Ida Valley is a fine agricultural district of some 60,000 acres in the county of Maniototo, and is divided by Rough Ridge from the Maniototo Plains. The valley, which includes Poolburn, is about twenty miles in length and from five to eight miles broad. Some of the best crops in Central Otago are produced in the district. The railway station, which was till August, 1904, the terminus of the Otago Central railway, is 106 miles north-west from Dunedin. Ida Valley has a school, a store, and a hotel.

The Ida Valley Public School was established in 1880. It is a wooden building, with one room and a porch, and has accommodation for forty-eight pupils; there are thirty-four scholars on the roll, and the average attendance is about thirty. There is a five-roomed residence for the teacher, and there are ten acres of land attached to the school premises.

Miss Julia Burke , Mistress of the Ida Valley Public School, was born and educated at Port Chalmers. After two years at the Normal Training College, Dunedin, Miss Burke was appointed to her present position at Ida Valley in 1896, after having been of the relieving staff for four months. Miss Burke holds a D3 certificate.

Miss J. Burke.

Mcbreen, William , Farmer, Ida Valley. Mr. McBreen was born in 1845 in County Tyrone, Ireland, and was brought up to agriculture. He arrived in Auckland in 1863, by the ship “Nimrod,” and two years later removed to Otago. In goldmining he was not very successful, though he had at Ophir, and on the West Coast, experiences which extended over eight years. Mr. McBreen settled in 1874, in Ida Valley, where his property consists of 400 acres of freehold, and a similar, area of leasehold land. He was married, in 1882, to the widow of the late Mr. G. Thompson, of Ida Valley, and has two sons and five daughters.