MELBOURNE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 58, 22 January 1862, Page 2

MELBOURNE.

(From our men Correspondent.) January 13, 18G2. The arrival of the mail on Saturday has given rise to most unusual speculations. The rumour of n serious misunderstanding with the Northern States of America was speedily followed by another of a graver character —that war had actually been declared. Every one was iima/cd, and, ofcour.se, nobody had anything else to talk about, but everyone pretended to find somereason for declaring the thing impossible. The rumour vra;, however, too important to be easily glossed over, and enquiries were isi-titLftu;! amongst the officers and'passengers of tha Benares, and the information thus obtained leads to tin; belief that war was not actually declared, but that it was highly probable, sis England had received some insult which she could not well overlook. It would be unwise to excite any' alarm, but if any contingency of that sort, should arise Australia, and perhaps iVow 'Zealand, might find an unwelcome visit from a California!! privntcer; as^ the news would reach San Francisco in 12 days from England—the Salt Lake telegraph being completed. One thing is certain, we shall "look anxiously for the next mail.

Talking- of war, reminds mo of the fact, that at present we haw in our bay a rather unusual visitor —a Russian frigate, the Sweetlana. The captain has kiiufiy thrown her open to inspection, and a great crowd of visitorspatronised this latest novelty on Saturday last. She is lying- close to the Pelorus, which she somewhat resembles, but the comparison is in favour of our man-of-war. The captain, accompanied by the Russian Cousul, has paid a visit to our gold fields —a visit, winch a few years ago, .would have been of a very different character. He selected Uailaarat, and was shown over some of the deep claims, iintl expressed himself as highly pleased, but astonished at the amount, of labour incurred in the pursuit of sold on Ballani'iit. He also visited the gaol, and wondered there wen; so few prisoners in it, remarking we must be a very orderly people compared to his country. Dr. Evans was returned unopposed at Maryborough. It was generally understood that Virtue would stand, and an advertisement to that effect appeared in the local journal. Mr. Virtue also communicated with the liberal party in town, and expressed himself as confident ot successfully opposing the doctor, if he was assisted to a certain extent in monetary matters. The required assistance did not appear to have been forthcoming, and, perhaps, a-"retainer" from the other side might, also, have assisted at the nomination ; at all events the doctor walked the course, and grandiloquently talked to the free and independent of the high honour they had done him. He scouted the idea that anvlhinir like perpetuity of tenure should be given to the squatters; and denied' that Duily'sbill gave anything of the sort. He also informed his audience that he might have joined the ministry on an earlier day, but he would not do^o till they "consented to reduce the gold export duty, which, he said, the}' had agreed to do, —sixpence on first July, and another sixpence on first January next. He considered it highly discreditable that any'publie man should be guilty of hinting at repudiation ; and, singular enough, the mail has just brought us another instance that the Melbourne correspondent of the London Timm lias been guilty of something more than hinting, as this time the 'mean skunk' lias gone the length of saying it was not improbable. It is one consolation to know, that notwithstanding those vile insinuations, our debentures had again risen in the. London market. Not only l)r Evans, but the Ministry and their friends, are striving very anxiously to affirm, that the laud bill of tS.e present Government only aims at giving the s jiuiUut-.s annual licens.33. A careful perusal of the bill, however, has disclosed tlie fact that the licenses are renewable, and that the Government shall hold quarterly saljs by auction at an upset price of £1, and whau there shall be no sale, the Governor in Council shall have power to roduca the upset till the land is sold. The effect of this clause would be that in a very short tim-3 the squatters would beprfn to purchase the fee simple of their runs at a few shillings an acre. However, the House meets to-morrow, and we shall shortly bs in the heat of a debate on the merits and demerits of the Duii'y Land Bill.

It is runioiod that Mr vxillespie intends resigning his seat for Noiih (rreuville, and a vliole host of candidates have come forward an:! expressed their willingness to contest the seat vhen it becomes vacant.

An attempt !■; being made to get up a National Reform Assoeiatioii, something similar to the old'" Convention,'' and with similar objects. The micleus comprises the ;:ames of some of our most prominent liberals, an 1 will be iuHMimrated in a few days. There is not. much political life just now, however, anrl it is more than probnble it will be a very lukewarm affair; but if lightly managed it may sjrve to arouse the people to the iiup.irin.ijr-e of the present crisis, and be a, support to the ii!>u\ii j.arty in the House. The last tlirje d:iy.s of last week woiv. allotted to the annual contest hot ween- New S-mth Wales and this n>lony for supai-iority in the game of cricket. It has hitiierw excited a jrreat deal of interest, and as many

