Lumsden , which has about 300 inhabitants, is situated on the Oreti river, 136 miles distant from Dunedin, and fifty miles from Invercargill. It is the junction for the Dunedin-Kingston and Invercargill and Mossburn lines of railway. In the early days, the place was known as The Elbow, although Elbow proper was some five miles distant, on the opposite bank of the Oreti. The Government, page 1009 finding the two names conflicting, gave the original Elbow the name of Holmsdale, and christened the present township Lumsden, in compliment to Mr George Lumsden, the well-known colonist and public man. The township has three hotels, two blacksmiths' shops, two general stores, two bakeries, a butcher's shop, a bootmaker's shop, and a tailor's shop. The Presbyterian denomination was the first to institute religious services, which were held regularly in the Public Hall, together with a Sunday school for all sects. Later on, the Church of England people provided regular monthly ministrations by a clergyman, with fortnightly services by a lay reader, and successfully established their own Sunday school. Lumsden now has Presbyterian and Anglican churches, and funds are being steadily collected for a Roman Catholic church. The Freemasons, Good Templars, and Oddfellows of the Manchester Unity have lodges in the township. The coach for the Te Anau and Manapouri districts starts from Lumsden twice weekly, from October to March, and once weekly during the other six months. The present mail contractor is Mr J. M. Crosbie, who is also Cook's agent and proprietor of the Railway Hotel. Every care is exercised by him for the comfort of tourists, though the state of the roads in bad weather is a drawback. Travellers, however, find every reasonable attention on their arrival at either end of the route. Lumsden is well provided with mail services, there being three from Invercargill, and one from Dunedin, daily. A great drawback to the township's progress, is that the site has been laid off on an education reserve, and sub-divided into alternate freehold and leasehold sections, so that one cannot acquire more than a quarter-acre of freehold without a leasehold intervening. Lumsden has a good public school with an average attendance of 130 children. The level country in the neighbourhood is bounded on the cast by the Hokonuis, and away in the distance, to the westward, may be seen the snow - capped Takatimos. The land is inferior to that lower down the course of the Oreti river, as there are more shingle deposits. Lumsden township has a railway station and post office combined, and, as the centre of a police sub-district, it has a resident constable, page 1010 who also acts as clerk of the Stipendiary Magistrate's Court, which meets once a month. There is also a Government stock agent at Lumsden, near which there are extensive pastoral properties. In the early days the old waggon road from Dunedin to the Lakes district passed through Lumsden. The settlement of Balfour is distant ten miles, to the south-east; the old Castle Rock station is three miles away; Longridge estate, six miles; Five Rivers station, eight miles; and Mossburn, the terminus of the Mararoa branch line of railway, is eleven miles distant. The district is partly in the Mararoa riding of the county of Wallace, but mostly in the Oreti riding of the county of Southland. At the census of 1901, the township's population in the former riding was sixty-two, and in the latter 136, with eleven extra in the vicinity. There are also settlers in that part of Lumsden, which is in the Southland county; namely, in the Lumsden extension township, 112; Lumsden south township, 139; Castle Hill, twenty-two; and Lintley Village, fifty-four. The district is partly in the electorate of Wallace, and partly in the electorate of Wakatipu.