Contents.

CONTENTS .

L EADERS 281 j The Report of the Boys * School Committee of Inquiry 282 | Consecration of the George Gardner Lodge , No ., 2309 . * .. 282 Supreme Grand Council 283 provincial Grand Chapter of VVest Yorkshire 283 Provincial Grand Mark Lodge of West Yorkshire 284 United Grand Lodge of Victoria 283 C ORRESPONDENCERoyal Masonic Institution for Boys 287 proposed Conference of Preceptors 288 The Heroes of "The Alissouri " 288

CORRESPONDENCE ( Continued)—A Alasonic Impostor 2 S 8 REPORTS OP MASONIC MXXTINO-I- * . Craft Masonry 388 Instruction 294 Royal Arch 294 Instruction 395 Mark Masonry , 295 Knights Templar 295 Ancient and Accepted Rite 295 Allied Masonic Degrees 295 Cryptic Masonry 295 The Star and Garter , Richmond 295 Masonic and General Tidings 296 Lodge Meetings for Next Week iv *

Ar00101

WE remind our readers that the annual general meeting of the T 1 V :, * * *'* Governors and Subscribers of the Royal Masonic Benevolent Elections . ¦* Institution will be held at Freemasons' Tavern to-day ( Friday ) , when , after the transaction of the regular business , the elections to fill

vacancies on the Male and Widows' Funds will take place . When the voting papers were issued , there vvere on the Male Fund 14 immediate and three deferred annuitants to be elected ; from a list of 62 approved candidates , and on the Widows' Fund seven immediate and three deferred to be elected from a list of 81 approved candidates . Since then , however ,

other vacancies have been caused by death , while sundry of the approved candidates have also died , so that the disproportion between the vacancies and the candidates will not be so great as was originally announced . Still it will be sufficiently marked to cause the struggle to obtain places among the successful candidates to be an exceptionally keen one

especially in the case of the Widows Fund , for which the vacancies are fewer and the candidates more numerous . Those brethren , therefore , who are interested in obtaining the success of particular candidates vvill have to bestir themselves in order to achieve their purpose . The regular business ,

which will be disposed of before the poll opens , will include the presentation of the annual report of the Committee of Management , and the election of a Treasurer , the usual proportion of the Committee of Management , and the three Auditors . We may add that the chair will be taken punctually at the hour of noon , and that the poll will close at 3 p . m .

WE must warn our readers against expecting anything like Girls' School the Returns they have been accustomed to for the last twelve estiva . or fj [ jeen years , at the 101 st Anniversary Festival , on Wednesday next , of the Royal Masonic Institution for Girls . We stated last

week that the Board of Stewards numbers only about 150 brethren , and though it is possible , and indeed very likely , that a few more names will be added to the list , their Returns , being chiefly personal , will not to any appreciable extent affect the total . We further explained that the amount which may be looked for will probably not exceed . £ 6000 in the event of the

majority of the Stewards being lodge and chapter representatives , while 'f a fair proportion of them are Unattached the chances are in favour of the total being considerably less . As , however , there will remain a surplus from the Centenary Returns—after providing for the cost of the Centenary Memorial Scheme—of a few thousands of pounds , there is no reason why

the friends and supporters of the Institution should exert their full strength on this particular occasion , especially as , if they refrain from doing so , they will give the Boys' School the opportunity of recovering the ground it lost in 1 SS 8 by the overwhelming attractions of the Girls ' Centenary . However , if the limit of £ 6000 which vve have suggested as

Probable be surpassed on Wednesday , we dare say the authorities vvill regard the overplus with their wonted philosophy , and accept it in the spirit ° ' generosity vvith which it is offered . VVe are sure it will be found useful b y-and-b ye , if not immediately . As regards the arrangements for next Wee-c ' s celebration , they will be found pretty much the same as in ordinary

years . The distribution of prizes is fixed for Tuesday , at the Institution , Wandsworth , and the programme will include the usual piano recitals , Part-singing , and calisthenic exercises ; and on Wednesday the banquet V'U be held in the large hall of Freemasons' Tavern , under the presidency ° Bro . the Rev . C J . MARTYN , Past G . Chap ., Dep . Prov . G . Master ™ ° ' k > who will act as the representative of Lord HENNIKER , Prov . G . M ., ne latter being unable to fulfil his engagement to preside as Chairman owing 0 the death of his mother , the Dowager Lady HENNIKER . This change , m , n g as it does almost at the last moment , when the Stewards have very arl y completed their canvass , is not likely to affect the Returns , but we u 'd be wanting in our duty , and in the respect which belongs to so dis-,. Suished a Mason , if we did not take this opportunity of tendering to 'ordshi p our sincere sympathy with him and his family in the bereave-•¦ iu- y have i suffered . With this single deviation , the necessity for

, will u ' everywhere regretted , the programme , as long since announced , r 6 ^ d , and we trust that next week it will be our privilege to gfr a result that may be described as successful in proportion to the r s which have been put forward .

