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Southland Times, Issue 1788, 2 September 1873, Page 2

In referring once more to the matter of the crescent, we fail to see that ia the action of Mr Ltimsden he has any right whatever to congratulate himself upon having the public at bis back. "We should be disposed under ordinary circumstances, to endorse Mr Lv?. r sDEN's sentioaent that the action of the Council ia that of the town, provided no attempt had been made clandestinely to carry through the Council a matter of which the town had not been duly advised. We believe we are correct in asserting that the meeting in February at which the resolution respecting the crescent was passed by the Council, was not a full meeting, and that the attendance was further thinned by the departure of at least one member opposed to the project before Mr Ltjmsden brought it forward. Under these circumstances it need be no matter of surprise to him that the townspeople should resent his action, which places them in the position of resistance. Judging from the course of MrLuMSDEN with the Municipal Council, it is not by any means unfair to him to assume, that had it been equally easy for him to pass the matter as quietly through the Provincial Council and the subsequent stages, as to obtain the convenient resolution of the Municipal Council in a thinly-attended meeting, the public would not have heard of the matter at all, except by the medium of an advertisement offering the laud to public competition. The " incorrect map" which Mr Lumsden assumes to have been put into circulation, with the intention of misleading the public, has in all probability its existence only in his own imagination. The merits of his proposal have been so fully discussed, that any reference either to them or to the only correct plan to which he refers is now but waste of time. Whether the inhabitants are satisfied to have the project carried out or not, the fault remains of Mr Lvmsdek'b interpretation of his own will as the authority of the people, and a remonstrauce will undeceive him, and may possibly prevent a recurrence of his mistake.