ITEMS OF VICTORIAN NEWS.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 234, 26 July 1865, Page 3

ITEMS OF VICTORIAN NEWS.

According to a decision of the Echuca bench, playing at cards in a public house is not unlawful. This view was impressed upon them by Mr Taylor, and apparently concurred in. The argument was that cards, in the abstract, were not unlawful, although there might be unlawful games played by their agency. The peculiar game in question, which was deemed fair, bore to us and Hoyle, the unknown title of " two forty-fives," and no donbt, being so exceedingly fair, is of a solemn and mysterious nature. A telegram received in Melbourne states that Thomas Manner, alias Yankee Tom, who is charged in the Police Gazette with the murder of Sweeney, has been arrested at Beechworth. He fired at Sergeant Bainbrick and Constable Ryan, of the Beechworth constabulary, whilst they were attempting his capture. The ' Inglewood Advertiser ' thus describes the " mediums" who arrived there last week from Sandhurst: —"Judging the medium as a class, from the specimen consigned to, and at, Inglewood, yesterday, it comprises all that is disreputable and blackguardly in the community. They arrived in crowds and appeared to include quite as many brokendown evil-doers as any community need desire to have in their midst. They carried the stamp of their character and habits in their faces and manners. To look at, they were almost, without exception, utterly depraved and indecent. They rode into the town with colors flying and without a particle of shame expressed in their faces. It would have been a degradation for any decent man to kick their bodies; and if they have any souls it is difficult to believe that they are worth caring about. Whether the Land Law is good or bad may perhaps be questioned; that it has brought to light a most loathsome institution in the shape of dummies and mediums cannot be doubted; and the only comfort we can derive from it is that the police may, from the publicity given to their own existence by these charlatans, have their labor of detection and punishment lessened." At Ingleweod the mediums found—no doubt to the great disgust of their employers—their occupation gone, the Government having withdrawn the same. The case of Bruce v. the Queen promises to occupy the courts for an indefinite period. It is said the trial will last at least a fortnight. On Wednesday the Attorney-General applied to the court for a trial at bar, that is, before three judges, without a jury. The object is to prevent endless litigation. The amount claimed is no less than £300,000, or more than one-tenth of the whole annual revenue of the colony. The judges have exhibited a disinclination to adopt this course, on the "round that it would interfere with the & # public interests,

The 1 Evening Star' says" We are glad to see that Mr J. Jones, whose serious illness we mentioned lately, has sufficiently recovered to enable him to visit town again."

The ' Southland Times' in its monthly summary after speaking favorably of mining pursuits in the Wakatip District, and the necessity of available carriage for copper ore, says: —"The completion of our system of railways would fulfil the special requirement, and there is no dou&t that the fact will be July considered by the General Assembly when dealing with the affairs of the Province." We reprint the following notice from that obscure organ the ' Advertising Sheet,' because it is of interest to some of our readers Tuturua Hundred, acreage, 37,760, including the greater part of runs Nos 66 and 67, is situated on the Mataura, abont twenty miles from its mouth ; is intersected by the great South Road ; and contains large patches of bush. Will be open for application on Thursday 17th day of August next." Dunedin Savings Bank. —Monday, 17th July, 1865:—New accounts opened, eight; amounts deposited, £246 12s; amounts withdrawn, £9114s Id.