The Craft In Bombay.

I think we should feel content that our lodges have not onlyheld their own , but made some progress , however slight it may be . " The tone of these remarks appears to be somewhat depressing . If , in the circumstances he describes , and , indeed , in spite

of them , Freemasonry has not only held its ground , but also made some slight progress , it strikes us there is great reason for rejoicing . Moreover , the day on which they were made was the one appointed for the dedication of the

new HaU erected in Bombay , after years of laborious effort , for the accommodation of the lodges of the English and Scottish Constitutions , and a tone of triumph at the splendid result of these efforts would , in our humble opinion , have

been more appropriate than the mournful admission which Bro . SHIELDS appears to have felt himself constrained to make that , alter all , things might have been worse and the lodges might not have made the

slight progress he acknowledges . However , when his Excellency Bro . Lord SANDHURST appeared on the scene in his dual capacity of Pro District Grand Master under the English Constitution and Grand Master of All Scottish Freemasonry in

India under the Scottish , matters brightened considerably , and when his lordship had appointed his District Grand Officers for the ensuing year and invested his worthy Deputy District Grand Master with the collar of an Honorary Member of the Grand

Lodge of AH Scottish Freemasonry in India , Bro . R . S . BROWN , President of the Freemasons' Joint Hall Committee , having described at length the measures which had been taken to raise the funds for the erection of their new Hall , and having

rendered just tributes of praise to whom , for their generous donations or the services they had otherwise rendered , such tributes were due , invited his Excellency to dedicate thc building , of which he ( Lord SANDHURST ) had laid the first stone in June , 18 97 .

The invitation was at once acceded to and the ceremonies carried out with all the pomp and circumstance befitting so auspicious an occasion . Then , on thc invitation of Bro . SHIELDS , his Deputy , his lordship presented a magnificent vase and cup to

Bro . DARASIIA R . ClIICIICUR , in recognition of his long and valuable services to Freemasonry , but more especially in respect of those he had rendered in connection with thc new Hall . The several reports from the Dist . G . Sec . and other officers were

presented and the information they disclose as to thc state of the lodges —of which there are 30 in active working on the roll of Dist . G . Lodge—the monetary position of thc several Funds connected

with the Dist . G . Lodge , the Joint Hall Account , and the Bombay Educational Association , testifies that Freemasonrv in Bombay , is in a very flourishing state , ancl only needs thc advent of better limes in order to become still more so .

The annual convocation of the Dist . G . Chapter was held on the 17 th April last under the presidency of M . E . Comp . the Hon . H . J . PARSONS , I . C . S ., G . Superintendent . There appears to have been only a moderate attendance of officers ancl others ,

but there are only six chapters in working order in the District , and though from the statistics furnished some of them seem to be numerically very strong , there was no great amount

of enthusiasm in the proceedings , and we trust that at no distant period Royal Arch Masonry in Bombay will find itself on a better fooling and stronger relatively to Craft Masonry than it is at present .

The Craft In Greater Britain.

THE CRAFT IN GREATER BRITAIN .

( COMMUNICATED ) . I . — I N D I A . ( C- niinneil from page 274 . ) Outside the Presidency towns Indian Freemasonry is subject

to many vicissitudes . Lodges will go into abeyance in the most unexpected manner . An expedition is undertaken on the frontier , for example ; the regiment , members of which comprise ninctenths ol the lodge , is ordered to the front , and resignations

come in wholesale , and the lodge is left with , perhaps , a couple of members , neither of whom is capable of summoning a mcetiii" - or , indeed , legally qualified to do so . Under these circumstance ' s

the lodge fails to meet ; no returns are sent in ; and , after waitim ' lor 12 months , the long-suffering District Grand Master sends for thc warrant . Sometimes it can be found—sometimes not . A very hazy idea of thc importance of the warrant seems to

The Craft In Greater Britain.

prevail in many Indian up-country stations . In three instances , the writer , who was engaged in making official visitations , found the warrant adorning the private sanctum of the Secretary at his private residence . In one case it was found rolled up in the

very parcel in which it had come from the Grand Secretary s office , and in this condition was stowed away in a side-room , where the occasional properties were disposed . This , however , is a digression .

