Balfour, New Zealand

Balfour is a village in the New Zealand region Southland. At the census in 1996 and 2001 they had each 135 inhabitants.

The naming of the town followed a variant of any one living here employees of the Company Waimea, after another after James Mulville Balfour, a company operating in the 1860s in the area surveyor of Otago Province and Marine Engineering from the government.

Location

Balfour is located between the Hokonui Hills and the Mataura River in the Waimea Plains, about 15 kilometers southeast of Lumsden.

Transport links

Balfour is located on SH94, the main road between Gore and important for tourism Milford Sound.

In 1880 the railroad in the Waimea Plains Railway was opened, connecting Gore to the Main South Line with Lumsden at Kingston Branch and Balfour crossed. The railway line was for many years an economically important link. The original Kingston Flyer, who gave the name to the present-day tourist train of the same name, happened between the 1860s and Easter 1957 Balfour.

Due to the improvement of road connections and changes of legal requirements, most of the line was shut down in 1971 for economic reasons. Balfour was now only endpoint a short branch line to Lumsden. Hope to get this route maintained by transport of wheat of the surrounding farms, was not fulfilled, and it was closed on 15 January 1978. The platform in Balfour is now part of a children's playground.

Economy

The region is dominated by agriculture, especially cattle, sheep and grain farming and grazing by deer in the foreground. There used to be a dairy in the village. In recent years, the dairy industry gained new importance.

There is also a lime plant opened in 1910.

Education

Balfour has a school with 52 students in 2013.

Sports

Balfour is the host of a rugby sevens tournament, participate in the teams from Southland and Otago annually. The Mataura River is fished on rainbow trout.