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Southland Times, Issue 2143, 30 June 1875, Page 2

It soeins we are not, as we had ventured to hope, even for once thoroughly en rapport with our contemporary. We are not single-minded enough for his alliance. He has condemned the Town Hall Bill because it was a breach of faith, but we condemn it because it was Mr Lumsden's. Now, thie is a little hard. If Mr Lumsden's action haß turned even his fidus Achates, the New*, . against him, have we greatly erred in our estimate of his capacity for mischief? It is the wrong time, surely, to suggest an animus on our part when his own fast friend has been forced to censure him. Might it cot be a better explanation, that partiality has been blinding the eyes of our con temporary, and that he is only now opening them to Mr Lumsden'a true character. We may take the community to witness that the News is not criticising any exceptional aberration of the member for Invercargill. He b now in full consistency with himself, and most features of this recent vagary may be traced in his past dealing with the affairs of Southland. Mr Lumsden seems to grudge everything that Southland gets, and this is the cause of our quarrel with him. Is it too much to osk the resident member of the Executive to leave it to others to discover when any of our local institutions is suffering from a plethora of endowment ? He will find his hands full, if he sees to it that we get enough. We ask what zeal he has shown to bring up to a just level those institutions that are manifestly depressed by niggardliness at Dunedin. Take the Hospital for instance. When was Mr Luuisden's voice raised for that indispensable charity? It haß been getting leas than its share for years, as most men think, but it has } failed to excite Mr Lumsden's qassian i Id more m the waller, and more^e did \ with cnasd camcaeack&te energy/, d~ < thovigh without success, in the last session oF Council. Was Mr Wood over-zealous, or was Mr Lumsden supine? Questions like these bring the matter to a fair test, and take it out of the region of what we think, or what the News thinks, of Mr Lumsden. We notice that Mr Lumsden is again in print, but he has done little to mend his position. He tells us what haste he was in lest the public should get its own way in the matter of* the /UliGflsemn site. "When the proposal to give the Athenamrn the Post Office corner in addition to the other main corner of the block was first mooted, or at least made public, on the Gth March last, I immediately telegraphed to His Honor the Superinttndeit asking that the corner be set apartas a site for a Town Hall." What does ihis confession amount to ? — that while the General Government and the Athensum committee were, to Mr Lumsden's knowledge, contracting with each other on the faith of the wholereserve's being at the disposal of the fo-mer, Mr Lumsden waa secretly intriguing to have a portion of the reserve withheld and destined to a purpose of his own. He looked on, moreover, while the foundations of the Government building were laid, and its wall* were rising in terms of a compact which he had taken the first steps secntly to undermine. He had not the fairness to warn the Government that it was proceeding in error, and that a term which it had declared indispensable would not, if his design sucieeded, be fulfilled. What will the putlic, to which Mr Lumsden has just ] applied, think of all this P It will • think, if we mistake not, that twenty Tovn Halls would be dear at the price of such miserable treachery. But, i mark further. There is no pretence thit any human being wanted a Town Hill site except Mr Lumsdeu. Nay, tha public had asked for another thing altogether. This was enough for Mr j Liimsden. &ic volo, sic jubeo, and the wires are at once at work to transmit the decision of the dictator. We repeat ! the question— is Mr Lumsden to be servant, or master here ? Are the people themselves to determine what is good for them, or are they to be as children in the hands of Mr Lumsden ? It will be the most pusillanimous submission on our part if Mr Keid is Buffered to thrust upon us a member ' of the Executive who has shown himself on this, as on every other occasion, deaf to the expressed will of the com nunity.