Springburn is eighty-two miles from Christchurch, and thirty south-west from Ashburton, and is the terminus of the Ashburton-Springburn branch railway. It has a daily mail service with Christchurch. The local post office has a postal note branch, but the nearest telegraph office is at Mount Somers, four miles away. Springburn is a sheepfarming district in the county of Ashburton. The school is about one mile from the railway station. Ashburton Gorge, about eight miles distant, supplies the district with coal and lime.

Campbell, Neil, Farmer, Roxburgh Farm, Springburn. Mr. Campbell was born in 1845, in the Island of Coll, Argyleshire, Scotland. In 1859 he came to New Zealand with his parents in the ship “Alpine,” which landed at Dunedin. Shortly after his arrival he entered the employment of Mr. Donald Reid, auctioneer, of Dunedin, for a short time, while his father was looking about for a suitable farm, very little land being open at the time for selection. When the rush to Gabriel's Gully took place he went there in quest of gold as one of a party of twelve, but was not very successful. After that he went to work on his father's farm at Moeraki, where he remained for eleven years, when he left the farm and started a general store and bakery at Hampden. Mr. Campbell carried on that business successfully for nineteen years and a half. Owing to ill-health he then sold his store and took a trip to Sydney and Melbourne, Auckland, and the baths at Rotorua. On returning from his tour he bought the Roxburgh Farm of 1,180 acres, which he uses principally for raising and fattening stock. The farm grows good crops of all kinds. While he was in North Otago Mr. Campbell was for many years a member of the Hampden Borough Council, the church committee, school committee, Hampden Cemetery Trustees, Moeraki Harbour Board, and of the North Otago Agricultural and Pastoral Association, at the shows of which he often acted in the capacity of judge. In 1878 he married Miss Herbert, who is a native of Currie, Scotland, and came to New Zealand with her parents. Five sons and three daughters have been born of the marriage.

Mr. N. Campbell.

Mathieson, John, Farmer, Tahuna Farm, Springburn. Mr. Mathieson was born in Strathconan, Ross-shire, Scotland, in 1842, and came to New Zealand in 1859, in the ship “Zealandia.” On arrival he entered the service of Sir Cracroft Wilson, with whom he stayed eighteen months. When gold was discovered in Otago he set out for Gabriel's Gully, but was not successful. He then settled for four years in the Mackenzie Country. When gold was discovered in Westland he went there in quest of fortune, but did not find it. Accordingly he again returned to Canterbury, and led a very restless life for a number of years, during which he was successively a shepherd, farmer, and station manager. In 1896 he purchased his present holding of 626 acres, part of the Buccleugh estate, and he grows first-rate turnips, rape, and other root crops, and raises and fattens lambs for the export trade. The improvements on Mr Mathieson's property include a good dwellinghouse, the necessary outbuildings, seven miles of wire fencing, sheepyards, and all the other conveniences required to work a good sheep farm. The grounds are tastefully laid out with carefully selected and systematically planted trees. Mr. Mathieson was married, in 1873, to Miss Daly, and has one son and three daughters. Mrs Mathieson is a native of County Clare, Ireland, and came to New Zealand in 1866 in the ship “Mermaid.”