The Festival Of The Girls' School.

THE FESTIVAL OF THE GIRLS ' SCHOOL .

THE 104 th Anniversary Festival of the Royal Masonic Institution for Girls , which was held on Wednesday , under the presidency of H . R . II . the Duke of Connaught , passed off most successfully , and may he regarded as very satisfactory , in view of tho

peculiar surroundings associated with the Institutions at the present time . The result of the Stewards ' labours , as announced by the Secretary in the ordinary course , was £ 9 , 582 10 s 6 d , but a very few minutes afterwards the Duke of Connaught , as

Chairman , was able to declare that the amount had been increased to £ 10 , 000 , some of those around him having promised various sums , ranging from fifty guineas downwards , towards raising the contributions to a level five figure total . This pleasing feature will alone serve to make the Festival memorable in the annals of Freemasonry , for we do not know of any

other occasion where a total has been increased as this was , by the addition of upwards of £ 400 at the table , after the formal announcement of the returns by the official of the Institution . It may be urged that it

would be very cruel to make a practice of putting a final squeeze upon the Stewards at the banquet table , but the result of Wednesday ' s effort in this direction proved so satisfactory that we may almost promise to

excuse future chairmen should they make a special appeal at the very last moment in the hope of increasing the total of the announcement at their Festival . We have urged that something might regularly be ( lone in this direction , but have been met with the almost unanswerable argument that nine out of every ten sitting at the table arc

Stewards for the time being , who have made personal donations in support of the occasion , and such being the case it would be unjust to attempt to obtain more from them . But wo would suggest that such appeals should be directed towards

obtaining small annual subscriptions , and we believe if a systematic canvass was made of the Stewards from time to time there would be a very large increase in this class of supporters , who , in the end , might

really become the backbone of the annual lists . The total amount of Wednesday ' s Festival , as announced by the Secretary , represents the labours ot 301 Stewards , 145 of whom were London brethren , who collected £ 5220 15 s fid , the other 156 Stewards con " ug fl , om tho Provinces , and bringing up A 43 fal 15 s Od . These figures do not include the

aucuuons made at the table , by which the Chairman was able to announce a total of £ 10 , 000 , but those sums have been added to the full returns we give of the subscriptions , together with other amounts receive since

the Festival . The Provinces , & c , represented , and the amount of the contributions announced from each , were as follows :- ^

The Festival Of The Girls' School.

Stewards . £ s d London 145 5220 15 6 Sussex 24 1038 0 0 West Lancashire 16 353 0 0 Kent 10 320 0 0 West Yorkshire 12 250 0 0 Middlesex 7 249 0 0 Snrrev 6 219 0 0

Somorsofc 4 19 G 0 0 Berkshire 7 172 0 0 Warwickshire 9 150 0 0 Worcestershire 4 144 0 0 Derbyshire 6 131 5 0 Cheshire 5 105 12 0 Durham 1 105 0 0 Shropshire 4 105 0 0 Oxfordshire 5 99 9 0

Essex 3 88 4 0 Hertfordshire 4 87 0 0 Staffordshire 2 84 0 0 East Lancashire 7 84 0 0 Hants and Isle of Wight 2 64 0 0 Isle of Man 2 46 2 0 Suffolk 1 42 0 0

Devonshire 2 40 0 0 Buckinghamshire 2 36 16 0 North Wales 2 36 15 0 Bedfordshire 2 26 5 0 Norths and Hunts 3 23 2 0 Gloucestershire 2 21 0 0 North & East Yorkshire 1 21 0 0 Dorset 1 10 10 0 Wilts 1 10 10 0

As we have said at the outset , this result of the Festival is satisfactory , in so far that it exceeds the announcement of last year by about £ 1400 , but it is not sufficient to cover the current expenditure of the Institution , which last year showed an excess of £ 2737 in expenditure over income . It will thus be seen that if other items of income remain about the

same as during 1891 , and the expenditure goes on at about the same rate , this year ' s accounts will show a deficiency of close on £ 1500 . We heard brethren on Wednesday urging that this is not much in view of the large invested capital of the Charity , but we

sincerely hope the Craft will not require that invested funds bo touched in order to meet the ordinary expenditure . We should much prefer to see the Institution borrowing sufficient for its present needs , in the hope that future Festivals will show such improvement over this year ' s as to make the Institution self supporting , and leave a little

margin to go towards clearing off the deficiency of the last few Festivals , the returns at which have been as under : — 1889 101 st Anniversary £ 5 , 345 15 0 1890 102 nd „ 11 , 019 14 0 1891 103 rd „ 8 , 611 0 0 1892 104 th „ 10 , 000 0 0

Tho Festival was held at Freemasons' Tavern , under tho presidency of H . R . H , the Duke of Connaught and