collect subscriptions for the erection of a church and manse, to procure suitable sites and plans, and to proceed with both buildings with the least possible delay. Mr John Gillies was appointed convener of both committees, and he entered on the work entrusted to him with characteristic earnestness and zeal. It is not too much to say that to that gentleman's unwearied efforts and great wisdom is to be attributed, in a large measure, the remarkable success of the undertaking. It is due to the late Dr Burns to state that in all these measures he cordially concurred, and rendered to the promoters of the scheme all the assistance in his power.
On the memorial for the formation of a second charge in Dunedin being laid before the Presbytery, it was warmly supported by the Rev. Dr Burns, and was most readily assented to by the other members. The committee, with the concurrence of the Presbytery, resolved to entrust the selection of a minister to Dr Bonar (the Convener of the Colonial Committee of the Free Church), Dr Thomas Guthrie, and Professor James Miller, of the Edinburgh University. In order to give those gentlemen as correct an idea as possible of all the circumstances of the case, and thereby to enable them to judge the more accurately as to the kind of minister that would prove suitable, Mr Gillies, by appointment of the committee, prepared and transmitted to them a memorial containing a minute and interesting history of the Church in Otago up to that time, and a very able and exhaustive account of the condition of the Province respecting ecclesiastical, social, and other matters. It was mentioned in the memorial that the primitive church building, which had been enlarged from time to time to meet the wants of the ever-increasing number of worshippers, had "now reached the utmost limit which safety would warrant," that it had become much too small for the congregation, and that at the immediately preceding communion about 400 persons had partaken of the Lord's Supper. It was also stated that for the first half year after the Presbytery of Otago was constituted in 1854, the Sustentation Fund had amounted to £201, yielding a half-yearly dividend of £67 to each of the three ministers; that the fund had steadily increased; and that for the last half of the year 1858 it had reached the sum of £521, giang a half-yearly allowance of about £104 to each of the five ministers employed. It was further stated that the town of Dunedin
