VICTORIA.

Lyttelton Times, Volume VII, Issue 451, 28 February 1857, Page 5

VICTORIA.

From Melbourne we -have" .dates; by way of Sydney to Jan. 29.; Mr. Kaye, tlie member of the Legislative Council who had been accused of smuggling, gave, an explanation of: the circumstances from his place in the 'House.-: The Captain of the vessel,: his friend, had sent the dutiable articles on shore as a present to Mr. Kaye,and had inadvertently done it in such a manner as to offend, against the Customs laws. There was no.- concealment practised, and Mr. kaye himself was absent from home: afrthe time. ■Lac charge had excited a great sensation, but the explanation given seemed quite "satisfactory. In the Assembly, on the 28th instant, Captain Uarke's resolutions relative to the management o( the Crown.lands were again introduced. : The amendment proposed by Mr. Home, pledging the House-not to assent to any bill providing ioi" the issue of leases to pastoral tenants, was earned; After several amendments had been ottered and debated, the last of the resolutions, as originally proposed by Captain Clarke, was earned as follows :—that, it shall be lawful to aermse Crown lands to the present authorised °^ cupants for runs for pastoral purposes-at an aoreable rent, so as to produce an average'of two-pence" for; each :acre available for'such PWpoges, the rent of each run being assessed at

rate of £25 for every 1,000 sheep, or their equi- , valent m other stock, which it is. capable of depasturing, subject to increase' or decrease' in consideration of special advantages or disadvantages of situation. Place Hunting.—As a proof- that placehunting holds a position in the list of sports, recognised in Victoria, we may, mention that no.fewer than 750 applications have been sent to the Government for. the appointment of-Emigra-tion Agent in England under the new regulations.—Melbourne Herald. • I The mail per Oneida, from Melbourne for England, consisted of fifteen boxes, containing 25,000 letters, of which 1,720 were registered; 71 boxes, 34,000 newspapers : making a total of 87 packages from Melbourne for the United' Kingdom. Twenty-four mails were made up for India, China, and other ports, containing 179 letters, and 440 newspapers. The gross total was 111 packages, containing - 26,379 letters, and 34,400 newspapers. In addition tothe above, there were twenty-four' mails from other colonies trans-shipped for despatch by this means. The, totals of ship mails despatched • during the 26th and 27th have been thirty-five, comprising 158 packages of direct and forwardmails, containing 29,300 letters, of which 1,840' were registered, and 36,700 newspapers. ; During the same period there were received , fifteen direct, and six endorsed ship mails, con--3,550 letters, 3,680 newspapers, besides fortyone mails for trans-shipment for other colonies. — Argus, Jan. 29. The Geelong correspondent of the ' Argus,' under date of Jan. 28, writes :-—The weather has continued excessively dry and warm during the past fortnight. Bush fires are now to be seen almost daily, and the glare of some of these is in nearly every point of the compass at ' night. On Monday last, a, fierce fire of this description raged to the westward of Station Peak Range, burning up about twenty thousand acres of pasture. In relation to the late great cricket match, it appears that the Victorians are determined not to rest satisfied under their defeat- The ' Age' of the 21st instant says —" We learn it is the intention of the Victorian Cricketers to challenge those of New South Wales, for the purpose of enabling the former, if possible, to retrieve the credit they have lost at Sydney..^ A committee will shortly formed, and a public-meeting held to agitate the matter. It is proposed that the match shall be played about the end of. March. The same paper says—" Captain T. F. Liddle having completed his arrangements for another attempt to develop his discovery of a valuable codbank in Bass's Straits, and the introduction of a ; valuable; branch of local commerce,, proposes this ;day to leaveour shore on his commendable but perijlous enterprise. By thejiberality of several of our he has been, enabled to fit the fishing ;sniack {' Ebene'zer "with every necessary appliance, 'including a well of ample, dimensions,, and'the only trawl net in the colony. He confidently expects to ibe able to return in a'fortnight or less, with some : thousands "of/.co'd-'fish, and to "supply our markets Wvith' a new and'valuable commodity.- Ultimately he intends to establish in-the Bay a store ship for .live cod, so.as to keep the market well supplied, and to; obviate the difficulties which: the occurrence of bad: weather would necessarily throw-in, the way." ! Smuggling Extraordinary.—A very disgraceful case of'alleged smuggling has given rise to some discussion during the last two days. It is. stated that oiv Monday last, a member of the Legislative .Council who cannot plead povertyin the exenuation of his offence;• assisted by ' the master of a large vessel, now lying in Hobson's Bay', attempted to run some" brandy ashore, "duty free," but their motions were observed by a member of the Gov'ern;tnent who was bathing at the time, and who very .properly caused steps to be taken to prevent a successful, issue to the speculation.: It appears to be doubtful whether the offence can be brought home totheship; but it is the duty of the Government, considering the position of the offending parties; to. have the matter thoroughly investigated, and the public efficiently protected from this kind of robbery.^ — Argus; January 22. " ■< The Late Cricket Match. —In reference-to this match, the 'Argus ' of the 21st instant has the following remarks :—_'-We are enabled to inform our leaders that raanyinfluential men in Melbourne, on hearing the result of , the above -matchy have agreed.upon uniting together, and calling a public meeting to appoint a committee arid arrange for a grand match to be played on the Melbourne ground about the end of March, between New.South-Wales and Victoria. It is well known that the.late.committee have been very careless in the selection of the eleven, as many good players at the diggings have been lost sight of. We were too'sanguine, and it is hoped a lesson has been taught us that we may profit by^having been beaten two years successively.

