Ireland.

The pupils having gone through calisthenics and musical exercises ( conducted by Miss Jones and Mrs . Harte respectively ) , Lord Justice FiTZGiRP . ON delivered an address . He said when Bro . Hilbon first communicated the intention of organising the excursion , he was good enough to suggest that some one having an intimate and practical knowledge of the management of the school should take the opportunity of giving information that might be of interest to the Northern brethren . His ( the speaker ' s ) colleagues had

asked him to undertake that duty . Although he knew that after their long journey , and taking into account the very fine day they had brought with them , it must be rather irksome to remain any longer in that hall ; but he knew his brethren and friends from Belfast would not be sorry to take this occasion to learn something more than they already did of the work that had been done in that place , and also in what he might call the brother institution that they were about to visit at Clonskeagh . Their visit , which has commenced so pleasantly , was a

great encouragement to the Committees of the schools . Many of them might not be aware how the idea of their visit was first started . A good brother came there recently , and he was so impressed by what he saw that , when he returned to Belfast , he went straight to Bro . Hilton to suggest that others ought to go in the way he had gone belore . The idea was in good hands , and it had borne good fruit already ; for , at their last election , having 14 children candidates on their lists , of whom they were only able to receive under normal condition , six , they

thought they might venture to draw a cheque upon their confidence in the Masons of Ireland , by adding two more to the number in honour of this record year , and adding a third also , and it so happened that the third was one of their girls from Belfast . ( Applause . ) On that same occasion , amongst those elected high up upon tre list they would find the name of the orphan daughter of one' who held the second highest post in their great Masonic Pr-jvince—the orphan of a Provincial Senior Grand Warden . ( Hear , hear . ) And the ramifications and the

branches out of Masonic Charity were well exemplified by the fact that the means that the mother and the children of the family had to depend on were , first , this School , secondly , the Presbyterian Fund for Widows and Orphans , and , lastly , their own Belfast Masonic Charity Fund . When they went to the Boys' School , they would see a School much more recent , and amongst its very best scholars , ihe son of one who was once her Majesty ' s High Sheriff of the County Antrim , who finally died in America in penury , and whose son made his start in life from their

School . He mentioned these things that none might think that human prosperity was ever so secure that even selfish arguments might not be used to show him what his duty was with regard to such a place as this . But they might be interested to know what was the work being done there now for years . They had 15 Antrim girls there at present out of 100 ; their fathers belonged to 14 different lodges ; those 14 different lodges he would mention by number and name , that every brother who was there belonging to any of them might know that he would

find those associated with him in lodge represented there in that Institutior .. He would find 29 , Belfast ; 31 , Belfast ; 36 , Belfast ; 46 , Belfast ; 59 , Belfast ; 111 , Belfast ; 154 , Belfast ; 243 , Belfast ; 257 , Belfast ; 272 , Belfast ; 372 , Belfast ; 513 Ligoniel ; 659 , Belfast ; and 663 , Belfast . And , when they went to the Boys' School , over and above the numbers he had already mentioned , they would find either now or recently represented 7 , Belfast ; 12 , Belfast ; 28 , Antrim ; 41 , Carrickfergus : 54 , Belfast ; SS , Belfast ; 97 , Belfast ; 178 , Lisburn ; 106 ,

Belfast ; 109 , Belfast ; 114 , Belfast ; 195 and 226 , Belfast ; 431 , Ballymena ; 537 , Cullybackey ; 615 , Lame ; and 100 S , Portrush . That was not a bad representation for the Province of Antrim ; and , if he had time to tell them , he would show that every other province in Ireland was equally veil represented . And not only had they in this School and in the Boys' School , children from every Masonic province , but children who were born in all parts of the world—in the Colonies and distant places—and who had all found their way to this place . Now ,

they might be interested also to know how this place had sprung to be what it was ; an Institution that could boast of 105 years of usefulness , had not been during all that time anything like what it was now . It began as a humble Institution , endeavouring to train children up to the very lowest level at which it was possible for them to sustain themselves . Generation after generation of Irish Masons had felt that they were not doing their duty to their dead brethren if they were not to try to make some provision there so as to enable every girl to find her own level in the

world , and that that should not be lower than that which her father held before . Up to 1 S 82 the School had been many times removed , and had increased and grown in efficiency and usefulness . In 1 S 82 it came to its present site , with accommodation for 80 children , having had but * 6 previously . They had been there now 15 years , and , during those 15 years , to bring the place to what it was at present , what had been done V They were the owners in fee-simple of the nine acres of giound on which the buildings

