Lfistory of the “ Dayspring.” 53 
towns of that colony. Advantage was also taken of this visit 
to secure an insurance fund for the *‘ Dayspring,” and thereby 
to relieve the maintenance fund of a large strain on its means. 
The revenue in Victoria had by this time so accumulated be- 
yond the outlay, that it was proposed to set apart £1500 for 
an insurance fund, provided as much more could be got in ad- 
dition. This project was submitted to the friends of the mis- 
sion in New Zealand, and the matter was taken up most en- 
thusiastically. Upwards of £1460 were raised for the fund; 
and this amount, with £250 from Nova Scotia, and the Vic- 
torian contribution, made a fund of over £3000, from the in- 
terest of which the “‘ Dayspring ” was thereafter statedly insured 
in Melbourne offices for £2000. 
The popularity of the “ Dayspring” in New Zealand was be- 
yond all precedent. ‘The visit to Dunedin was so timed as to 
be there when the Synod of Otago was in session ; and the 
Synod adjourned over a forenoon to go on board the “ Day- 
spring.” The mission vessel became the rage. A great public 
‘ meeting was held in Dr. Burns’s church, at which glowing ora- 
tions were, delivered on Presbyterianism, missions, the “ Day- 
spring,” and—the insurance fund! Steamers with large parties 
boarded the vessel, as she lay at anchor in the bay; children, 
in multitudes, thronged to see a real mission ship; and never 
was Heber’s hymn, “ From Greenland’s icy mountains,” sung 
with greater heart than it was on the deck of the “ Dayspring,” 
by the young Scotch colonists of Dun-Edin—the Edin-Burgh 
of the South. 
An amusing incident occurred at Dunedin. At a great open- 
air gathering in Vauxhall gardens, the recreation ground of the 
city, a few Christian blacks who had come in the “ Dayspring” 
were put up to sing one of their hymns in their own language, 
but set to the dear old Scotch tune of “Auld Lang Syne.” The 
Dynedin people, not perhaps distinguishing the language in which 