The warrant , we will suppose , finds its way to the District Grand Secretary , and remains with him some years , until some zealous Mason finds himself transferred to the station in question , with some prospect of remaining there , and then the warrant is entrusted to him , and his efforts cause a revival and

another spell of existence—followed by another eclipse . The light of Freemasonry may , therefore , be said to be of the intermittent or flashing description in these cases . This is a ver )' marked feature in the side Degrees . A Templar preceptory has been known to exist in a station—in name only—for a

dozen years , the property being in the custody of the solitary sir knight who was left . Then a change comes o'er the scene . Some half-dozen neophytes express their desire to receive admission to the Order , and sir knights are telegraphed to , even 300 miles away , to come and assist in forming a preceptory for the purpose , And , what is more , they come !

It is no uncommon thing in India for a lodge to meet , pursuant to summons , for the purpose of installing the Worshipful Master elect , ancl to find , on reaching the lodge room , that the Wor . Master elect is 300 miles away and likely to remain so , owing to sudden transfer by an unsympathetic and unmasonic

Government . When this occurs , then the District Grand Secretary has a very anxious time He is bombarded by telegrams asking for permission lo do the most extraordinary things . The only course to pursue , he replies , is for the actual Wor . Master to stop where he is till the next regular period of election . This ,

however , heisperhaps unwilling to do , and so the nextannualperiodof election has to be accelerated , and by-laws have to be altered accordingly . But the alteration of by-laws takes time , and under the most favourable circumstances six months must elapse before the alteration can be acted upon . Under these

circumstances a District Grand Master has been known to give " provisional consent to act upon the alteration . " This prerogative of a District Grand Master is not found , needless to say , in the Constitutions , and it is only mentioned here to illustrate a somewhat unique feature of Indian Freemasonry .

It is difficult to know the exact age of an Indian lodge , if it have any pretensions to antiquity . There is one Iodge which says it has been in existence about 130 years , ancl possibly they believe it . As probably the odd hundred years have been passed in a state of abeyance ,

we fear they will experience some difficulty in getting a centenary warrant . Had Bro . Lane been on the spot hc could have made the Indian section of his work uncommonly interesting . It was thc fashion in thc good old days for lodges

to sell their warrants to one another . A Iodge might be on the point of breaking up , ancl would hear of certain brethren in another station anxious to form a lodge . They would sell them their furniture and throw the warrant in . One well-known

lodge in India owes its existence to the fact that some three brethren discovered awarrant in a well , in a station where amutiny had recently occurred , and they boldly took not only the warrant but adopted the number of a lodge that had been working 30 years , and they thus started existence with the respectable

weight of 30 years behind them . And they still possess that number on the Grand Lodge register ! The powers of a District Grand Master , say the Constitutions are required to be more extensive than those of Provincial Grand Masters , and so indeed it would seem . Sixty or 80 years ago many lodges existed in

India which never got on to the Grand Lodge register at all The ) ' had a number on the Provincial Grand Lodge register and that number was naturally very frequently mistaken for the more legitimate one , and a lodge thus acquired a spurious antiquity which it did its best to bolster up afterwards .

In the Presidency towns , the side Degrees are worked with much enthusiasm ancl flourish exceedingly . The fees are in a " cases exceptionally low , e . g ., it only costs three guineas to

become a Knight Templar , i'he various statutes , regulations , & c , governing these Degrees , regard the colonial Mason with great tenderness , and they contain all sorts of exceptional provision * designed to make his path easy .

The Craft in India is governed by five District Grand Masters , as far as the English Constitution is concerned . The districts arc Madras , Bengal , Bombay , thc Punjab , and Burma . Bengal aiul Burma have both recentlhad to deplore the death of their

y respective District Grand Masters . There is also the Grand Lodge of All Scottish Freemasonry in India , whose head quarters are at Bombay , and Lord Sandhurst , the Governor ofthe Bombay