The Removal Of The Boys' School

entered upon in earnest , and it has become necessary that we should give our undivided attention to that particular Institution whose Festival is about to be celebrated . Thus the Benevolent Festival will take place on the 2 _| th February and till then we

must do our utmost to promote the success of that important anniversary . When this lias come and gone the interests of the Girls ' School , which will celebrate its 109 th Anniversary on or about the second Wednesday in May , must be advocated to the utmost

of our ability . Then will come thc turn of the Boys' School , whose Festival is airanged for the last Wednesday in June , and then if our readers exhibit any desire for a revival of the recent discussion in connection with the second stage of the removal

question , that is to say , with the erection of the new School buildings at Bushey , we see no just cause why their wishes should not be gratified . But till that time arrives , we must content ourselves with the publication of such news as reaches

us from time to time respecting the Board , Court , and Council meetings oi the Institution , the election of new pupils , the results of any public examinations in which sundry of " Our Boys " may have taken part . There is , however , one matter which

cannot be allowed to pass unnoticed now , when we are on the point of closing , for the time being , a controversy which has already become , wearisome and was fast becoming injurious to the interests of all our Masonic Chanties . We allude to the speech

which Bro . E . V . GREATBATCH , P . P . G . W . Staffordshire , is reported to have delivered at the installation meeting of the Menturia Lodge , No . 41 S , Hanley , on the r ^ th ult ., in replying for the toast of " The Masonic Charities . " As regards Bro .

GREATBATCH ' S claim to have been "the means of bringing about a considerable improvement" in the management of the Boys ' School , we shall not concern ourselves about its validity . We remember that Bros .. GREATBATCH and TuNNlCLIKFE together

attacked the School expenditure under the old n ' gime , but it was the treatment of the boy MOTION that principally caused the downfall of the House Committee . But , seeing that the old regime has long since given place to the new , our interest in

determining such a claim must be purely an academic one . It is , however , very different when we are told , on the authority of one who claims to have effected the improvement brought about by the substitution of the present for the late administration , that

matters are now " almost as bad as ever they were . " Such a statement as this , emanating as it does from one who claims to have taken a leading part in setting up the present management , cannot be allowed to pass uncontradicted . Everyone has

spoken in terms of the highest commendation of the manner in which the Board of Management , from the date of its establishment onwards , has discharged its important duties ; and , what is more to our purpose , the evidence in support of the justice

of this commendation is as emphatic as the commendation itself is general . Thus as regards the education which the boys are now receiving , we have only to refer to the results of the different public examinations for which the boys are entered

and compare them with the results obtained in the days of the old management in order to assure ourselves of the progress which the School has made educationally during the last half dozen years , while this assurance will

be still further strengthened on reading the reports issued for the last three years by the gentlemen appointed by the Cambridge Syndicate to examine the School independently . Then , as regards the funds of the Institution , when the present Board

of Management was established in 1890 , the invested capital was £ 17 , 500 ; it now amounts to £ 58 , 814 12 s . jd ., the difference in favour of the new management being £ 41 , 314 i ? , s . 5 d ., while , to rightly estimate the financial success of the new system , we

must add to this the £ 13 , 000 which has been paid for the new property at Bushey . But for this purchase the capital of the Institution would have been augmented during the last six years by no less than £ 54 , 314 ' 3 - 5 -i being at the rate of

upwards of £ 9000 per annum for this brief period . Lastly , as regards the annual income of the Institution , during the four years from 1887 to 1890 , both inclusive , the average income was

£ ' 3 ) 777 l 7 ' tod- ; for the six years from 1891 to 18 , 6 , il has averaged £ 22 , 4 6 3 iSs . 7 d ., or between £ 8000 and £ yooo more than under the old system . Vet , in spite of all this evidence of progress and improvement , Bro , GREATHATCH has no hesitation

The Removal Of The Boys' School

in declaring that matters are " almost as bad as ever they were . " But Bro . GREATBATCH is not content with having made this unfounded and—coming from him—mischievous statement ; he must needs go on to suggest that

"the London Institutions should be left severely alone . But in the lirst place , there are no Masonic Institutions whose benefits are restricted to London brethren , their widows , and their children . The Institutions , which are located near London , arc

open to candidates from all those parts of the British Empire over which the United Grand Lodge of England exercises jurisdiction . Thus , according to the Lists of Subscribers issued in 18 96 , there were 262 children in the Girls' School at the

commencement of that year , of whom 91 hailed from London , 171 from the Provinces and Colonies , and seven were pupil teachers retained for educational purposes . In the Roys' School there were at the same date , 27 8 children , of whom 84 hailed from