Though the match has been ' fairly won by NewSouth Wales and lost by Victoria, it is very certain that we did not send our best eleven, as Wray, Kington, Phillpott, Mones, Coleman, Barter, and others would have been far superior to four or five who played in the late match. .While the Sydney gentlemen have been zealous in preparing for the contest, our players have neglected to practice as they ought to have done, having too much confidence in their own abilities. Several of the Victoria eleven have returned, but on the arrival of next steamer we hope to give particulars of the forthcoming event. It is intended that ,the return match shall be played in Sydney next season.'.?; Not at Home. —The Creswick correspondent of the ' Ballaarat Times' writes :—About nine months since, a digger residing in Spring Gully was suddenly seized with a desire to go home and see his relatives. He accordingly closed up his' tent and started for England. He arrived there, remained some weeks, and again sailed for Victoria. After an absence of forty weeks, he found his tent still -closed up, the chairs,'table with glasses .'on it, and 'Other-furniture untouched; and this near a road where there is a'cbnstant traffic, and digging constantly in operation around. I can vouch for the accuracy of the above singular story. Advice to Newspaper Correspondents.— Write on both sides of your paper,-because when cut up for setting it as as good as a Chinese puzzle to put it together'again, and is ",nuts" for the ennuied printers who get it, enabling' them' to while away a tedious half hour in ferreting oiit.the "run" of the thing.. If you could write across.-your letter you would save some inches of paper, which will be .well worth: while—not for the value-of the article, but as involving a principle! and then it would be interesting to hear the playful observations of the compositors thereupon. Score the italics and capitals, and sprinkle in stars, blanks, and dashes, and notes of admiration at judicious intervals —they are the light and shade of literary composition.- Printers are ignorant men,' and:wont take thd least notice of these marks ; but never mind, you always make them, on principle. Sometimes a ' compositor willcbnect your little inaccuracies of grammar, which you have purposely introduced, perhaps, to give a sort of J. W. M. Turner freedom and originality to your sketches. iThisisvery tiresome, but you must bear with it. With respect to punctuation;—as a sound general rule you can put a comma after every six words, and a period at the end of twelve ; semicolons are [Seldom, used now, .and colons-are not colonial. Lastly, never dot your i's;. every dot is a black spot on your fair creations of sentences. Never dot youri's, we repeat, if you wish to be considered a.writer of spotless reputation Melbourne 'Punch.