A GOLDEN WEDDING.

Evening Star, Issue 8118, 18 January 1890, Page 3 (Supplement)

A GOLDEN WEDDING.

An event of -more -than passing interest took plaoe in Invercargill last week in the shape of the celebration of the goldea wedding of Mr and Mrs George Lumsden, The respscted couple were married at Edin. burgh on the 3rd January, 1840, and therefore had, on the third of thismontL, lived in affectionate companionship for a period of fifty years. Mr Lumsden left his native' city, Edinburgh, for Australia, accompanied by his wife and family, in the ship Ravenscraig, in 1853. Landing at Melbourne after what would now be considered a very long passage, ho' matte • h'is way inland- to the' which weretnen 'characterised, by many wild, and ejcc.i'ting sc.erfe's.'. MrlLumsden was an eye-, witness or the Ballarat riots, and remained, in Victoria tfll early \n the sixties, whep ho decided to try his fortune in New Zealand, Jn 1861 he arrived with his family off the New River Heads in M'Meikan and Blackwood's s.s. Oscar. The trip ended disastrously for the steamer, as she was wrecked near the Heads, but fortunately no, Uvea were lost. Mr LuiKsden no time in making a start in his "busings— that pf a watchmaker—and first occupied as a shop a portion ft* the 'New?' office. In 1866 Mr Lumsden removed to Tay street, remaining there till 1872, when he went into the brick premises be now occupies in Dee street. A shrewd, energetic, and aup.ces.sful business man, Mr Lumsflen has yet foupd time tak,e an aotive interest in local and; oolontal polities. He.has sat at -various' times as a member of almost every local body in Invercargill; he has filled the office

of chief citizen of the town; he was for a long time a member of the old Provincial Council; was a member of the Provincial Government; and he has also represented Invercargill in the New Zealand Parliament. In public and private life Mr Lumsden has always been a man of strict integrity, and every office he has occupied has been filled with signal credit. He is a man of whom it may be said that he has done Mb duty to his family and to his adopted country. Mr Lumsden will be seventy-five years old in Maich next, and Mrs Lumsden is nearly a year older. They have eight children living (four sons and four daughters, all grown up) and twelve grand-children.—'Newß.'