London , and 194 from the Provinces and Abroad ; while as regards the Benevolent Institution , there were 75 male annuitants out of 200 , and 8 g widow annuitants out of 242 hailing from London , while 125 men and 153 widows came from the Provinces

and Abroad . Indeed , Staffordshire itself furnished five girls , six boys , and three annuitants to the totals in the three Institutions , so that to speak of them as London Institutions is , on the face

of it , absurd . We trust those who have read Bro . GREATBATCH ' S attack on our Charitable Institutions will look well into these figures , which we have extracted from statements and returns furnished to us from time to time by the Secretaries .

Consecration Of The Jubilee Lodge, No. 2633, Brisbane, Queensland.

CONSECRATION OF THE JUBILEE LODGE , No . 2633 , BRISBANE , QUEENSLAND .

A new lodge under the Grand Lodge of England was consecrated at New Farm , Brisbane , on the ioth August , 1896 , under highly favourable auspices . New Farm , being now practically a portion of Brisbane , there was every facility for the city brethren to be present , and there was accordingly a good attendance , including many brethren of the Scotch and Irish Constitutions , This being the 50 th English lodge now alive in the district of

Queensland , its founders very appropriately named it the Jubilee Lodge . The District Grand Master , Bro . the Hon . Augustus C . Gregory , C . fVT . G ., & c , & c , who came attended by his Deputy , Bro . Barron L . Barnett , P . G . D . Eng ., and a number of the Officers of the District Grand Lodge , took the chair at eight o ' clock , and at once appointed , temporarily , the necessary officers , and briefly explained the object of the meeting . He then handed the gavel to his Deputy , and requested him to conduct the necessary

ceremony . In the few remarks , before proceeding further , Bro . BARNETT earnestly deprecated the opening of new lodges except where they were really required for the convenience of brethren in the neighbourhood , and added that it was only after close enquiry that the District Grand Master had satisfied himself of the necessity for the Jubilee Lodge that he had granted the provisional warrant .

The lodge was then opened in the Second and Third Degrees respectively , and the ceremony proceeded . Bro . Rev . ALBANY C . HOGGINS , M . A ., Past D . G . Chap ., then delivered the following very interesting oration , which was listened to throughout with marked attention :

Brethren , — It is usual on these occasions when we meet together to consecrate a new temple dedicated to the culture of that spirit of brotherly love , which is the essential principle of Freemasonry , for the Chaplain to address to you a few words on the nature and principles of the Order . That office it is now my privilege to fill , and I propose to avail myself of the opportunity to say something to you on this essential principle , and your faith in this final motive for which Masonry has

arisen , and on which its vitality depends . It is just 28 years since I heard a college friend , afterwards well-known as Professor Clifford , tell in our college hall his celebrated allegoryof the Trilobites . He told us how far away in the misty past the Trilobites dwelt deep down in the murky vaults of the primeval ocean , how in the course of ages , when the power of vision had come dimly to them , one adventurous Trilobite found himself one day on the surface of the waters in

the blaze of the midday sun ; how descending to the dwellings of his tribe , he told them of the glorious sight he had seen , only to be put to deajh for lying : how long afterwards another having the same experience , confirmed his fellow's tale , and how him they also slew , this time for disturbing the Republic . Now , the point of the story to which I wish to draw your attention is that so long ago as this Professor Clifford recognised that even among Trilobites there must have

existed something corresponding to a State . At the beginning of that wonderful change in our days of looking at philosophical and scientific questions which is connected with the great name of Darwin , though , centuries before , at Rome , Lucretius enunciated the same ideas , and they have never lacked witnesses in the ages between , at tlie beginning of thischange , 1 say , and from a superficial realisation of the meaning of the phrase , " survival of the fittest , " there grew up an idea that

the history of progress was but the history of suffering and death , that " nature , " red in tooth and claw , " worked her way to perfection only through wholesaleslaughter , only by the aid of starvation , disease , and mutual devastation . Now , we know that far away as eye of science can reach in the dim vistas of the ancient past , "when from oozy slime of marshy bed in twilight dim the first forefathers of the animal

world slowly emerged , from the very beginning there were two competing passions that swayed his destinies—care for self and love for others of his kind . At first , no doubt , care for self overshadowed the second motive , but it died not for all that ; it was there throughout , waiting only till more perfect forms should enable it to assert its power , and later on itself obtain the mastery . To progress