Alford Forest, in the county of Ashburton, lies eighty-six miles westward from Christchurch, from which there is railway communication as far as Springburn, within five miles of Alford Forest, between which and Springburn there plies a daily mail coach. The sawmilling industry flourishes in the neighbourhood, which has a population of about 300 persons. The district has coal, lime and hematite formations, and there is probably an active industrial future in store for it. There is a local post office, with a postal note branch, but the nearest telegraph office is at Methven, distant eight miles.

Alford Forest Sawmills (Henry Havelock Sharplin and Hugh Boyd, proprietors), Alford Forest. Established in 1890. Messrs Sharplin and Boyd have about 1600 acres of forest in connection with their mills. They employ about fifty-six men when the season is on, but only fifteen when times are slack. About twenty-three horses are employed and fifty-four bullocks. There is a full sawmilling plant, with an engine of twenty-three page 848 horse power. The firm has cut up 20,000 sleepers and thousands of feet of planking for the Government.

Mr. Henry Havelock Sharplin, the Senior Partner, was born in Sunderland, England, and came out to New Zealand with his parents in 1858. His parents settled in Kaiapoi, and at Rangiora. Mr. Sharplin was brought up to the timber trade, and was at Oxford for some years. He has been all his life in the milling business, and in 1890 went into partnership with Mr. Boyd. The firm has been most successful with its mill, and has enough timber to keep it going for another twenty years. Mr. Sharplin is also interested in lime works at Alford Forest. He is a member of the Ashburton Lodge of Freemasons, and has been an Oddfellow since he was eighteen. He has always taken a great interest in athletics. Mr. Sharplin married Miss Gundry, daughter of the late Mr. Edward Gundry, a very old settler of Oxford, and has nine sons and two daughters.