Harrington And Fernhills . The district lying between Centre Bush and Dipton is generally known as Fernhills, but Harrington is the name of the postal district and of the railway siding. The station, which is on the Invercargill-Kingston line of railway, is ten miles from Winton, and twenty-nine miles from Invercargill, and stands at an elevation of 283 feet above sea level. At the census of 1901, the immediate neighbourhood of the siding had a population of eighteen, the township of Fernhills seventy, and the district thirty-five. The settlements of Fernhills and Harrington are in the Winton riding of the county of Southland, and in the electorate of Wallace. They are purely agricultural districts, and all the available bush has been cut out. A part of the district known as Fernhill village settlement is occupied by small settlers. The district is on the eastern bank of the Oreti river, and is watered also by the Winton stream. It has a public school, and there is a Presbyterian church, where services are conducted by the minister who resides at Dipton.

Benmore Hotel (William Milne, proprietor), Harrington. This hotel, which stands on a section of ten acres on the main road, six miles from Dip-ton, and twelve miles from Winton, is a wooden building containing ten rooms. There is a good stable with four stalls and a loose box. A blacksmith's shop on the premises is owned by the proprietor, who also holds a small farm of ninety acres adjoining.

Mr. William Milne , the Proprietor, was born at Lovell's Flat in 1866, and was brought up to sheep-farming on his father's property, in the Wyndham district. He was shepherding for some years, but left that employment to take up a hotel at Mossburn. Mr Milne afterwards removed to Lumsden, where he held the Elbow Hotel for a year before acquiring the Benmore Hotel and property. He was a member of the Mossburn and Fernhill school committees, and is attached to Alma Lodge, Independent Order of Oddfellows, American Constitution, Wyndham. Mr Milne was married, in page 1005 1896, to a daughter of Mr P. Keady, farmer, West Plains, and has one son and three daughters.

Gerstenkorn, photo.
Mr. W. Milne.

Ferguson, John , Farmer, Harrington. Mr Ferguson was born in 1852, at Balson, Lanarkshire, Scotland, and worked as a miner for some years before coming to the Bluff in 1877, by the ship “Pomona.” He worked as a farm labourer for about five years, and in 1882 bought a small section of twenty acres at Fernhill. This he sold some time afterwards, and took up “Clover Park,” a farm of 106 acres in the same district. Finding this too small, Mr Ferguson sold out and bought his present farm of 316 acres in the Harrington district, which he works successfully. He has been a member of Fernhill school committee for twelve years, and about 1878 he was a member of one of the Invercargill volunteer corps. Mr Ferguson was married, in 1876, to a daughter of the late Mr W. Wilkie, of Lanarkshire, Scotland, and has a family of four sons and four daughters.

Payne, Samuel , Farmer, Harrington. Mr Payne was born at West Bromwich, Staffordshire, England, in 1846, and was brought up to sawing. He came to Port Chalmers in 1873, and soon after his arrival in the colony started sawing at Seaward Downs, and has followed the same line of work ever since. In 1882, he bought a small farm in the Fernhill Village Settlement. The property was then in bush, but it has since been brought under cultivation, and a comfortable house and all the necessary outbuildings have been erected. Mr Payne is agent, at Centre Bush, for the Winton Rabbiters' Co-operative Association, Limited. He was married, in 1867, to a daughter of Mr Thomas Love, mechanical engineer, and has a family of five sons and three daughters.