Airay, John, Farmer, Orton. Mr. Airay is a native of Yorkshire, where he was born in 1845. He emigrated to Melbourne in 1863 by the s.s. “Great Britain,” and had, as a shipmate, Mr. Seddon, now Premier of New Zealand. Mr. Airay was engaged in mining for some time at Yackandandah, Victoria, and was at Tarrauringee when the notorious bushranger, Morgan, was shot. He came to Hokitika in 1866, and, having lost his all on the West Coast, he made his way to Canterbury, where he worked for a while at Leeston. In 1870 he removed to Orari, and two years afterwards purchased a farm at Orton, where he has 1752 acres of freehold land. In 1878 Mr. Airay visited the Old Country, and was at the Paris Exhibition, and again went Home in 1898. Mr. Airay has been a member of the Orton school committee for a number of years; he is postmaster for the district, and is also a member of the Temuka Road Board. He married Miss Hughes, a daughter of the late Mr. Thomas Hughes, of Brookside, and has five children.

Gilliatt, George, Farmer, Orton, Rangitata. Mr. Gilliatt is the eldest son of Mr. Joseph Robinson Gilliatt, of Seadown, one of the early colonists. He was born at Papanui, and lived with his father at Little River for seventeen years. When his father removed to the Stumps Farm at Orari, he accompanied him. He started farming on his own account in 1893, when he bought 700 acres of the estate of the late Mr. Angus McDonald. Since then Mr. Gilliatt has greatly improved his property, by cultivation, and through the erection of a fine residence He pursues a system of mixed farming, by growing crops and fattening lambs. Mr. Gilliatt is a member of the Orton school committee. He married Miss Borrie, daughter of Mr. James Borrie, one of the early settlers of Otago, and has a family of two daughters

Mr. William Kelland, sometime of Orton, Rangitata, was born in Devonshire, England, in 1842, and passed his early days on his father's farm. He came to New Zealand in 1862 by the ship “Mary Anne,” and first settled at Ashburton. In 1865, he took up 886 acres of Crown land on the banks of the Kakahu. His farm was known as the River Bend. He sold it in 1871 and bought a property near Amberley, and farmed it until he sold it five years later. Attracted by the success of the dairying industry in the Taranaki district, he bought a dairy farm at Eltham, where he resided for some years. Mr. Kelland then sold his land and went to Victoria, where he remained two years, and then returned to New Zealand to start sheepfarming on 1300 acres near the Cave, at White Rock river. In 1899 Mr. Kelland bought a farm at Orton, consisting of 329 acres, on which his widow and family now reside. He always took an active part in educational matters, and served as chairman on the Eltham and Cannington school committees. He died suddenly at his residence, in November, 1900, at the age of fifty-nine, leaving a widow, five sons and two daughters.

The late Mr. W. Kelland.