Ar00102

^ WE are inclined to think that the Committee of the Educaihe recent Meeting at tional Fund which has recently been established in the Province ^ ¦ of North and East Yorkshire , and of which the first anniversary festival was held in the City of York on Wednesday , the Sth inst ., have

been somewhat unjust towards the members of their Province . It is quite true that some years back N . and E . Yorkshire was not as frequently represented at the annual Festivals of our Institutions as might have been expected , or as its strength and importance might have demanded . But , since then , it has amply atoned by the frequency and on special occasions by the

generosity of its contributions for its previous shortcomings , and it ceitainly does not accord with our usual ideas of fairness that an old sore , vvhich had been for so long and so comfortably closed , should be re-opened . However , even if the allegation had been well founded , the meeting at York , which we reported in our columns last week , would have served as a counterpoise and

adjusted the balance between the Province and its duties considerably in favour of the former . These local Charitable and Educational Funds are growing in favour with our Provincial brethren , and , as a time must come when it will be necessary to impose a limit on the extension of our Central Charities , it is to our local Associations that we shall have to look for such

relief as may be needed from the ever-growing pressure upon the former . Hence our satisfaction at the great success of the York meeting , when Bro . PECK , P . G . Std . Br ., and Prov . G . Sec , the Honorary Secretary of the Educational Fund of the Province , was able to announce a total of subscriptions , raised by a Board of 102 Stewards , amounting to ^" IOOO . Such

a beginning augurs well for the future of the new Association , and vve con . gratulate the Prov . G . Master , the Province , the Committee of the Fund , and Bro . PECK on having achieved in so short a space of time a result vvhich is so honourable to themselves , and will be productive of so much good to the children of their indigent members .

* * * . ' The THE Special General Court of Governors and Subscribers of Centena ry Me- the Royal Masonic Institution for Girls , which had been summorial Scheme , moned to meet at Freemasons' Hall at 3 p . m . on Thursday , for the purpose of considering the extended Centenary Memorial Scheme ,

vvas held , as arranged , under the presidency of Bro . CHARLES HAMMERTON . The amended scheme was laid before the Court , and unanimously agreed to , the Building Committee being authorised to accept a tender not

exceedm S £ 31 , 000—subject , of course , to the approval being confirmed in the usual way . Thus the new works , and in particular the erection of the Centenary Hall , will be commenced forthwith , and we trust—for the sake of the Institution and its inmates—will be completed with all possible speed . * * *

WE have heard so much of late about the desirability ol sup-Fieemasonry . , . , , in planting the old system of concurrent jurisdiction which has Queensian . heretofore existed in so many British Colonies by united and independent local Grand Lodges that many of our readers must have begun

to think that there is no longer anything to be said in favour of the old system . There is now a South Australian Masonic Constitution , where a few years ago there were the English , Irish , and Scotch Constitutions working side by side together , more or less amicably , in the Colony of South Australia .

Last year , the dissensions which had existed among the Craft in New South Wales , owing to the establishment of a local Grand Lodge some ten years before , were put an end to by the constitution of a United Grand Lodge of New South Wales , with a Past Senior Grand Warden of the Grand

Lodge of England in the person of Bro . Lord CARRINGTON , as M . W . Grand Master ; while to-day we publish a full report of the constitution of a United Grand Lodge of Victoria under Bro . Sir VV . J . CLARKE , Bart ., who was already at the head of three out of the four systems existing in the Colony , as Grand Master . In these cases we have welcomed the changes

which have taken place and have expressed our earnest hopes that the newlyestablished Grand Lodges will have a long and prosperous future before them . We have done this in the case of the Grand Lodge of South Australia , because , though there vvere no pre-existing jealousies and dissensions that we had ever heard of , the desire for a union of the concurrent

systems appeared to be practically unanimous ; and in the cases of New South Wales and Victoria , because the change has put an end to the discord which prevailed among the brethren of the different Constitutions in the two Colonies . But it does not follow that , because we have seen fit to commend the changes which have taken place in these three Colonies , vve

consider a similar change should be made in all our other Colonies and Dependencies where there is concurrence of jurisdiction among the Grand Lodges of England , Ireland , and Scotland . Wherever such a change is made , and on equally valid grounds , we shall receive it in the same spirit as we have

shown towards our South Australian , New South Wales , and Victoria brethren ; but so long as there is an evident desire on the part of the brethren of any Constitution to remain in their old allegiance , so long shall vve strenuously support them in that desire . Some time since , for instance , we