"Until 1861 the province of Southland was part of Otago. The original boundaries of the Otago Provinceas proclaimed in 1853 and which included Southlandwere formed by the coastline to the west (Tasman Sea), to the south (Foveaux Strait) and to the east, whilst the northern boundary was a somewhat unclear line along the Waitaki River from the ocean to its source and along a right line to the source of the Awarua River, then down the course of the Awarua River to the sea. This vague northern boundary could alter with the course of the river and resulted in disputes between authorities in Otago and Canterbury which were not resolved for many years until accurate surveying was performed. Therefore if you are having difficulties locating some early Otago records, checks should be made of repositories in the neighbouring provinces of Southland and South Canterbury. For the purpose of this publication we have set the boundaries from Oamaru in the north to Balclutha in the South and inland across to Wanaka in the West. We have included mention of records for Queenstown although acknowledge that many of Queenstowns records (for example school records) are housed in Invercargill"--Introduction.Centra