had been placed . On the 1 st January , 1 S 81 , that site was a green field let out for grazing . As it stood now it had cost the Masonic Order £ 24 , 700 ; and that money , every penny of it had been spent , and everything had been done with it in that place ; it paid for everything in the place—the buildings , furniture , fittings , equipment , and all , and had bought the fee-simple of the land . Now , £ 13 , 500 of that money came directly out of the pockets of brothers of the Order , subscriptions paid by individuals , or by the lodges to which they belonged ; £ 4 SOO , which

included the whole cost of land , was taken out of a little sum of £ 6400 , which they made in 1882 in five days , by a show in Earlsfort-terrace , now occupied by the Royal University . Out of that money they had still £ 1900 , and the interest of that paid taxes , insurances , and odds and ends , and repairs . As they all knew they started another show ( laughter ) in 1892 , on the centenary of the Schools , and on that occasion in six days £ 22 , 000 , all but £ 12 , was realised after the pay . ment of all expenses . ( Applause . ) They had given a promise that the great

proportion of that money was not to be spent on the School , except for certain purposes , namely that it was to be laid apart to make provision for the girls when they had left them . They had faithfully kept that promise , for they had of that still £ 15 , , which brought in an income of £ 5 80 a year , which was faithfully spent on the girls who were going away . But the balance of £ 6500 built the hall in which they now were , the library , the infirmary , which had been commenced as a memorial of a worthy brother , and also increased the dormitory accommodation

from So to 100 . therefore , there capital expenditure of £ 24 , 700 consisted of £ I 3 i 5 00 i which was paid by subscription , £ 4500 from the bazaar of 1882 , and £ 6500 irom the centenary bazaar , and at every single step of that they had been always able to get something in , for they were still maintained throughout by the annual contributions of their brethren . It was also interesting to know what , became of their girls when they left . There was no more gratifying or touching correspondence in the world than that kept by the matron

and teachers of this School with the girls who had gone away . As to what had become of Antrim girls in the last three years—and he might say here the School was conducted so economically that a cat could not be kept on the waste—( laughter ) - five girls , having proved themselves capable of literary teaching of an advanced kind , had been sent to the Continent , there to receive from a year to two years further instruction , so that they might master a foreign language . But all girls were not able to take that sort of benefit . They sent three Antrim girls

at the same time to get advanced education at schools at home , also lour to get instructed in shorthand and typewriting , and ol these three were hard at work and prospering in Belfast at the present time , and the fourth was occupying a place in Dublin . ( Applause . ) Ot three others one held a place for herself as teacher in a Hoard school , and two were in the Civil Service by competitive examination , and he might tell them that out of 628 candidates , the seventh place was taken the year before last by a girl irom their School—not , _ however , an Ulster girl

Ireland.

—who was under the age of 20 at the time . ( Applause . ) Four girls more they had paid fees for to enable them to take commercial situations , and in every single one of these 19 cases , before a penny was spent for the benefit of them , the case of each girl was carefully investigated , both as regards what help they could count on their brethren giving them , and also what she could best take advantage of . And now a word as to the domestic management of the place . As they went through the building , let them try if they could to find any dust , any untidiness ,

any want of good order about the house , and let them ask themselves how many servants they would have to employ and pay in their own houses to produce anything like that result , and let them remember that the whole service of this place consisted of three women—a cook and two housemaids—and everything else was done by the girls themselves . ( Applause . ) They did not make their own dresses , for making dresses was not economical , if they gave the stuff to a girl who did not know how to make them

properly ( laughter ) , but , once they were made , every subsequent bit of patching , altering , and mending , and occasionally taking out the tucks as they grew , was done by the girls themselves . ( Laughter and applause . ) The result was that the current expenditure on the whole place last year was £ 2530 , 0 ! which the management , which included all the difficulties about the collections , which required a good deal of correspondence , was only £ 296 , and the School costs altogether £ 223-1 for the maintenance of gg girls . Many brothers , especially from the North

of Ireland , who had not been there , were very fond of saying , as a reason for not subscribing to the School , that they were spending too much on the children , that they were pampering them , and to some extent raising them above the situation that they would be called upon to fill . But he could not for one moment believe that anyone would say that an expenditure of less than £ 23 a year per head for clothing , feeding , lodging , teaching the girls , was anything but a triumphant vindication of the School from any charge of extravagance . ( Applause . ) Why ,

there were poorhouscs in which a pauper would cost the ratepayers more than that . And they were to do this work for the money , because it was done , as all other Masonic work was done , because every brother put his heart as well as his hand into it . ( Applause . ) The Boys' School , founded as it was long after the Girls' School , in iS 62 , had a history exactly the same as the Girls' School , except that as yet they had only So boys . But they were on the high road to do what they were doing at this School ; they were doing the same work for the same

