considerable merit, "brought ' down the house " nightly in a drama of Falconer's — "Snare"— and she is replaced, her engagement having' ended, by ' Mr James Cardin, who is described as a juvenile tragedian, who appeared on Saturday evening last in a dramatic version of Tennyson's " Enoch Arden." His acting so far is rather unequal, but it is rather premature to judge of his -real merit. An experiment has been tried by Mr Coppin, of reducing the prices of admission, beginning on Saturday night. With a quiet bit of sarcasm, he. gives a covert jibe at the lovers of the " legitimate drama" by announcing that, in consequence of the success of Boucicault and the Zavistowski trio of burlesque actresses, he is in a position to run the hazard.^ The dress circle has been lowered to 35.; and the two next divisions of the house proportionately, while the pit /and the classic heights of Olympus remain unaltered. It will remain to be seen whether this new scheme will fill the hiatus between the pit and upper circle. At St. GeorgeV Hall, Rickards draws immensely, having had a longer run : than was ever accomplished in this house before. '-■■■ Tkanks to a seemingly endless repertoire, custom cannot stale his infinite variety. He is very efficiently aidedby Miss Lizzie Watson, a young lady with any quantity of dash and i>er»e. Between the two I think " honors are easy." Any. way they have thoroughly acclimated the entertainment they appear, in. 'An evening gala, at which Mr Gale, a gentleman more remarkable for his failures than his successes in balloon ascents, was announced to ascerid in a new balloon, was a horrible fizzle. The balloon collapsed and so did the whole affair. On Saturday last Harris 'and Mahony met on the Melbourne Cricket Ground in a match for a trophy valued at LlOti.Mahony Won the first event, a hundred yards spin, by a little over a\ foot ; time, l^sec. As Harris has run the same distance before in nearly a second less, making, of course, some eight or ; ten yards difference, the "squareness" of the transact • tion is manifest. Curses both loud' and deep by the visitors present greeted this performance, and the result of the next event— 3oo yards— in no wise modified the expression of public opinion. M the end of the race Mahony died away, allowing his opponent to win as he liked. The final event was a quarter spiny and as Mahony runs well at this distance, it was fully expected he would win. This he did, and the time i»as very much better, being . accomplished in 53aec. Among other sports, the mile race, all . winners, was a grand affair," Hewitt, starting from scratch, winning in 4min. 30£ sec., the fastest time ever made in Victoria, with four yards to spare. Between -this latter ped< and Bedford; the "boy wonder," a match for L2OO is on the* topis. The distance is to be five ! miles, Bedford . receiving 300 yards grace: If r§» fairly it will be worth seeing, • v> ,\ The great sensational case,. Clarson and wife v. Blair, is at length terminated. As the evidence was presented from day to day, it was felt by the outside public that no other verdict than, the one since recorded could have been given with justice. A very strong counsel was engaged on both sides, and the members composing each bar have displayed great energy 'and tact. In the course of the defence, however, Mr Ireland, in speaking of the female plaintiff, indulged in sucfccheejrful amenities as these :— " Scraggy . old woman," " malignant 1 wretch',"'"old^harridau," and. other similar .pet-epithets. Dr Blair thus leaves the court with his character unstained, though,; to say the least of it, he has a queefc way of "ascertaining, whether a lady's atays»are too tight or otherwise. „ Despite the success that has attended gold -mining, "and the general prosperity that has attended mining speculations lately, there is a large falling off in the yields, for the last two months compared with the corresponding period^ in\Lß7o. Nearly _39,000pz more gold were exported in the two first months of last year than this, and this in the face of somel&fiCOoz more received from New Zealand for January arid February, '18!% than in 18^iv , : .. . .*.-.., iWM^i., Some rare grpund, literally, for dispute is stated by the Ballarat correspondent of the lArgus to :lie between the Band and Albion Consols and Winter's Freehold claims, Ballarat. It appears there is a

strip of road three chains wide and two miles long, dividing these two claims, and the Band and Albion claim the right to mine under it right up to the Winter's Freehold boundary. To this the latter claim demurs, asserting its right to half the road. As the rich gutter the Band and Albion have lately been working with suoh splendid results is supposed to run through the ground in dispute, the value of the prize may well be imagined. The weather still continues extremely hot and oppressive, and complaints of its duration are loud and many. No signs of a change, however, are yet manifested. Possibly Old Sol is favoring us with a parting blaze ere the cooler solstice approaches.