Riverside is a farming district on the Dipton Flat, five miles to the south of Dipton. It is not far from Benmore, and lies towards the hills, on the other side of the valley through which flows the Oreti river. Dipton creek, a tributary of the river runs through the settlement, which is in the Winton riding of the county of Southland, and in the electorate of Wallace. Riverside has had a school since 1885, but there is no post office in the district, and Dipton is the post-al address of the settlers. The land is level, and specially suitable for pastoral purposes. A number of the settlers have large holdings, some of which run into 3,000 acres. The district extends from the western bank of the Oreti river to the Foothills.

The Riverside Public School was founded in 1885. The buildings, which are of wood and iron, stand on a section of an acre and a-half, and comprise a schoolroom, a four-roomed cottage for the teacher, and shelter-sheds. There is accommodation for forty-eight children. In 1904 there were thirty names on the roll, with an average attendance of twenty-four.

Miss Christina Mcallister , Headmistress of the Riverside Public School, was appointed to the position in 1904.

Finlayson, Alexander D. , Farmer, “Willowburn,” Riverside. Mr Finlayson's property is 400 acres in extent, and has been farmed by him since the death of his father, the late Mr N. Finlayson, in 1896.

Mr. Ninian Finlayson , sometime of “Willowburn,” Riverside, was a son of the late Mr Kenneth Finlayson, of Waikiwi, and was born in 1843. at Woolongong, New South Wales. He was brought up to farming at Waikiwi, and in 1877 removed to the Riverside district, where he took up 600 acres of land on deferred payment, in conjunction with two of his brothers. Subsequently, he took over 200 acres on his own account, and, later on, acquired a further area of 200 acres. The land was then chiefly in swamp, but Mr Finlayson lived to see the entire property in a good state of cultivation. Mr Finlayson served as a member of the Dipton Creek River Board, and on the Riverside school committee, and was also a member of the Presbyterian church committee at Dipton. He was married, in 1881, to a daughter of Mr Alexander Gillanders, of Ross-shire, Scotland, and at his death, on the 4th of September, 1896, left one son. Mrs Finlayson survives her husband, and resides with her son on the farm.

The Late Mr. N. Finlayson.