Saltwater Creek is a settlement on the main road, about a mile to the south of Timaru. It has a hotel, a blacksmith's shop, and a tannery, but no school or church, the wants of the settlers in that respect being supplied by the borough, which is within easy walking distance. Saltwater Creek is in the Otipua riding of the Levels county.

Sportsman's Arms Hotel (John Henry Gardner, proprietor), Saltwater Creek, Timaru. This hotel was established in the early seventies. It is a two-storey brick building, and contains eighteen rooms, including nine bedrooms, three sitting-rooms, and a dining room which will seat twenty guests There are convenient stables, containing four stalls and two loose boxes. Adjoining the hotel there are ninety-three acres of land, seventy-three of which are freehold.

Mr. John Henry Gardner, Proprietor of the Sportsman's Arms, was born in Timaru in 1870. The Sportsman's Arms was owned by Mr. H. Gardner, senior, for about sixteen years, and was acquired by the present proprietor, in 1896. Mr. Gardner was married, in 1897, to a daughter of Mr. A. Kennedy, of Cricklewood, and has two sons and one daughter.

Creek Tannery (G. H. Lindstrom and Co., proprietors), South Road, Saltwater Creek. This tannery was worked for some years by Mr. Moss Jonas, until Mr. Lindstrom took over the business in 1900, in conjunction with a partner whose interest he acquired in April, 1902. There are several large buildings devoted to the various departments of the trade, and thirty-five tan pits are worked with wattle and oak bark. Two acres of leasehold and two acres of freehold are attached. The firm makes a specialty of producing saddler's leather, for which it has realised the highest prices, and proved the old motto, that “good leather sells itself.”

Mr. Gustaf H. Lindstrom, the proprietor of the Creek Tannery, was born in 1871, in Sweden. He served his apprenticeship in his native land, and gained experience of his trade in various parts of the world. After three years in Melbourne he came to Christchurch in 1895, and found employment at Messrs Bowron's tannery, and elsewhere. With his partner, Mr. Lindstrom bought the Creek Tannery from the Bank of New Zealand in 1900. The establishment had been closed for some years, and has since been put into thorough working order. Mr. Lindstrom was married, in 1896, to a daughter of the late Mr. McGarva of Christchurch, and has three sons and one daughter.