as siven thousna1! hava witnessed the annual trial of skill between tiie p!s;r.er colonies. This time however, we had just j.;ot about enough for a fortnight at least in tb -i greil m voh, and lint a vevy limited attendance graced the cjionial watch. The Sydney men came with high hopes, intending of course to beat us, and retrieve sonij or the ijuirels they have looiin the past. They were however (b mied to greater vljsaijpoiiitment thai ever, and narrowly escaped being beaten in one i nings.3 Whether it w,i thit'Sytliiey has degenerated, or that our play jrs Iril lu'.i'ned a trick or two from their English opponents report sayeth not, but the Sydnoy man were no-where. Our team won the to.-s and went in iivsS to the wickets, and aiter a splendid innings male IS2. The Sydney men then essayed then' prowess, but were Kpojdily put out for 76, and had t) goiu ivrain t > 'save t'.i;ir bacon' and the disgrace of being shamefully b-jaiwi. Atthoclosi of Friday, five v.-ii;l;.ets wuro d iw.i fur 52 runs, and things were looking lia.l enou ;h, Iji;t on Saturday three of their best players mr.iawl to i'lerease tirjir score, so that when the last wicket fell, they had, together with their first inni-igs. made ISS, ieavin,' Victoria only four to wiii. T-ji-i thay xpeedily did without the loss of a single wicket: ami so ended the fourth intercolonial mai'jh in which ths Victorians have bean victorious.

The AH Enytand liavu had it nil triui.i- own way at Beeoliworfch. On the first day, the Ueeohworth men put All England out rather more freely than our Metropolitan cr».:ks did, ;i:id this made them so vainglorious, that they buunoiugly said in their local journals that the Rupe>ior play of the Eleven did not so very much astonish t'lom niter all. And certainly the score of the eleven (U.6i) was scarcely equal to what t.'iay obtained o!f our in.;n. It was jocularly said by some, they did not want to shame the Ovens men altogether, nn.l hence they played carelessly—conipavativuly. The Bocchworth men then went in, confident and jabilnnt "with high hopes of eclipsing Melbourne, if they could not beat the eleven." A few minutes scatter jd their boastings, and one by one their wickets fill, until fourteen had most iugloriously retreated with a round 0, and the entire twenty-two were put (nit in about an hour, with only twenty runs ! ! Tills " took the shine out of them," and in their .second inuinja they " put their best foot foremost and mmagol to wt seventy-six. To show them, they had underrate 1 their visitors, one of the eleven, Uriinbhs, challenged single-handed to play any eleven Ovens cricketer* that; eoiild lie selected, Preliminaries were speedily :irran;cd. a.id the eleven ofßeechworth went to the wickets,' nnd as speedily went '|bock again," without obtaining- a single run, Griffiths scoring enough by one hit, to secure what to him appeared an easy victory. The next great match here wi:l be the Vi-.'tx'ian and Sydney teams versus the All England Eleven. It is a very c.iainiou thingforthe Melbourne journals to complain of the wav in which the London papers spoakof this cjl my as being " Port Phillip, in Western Australia," "or "iUolbourue, in New South .Wales," but a very gross blun !.::• 'ias beon committed, by the Melbourne/ Examiner, (an off-shoot of the Argus,) in reference to New Zealand geography. That paper siys " The port of Otrujo is acquiring a very unenviable reputation. Several fine vessels have been wrecked in its neighbourhood, and to a previously long list has now to be added the beautiful Steamer Oscar, which was considered one of the best boats engaged in the Australian trade. How they could make ilia blunder of confounding Invercargill with' your safe aa.jh jr.iiJ, I a-n at a loss to know, unless the paragraph had bean written during the festive week, and tiie writer had just returned from a champagne dinner. The returns ot' ths llevemu of Victoria, have been published, an I show a considerable increase over last year. There is, however, a falling off in the Customs' Ravenna, a fa-jo which proves we are either consuming less or manufacturing on the sly, a great deal of what ought to pay duty. ' An instance of this kind of "native industry " recently came to light, in a most singular place.' Near the village of Melton, was an ordinary chimney, which on ordinary occasions, showed evidence of an ordinary fire. Near the hut was a haystack, and in the haystack ''from information received" the revenue officers discovered a still in full operation. Tiie smoke haJ been conveyed underground to the aforesaid chimney, and thp water brought by pipes fWim lite neighbouring creek, a similar-pips conveying the waste to the creek. It had been in operation for years, and was only discovered by one of the parties concerned " splitting." In commercial art'airs there is very little to note. Hour is steady with prospect of advance ; present quotations hcfn<? £10 to £U. Suaar is firm, several houses holding for 'higher rates. Oats have slightly advanced, owing to large transactions and eonsi derjible shipments to your port. Brandies are n little easier. The English news will have the effect of slightly disturbing' the markets, but it will bo n few days before it is known to what extent. The weekly escort brought down only 21,591 ozs., being only about half of our usual weekly yield, and the deficit is ascribed to the holidays. The cowesponding escort last year, however, was 32,387. Our gold Fields, however, continue to yield a very satisfactory return, and occasionally we hear of some li=>avy finds on our own leads. The Laciilau i.-,on the decline, and although one or two shaits are doing well, the great depth and the patchy nature of the ground have deterred any more adventurers from seeking their fortune in that locality.