Burnham is a farming district, eighteen miles south-west from Christchurch. Its first settlers were Messrs W. P. Cross, John McIlroy, and Joseph Nichol, who arrived between 1866 and 1874. Burnham is devoted chiefly to sheep farming and crop growing, though the land is not so suitable for grain as that in the neighbouring district of Selwyn. At the railway station, which is near the centre of the district, there is a public telegraph and post office department, and there is daily mail communication with Christchurch. The public buildings consist of the Burnham Industrial School, a public school, with an average attendance of about fourteen, and a church. Burnham stands 197 feet above the level of the sea.

The Government Poultry Station, Burnham, was founded by the Department of Agriculture in 1899, and is one of the four Government poultry stations in New Zealand, the others being situated at Auckland, Wanganui, and Milton, Otago. The object of its establishment was to raise purebred fowls, and, by disposing of these at slightly over cost price, to relieve the farmers from the expense and accompanying risk of importation, and thus give encouragement to the industry upon proper lines. The farm comprises ten acres, and was formerly in the hands of the Education Department as a portion of the Burnham Industrial School estate. It is ring-fenced with wire-netting, and is subdivided into thirty-four pens, each provided with a breeding house and other necessary appointments. There is also a large shed upon the station for the accommodation of brooders, incubators, and food-milling machinery. The brooder department, containing both hot air and hot water brooders, is capable of accommodating 600 chickens, whilst the incubators, four in number, are made to hold 120 eggs each. The machinery employed in the preparation of food consists of a bone cutter, a grit mill, a grain crusher, a clover cutter and a vegetable or root cutter; and the foods in their crude state are obtained from Christchurch. All the common species of purebred fowls, together with many rarer kinds, are bred upon the station, which now has over 150 breeding birds and 450 young stock on hand. Since its establishment the farm has been well supported, eggs and stud fowls being sent to all parts of the colony. A manager and several assistants are permanently employed at the station and the Government expert, Mr Hyde, makes periodical visits.

Mr. William Sherman Macrae, who was appointed manager of the Government poultry station, at Burnham, in 1902, was born at Ashburton in July, 1881. He is a son of Mr. J. W. MacRae, the proprietor of Stronvar estate, in the Wairarapa district, Wellington, and was educated by a private tutor. Mr. MacRae afterwards assisted his father on the estate, and devoted a considerable amount of his leisure time to the study of poultry. In 1901 he went as a cadet to the Government poultry station, at Momahaki, near Wanganui, and in the following year accepted his present appointment.

Mr. William Peter Cross, Proprietor of “Burnham Grange,” is one of the earliest settlers in the district of Burnham. He arrived in Lyttelton, by the ship “Laucashire Witch,” in 1868, and spent the three page 779 following years in farming at Brookside. In 1871 he went to live at Burnham, where he had just previously bought property. Mr. Cross was married, in 1890, to Miss Margaret Johnston, formerly of Donegal, Ireland. He is a member of the Courtenay branch of the Canterbury Farmers' Union.

Standish and Preece, photo.
Mr. W. P. Cross.