Otara is a settlement which is within about two miles and a-half of the scene of the wreck of the s.s. “Tararua,” part of which is still (1904) seen at low tide, though the wreck happened on the 29th of April, 1881. People began to settle in the district two years after the date of the wreck, in connection with which 130 lives were lost. Otara is eight miles from Fortrose, six miles from the Haldane settlement, and fourteen miles from Waikawa. There has been a post office in the district since 1883, and mails are carried by a mailman on horseback each Wednesday, and by a butcher's cart on Saturdays. The local school was opened in 1887, and is now (1904) attended by twenty children. Anglican and Presbyterian church services are held in the schoolhouse on alternate Sundays. A cheese factory, which was established by the settlers, was carried on for some time, but ultimately sold, and was still in operation in 1904. The land is undulating in character, excellent in quality, and well suited to agriculture and dairy farming. At the census of 1901 the population was 135. The district is in the Titiroa riding of the county of Southland, and in the electorate of Mataura. Magnificent views of land and sea are obtainable from many points, as the traveller journeys to and from the settlement.

The Otara Cheese Factory was established about the year 1889, and was for some years worked on the co-operative principle. The factory is a large wood and iron building, occupying a site of four acres. The curing room has storage capacity for twenty tons of cheese, and the cheese vat will contain 500 gallons of milk. In the season of 1904 there were nine suppliers, and from 330 to 400 gallons of milk were treated daily. The machinery is driven by a stationary engine and boiler of six horse-power.

Mr. Thomas Alexander Swale , Manager of the Otara Cheese Factory, was born in 1883 at Winton. He was educated at Woodlands, where he worked at the dairy factory for two seasons and a-half. Afterwards he was employed at the Edendale Factory; and, having qualified as a cheese-making expert, became manager of the Dipton Factory in February, 1903, and took up his present position in October of the same year.

Jennings, George , Farmer, Otara. Mr Jennings was born in 1847 in Cork, Ireland, where he was brought up to farming. In 1875 he arrived at the bluff by the ship “Pomona,” and two years later took up 200 acres of land on the deferred payment system at Otara. He has since increased his holding to over 800 acres of freehold, the whole of which he has greatly improved. Mr Jennings devotes himself chiefly to the raising of crossbred stock. He has been a director of the Otara Co-operative Cheese Factory, and is a member of the Otara school committee. He was married, in 1875, to a daughter of Mr John Grey, of County Leitrim, Ireland, and has four sons and two daughters.