Branxholme is in the Wallace-town riding of the county of Southland, and in the electoral district of Awarua. It is a farming district containing good agricultural and pastoral land. The flag station is on the Invercargill-Orepuki branch line of railway, nine miles distant from Invercargill, and stands at an altitude of fifty-five feet above the level of the sea. Branxholme lies to the eastward of the Oreti river. At one time the whole countryside was covered with bush, much of which, however, has disappeared with the progress of settlement.

Gray, Roderick , Farmer, “Mains of Kilcoy,” near Branxholme railway station. Mr. Gray is the third son of the late Mr. W. Gray, of the parish of Killearnin, Ross-shire, Scotland, where he was born in 1838, and was educated at the parish school, Killearnin. He was afterwards employed on various public works in Scotland, and came to Otago, in 1868, by the ship “E. P. Bouverie,” and found employment with Captain John W. Raymond, then of Avondale station, with whom he remained for some years. Mr. Gray then purchased 100 acres of land and commenced farming, afterwards purchasing more land, so that now his property consists of about 500 acres of good arable soil, where he carries on a system of mixed farming.