resolutions from the pulpit, and request him more fully to explain the obligations, and to enforce the grounds of these resolutions. The Session instructed the clerk to send a copy of these resolutions to the Session of the First Church for their information, in the hope that they may see cause to co-operate with this Session."
We have it on reliable authority that this action on the part of the Session had no small effect in diminishing the evil referred to. The following resolution was passed by the Session a few years later:—"The Session, considering the many and great evils arising from the sin of intemperance, earnestly request the minister to preach on the subject at an early day." In those days the Session sometimes showed in a very practical manner the strong views held by them on the subject. The minute-book has the following among other similar entries:—"December 9, 1861. was suspended on account of a fama being abroad that he had been guilty of the sin of drunkenness."
In April 1862 the Session agreed to grant the use of the church every Sabbath evening for a number of months to the Wesleyan Methodist congregation that had been formed in Duuedin about that time.
At a meeting of the Session held in the same month the minister reported that the Rev. W. Johnstone of Port Chalmers was ordered by his medical adviser to take a health furlough in Sydney during the winter. The Session expressed its sympathy with Mr Johnstone, and appointed the following persons to conduct Divine service at Port Chalmers every alternate Sabbath during Mr Johnstone's absence, viz., the Rev. R. Hood, Messrs J. Gillies, Gilbert, Kettle, E. B. Cargill, T. B. Gillies, C. H. Street, J. H. Harris, G. Hepburn, and J. Brown.
Mr H. Gilbert, who had rendered valuable services on the Diggings in the early days, and had been subsequently elected to the eldership in the congregation, was unanimously appointed by the Session, in May 1862, to be congregational missionary or catechist, with a view to enable the church to overtake evangelistic and outfield work. He did excellent service under the direction of the minister, including occasional Sabbath visits to Blueskin in the summer months, and the holding of evening prayer meetings in various places. Mr
