Longburn Adventist College is an integrated co-educational Christian school for years 7 to 13. It is located just west of Palmerston North in the Manawatu District in the small dairy town of Longburn. From the 26 February 2009 the college had 291 pupils enrolled. New Zealand European make up the largest ethnic group (81%), followed by Māori (8%), Asian (6%) and Pacific (4%). The college was founded by the Seventh-day Adventist Church in 1908 and was originally sited at Pukekura, near Cambridge. The founder principal was Pastor Frank Chaney from Massachusetts. Not only was he the principal, but he was responsible for the design and construction of the original school, built largely with volunteer student labour. A decision was made to relocate the college to Longburn in 1913 to be closer to the centre of the country's population at that time. Initially the college at Longburn was known as the 'Oroua Missionary College'. In the early days of the college, the focus was on training young people for missionary service and most students worked, as well as studied, to pay their fees.