Here my array_chunk_values( ) with values distributed by lines (columns are balanced as much as possible) :

<?php
    function array_chunk_vertical($data, $columns) {
        $n = count($data) ;
        $per_column = floor($n / $columns) ;
        $rest = $n % $columns ;

        // The map
        $per_columns = array( ) ;
        for ( $i = 0 ; $i < $columns ; $i++ ) {
            $per_columns[$i] = $per_column + ($i < $rest ? 1 : 0) ;
        }

        $tabular = array( ) ;
        foreach ( $per_columns as $rows ) {
            for ( $i = 0 ; $i < $rows ; $i++ ) {
                $tabular[$i][ ] = array_shift($data) ;
            }
        }

        return $tabular ;
    }

    header('Content-Type: text/plain') ;

    $data = array_chunk_vertical(range(1, 31), 7) ;
    foreach ( $data as $row ) {
        foreach ( $row as $value ) {
            printf('[%2s]', $value) ;
        }
        echo "\r\n" ;
    }

    /*
        Output :

        [ 1][ 6][11][16][20][24][28]
        [ 2][ 7][12][17][21][25][29]
        [ 3][ 8][13][18][22][26][30]
        [ 4][ 9][14][19][23][27][31]
        [ 5][10][15]
    */
?>