Flag Swamp , in the county of Waikouaiti, is thirty-seven miles north from Dunedin, and about midway between Waikouaiti and Palmerston, on the main road. It has a large public school and a post office, and the Goodwood railway station is one mile distant. Flag Swamp is the centre of a good agricultural district, and sheepfarming and dairying are also extensively carried on.

The Flag Swamp School is a wooden building with two classrooms situated on the main north road, about half-way between Waikouaiti and Palmerston. The average attendance for 1903 was forty-five, and there were fifty names on the roll. Mr. James Nelson is the head master, and Miss Miscdonald is mistress. The school is under the cuntrol of the Otago Education Board, and was established about thirty-seven years ago.

Mr. James Nelson , Headmaster of the Flag Swamp School, was appointed to his present position in April, 1903. He was born at Lovell's Flat, in 1869, and educated at the Lovell's Flat and the Tokomairiro district high school, with a view to adopting teaching as a profession. His first appointment was at the Saddle Hill school, where he remained for five years; and he was then for four years at the Maerewhenua school, and two years at Hooper's Inlet, before accepting his present position in 1903. Mr. Nelson is a keen sportsman and takes an active interest in fishing and shooting, and was at one time a member of the Portobello Rifle Club, besides playing cricket and football. He was married, in 1898, to a daughter of Mr. John Hunter, an old colonist of Saddle Hill, and has three sons.

Wrigglesworth and Binns, photo.
Mr. J. Nelson.

The Goodwood Creamery (Taieri and Peninsula Milk Supply Company, Limited, proprietors). This creamery was built in 1899, and, during the first year of its existence, put through an average of 300 gallons of milk a day, which his since been increased to 1800 gallons a, day during the summer months. Alpha, de Laval machinery of the latest pattern, is installed, and the engines and boiler were built by Messrs Huston, Proctor, and Co., of Lincoln. England. The building is of wood, with a concrete floor, and there is a thorough system of cleanliness.

Mr. Rowland Jeffries , Manager of the Goodwood Creamery, was born in Somerset, England, in 1851, and came to New Zealand with his parents, by the ship “Nour-mahal” in 1858. After his education was completed at the North Taieri school and Dunedin High School, he remained with his parents at Silverstream. Taieri, for a time, and was afterwards apprenticed to Mr. W. A. Young, flourmiller, Palmerston. In 1870, Mr. Jeffries bought his present property, “Knoll Farm,” of 290 acres, and storked it with crossbred merino and Leicester sheep. During the last few years he has engaged chiefly in dairy farming, milking forty cows, and conveying the milk to the creamery of which he is manager. Mr. Jeffriee also does a considerable amount of cropping, and wheat and oats on his farm average about forty bushels to the acre. Mr. Jeffries has been a member of the Hawksbury Road Board, the Waikouaiti County Council, and of the Flag Swamp school committee, of which he is now (1904) chairman. He was married, in 1880, to a daughter of Mr. John Duncan, sometime of “Cherry Farm.” Waikouaiti, and has a family of seven sons and three daughters.

Sloan, George , Farmer, Roebank Farm, Flag Swamp. Mr. Sloan was born in Castle Douglas, Scotland, in 1830. He took to a seafaring life, at an early age, and for ten years was engaged on ships trading to America, India, China, and other countries. He arrived in Australia, in 1851, and took put in the Adelaide gold rush, and was mining in Victoria. After a visit to his home, he sailed for Canada, and took up land sixty miles north of Toronto, where he farmed for eight years. However, he found the climate too severe in the winter, and decided to come to New Zealand, where he landed in 1866. Shortly afterwards Mr. Sloan took up land near Goodwood, where he has since resided. He goes in for dairy farming, milking sixteen cows, mostly Shorthorns; a little cropping of oats is also carried on, and his land yields about forty bushels to the acre. Mr. Sloan recently disposed of about 150 acres of his land, and now holds 145 acres, which he finds sufficient to maintain his stock. In 1855, while on a visit to Scotland, he was married to a Miss Armstrong, but she died eight years later, leaving two sons and one daughter. One of the sons is a member of the Palmerston Borough Council.

Appleby, photo.
Mr. G. Sloan.