money . Up to the present their capital expenditure had been something about £ 10 , 000 . There was no Governor of the Girls' School that was not justas anxious for the success of the Boys' School , and he was sure they would all carry away the conviction , when they had seen it , that all that could be said of the Girls' School could also be said of the Boys' School . As to the exercises and drill which they had seen the girls go through , some might think that a good deal of time must have been wasted in learning that , but it was not waste of time to learn discipline ,

to tram the ear , the eye , and the hand ; above all things , it was never a waste of time to learn to be orderly . ( Applause . ) Their orderly children were brojght up in the principles of order , and , how well these principles were laid out , was fairly typified , not merely in the figures they saw there , but in every motion and every accuracy which they saw in the course of the performance . But what they wanted to impress on them was this—that this was no Charity institution . These were not Charity children ; these were the children of men that they had known ,

and met and loved , ^ . nd who had left them their children , not as objects of Charity , but as objects of duty . ( Applause . ) These children , having no father on earth , have to put their trust in the Great Architect that bound all together . These Schools were , perhaps , | the noblest jewel in the Masonic regalia . ( "A pplause . ) But their usefulness to the members of the Order ought not to be forgotten . They had lessons to learn from the misfortunes of others , and these lessons could be discharged and followed , and learned by everyone of them , each according to

his several abilities . And there was not a lodge in Ireland which could not afford to take a fair part in the work which they saw being done there , a ' nd there were very many brethren , too , who could at least become Governors of the School . He was making no appeal , it was not necessary that he should , but they trusted and hoped and believed that their good brother who brought them there had been only speaking the truth when he said that none could come there without

going away a happier man , and one determined also to take a share in the future by helping and assisting what " was being done . They were in good hands in Belfast , and he would ask them , in conclusion , not to imagine that they had been looking at the School on a holiday and polished up for inspection . The School as they saw it was as they would find it on every day in the 12 months , and any hour of the day or night that they came to see it . ( Applause . )

Bro . J AMES BARR , Prov . S . G . W . of Antrim , returned thanks for the truly Masonic way in which the visitors had been received by the Dublin brethren . It was the first visit of a great many of them to the School . It was , he had to admit , his own first visit , and he was sure one of the results of the present proceedings would be that the interest in these splendid Institutions would be very much extended to the North of Ireland , and he would be very much disappointed if that interest would not take a practical turn . ( Hear , hear . ) They had been

very much gratified by the beautiful exhibition of diill , and they could not help being struck by the cheerful and happy faces of the girls . He had listened with great pleasure to the eloquent speech of their brother , the Lord Justice , and he was sure one result of that speech would be that the great good which was being done in that School and in the Boy ' s School would not be lost on the members of the Order in the North , and that a reasonable share of their spare cash would find its way to Dublin . ( Applause and laughter . )

Bro . ROBERT J . HILTON , Prov . G . Sec . of Antrim , wished to add a remark or tivo to what had been already said . His first observation would be words of congratulation to the Deputy Grand Master of Ireland on that his first public appearance in his new position . ( Applause . ) He could assure their brother , Dr . Meredith , that when the news reached them in the Province of Antrim that he had been selected to occupy his present high and

dignifisd post every one of them felt the greatest gratification that he had been so chosen . ( Hear , hear . ) In reference to the reception they had received that day , it was thoroughly appreciated by all who had journeyed from the North , and when the members of the Order who were compelled to remain behind heard of the cordial and fraternal welcome that had been given to the party , he knew it would be equally appreciated by them . ( Hear , hear . ) He thought he could safely add that their appreciation would show itself in a practical way .

Several wagonettes were in waiting , and the visitors were conveyed to the Boys' School at Richview , Clonskeagh , where they were received by Bro . J . Holdbrook , B . A ., Head Master , and Mrs . Holdbrook , the Matron , Bro . Fry , the Hon . Secretary , and by members of the School Committee .

A sumptuous luncheon was in readiness , and , as the spacious dining-hall , the board-room , and other apartments were utilised for the dispensing of the refreshments , tbe entire company of close upon 500 people were coabled to be served at the one time . The arrangements for the cateiing were of a hi ghly satisfactory character , and were greatly facilitated by the kindness of Bro . B . Murphy , in supplying a large quantity of table furnishing . 1

After luncheon , the library , dormitories , class rooms , gymnasium , and other departments of the splendid Institution were visited . There was afterwards an adjournment to the grounds , which picturesque even in winter , looked to the best advantage in the full foliage of early summer . The pupils were assembled on the front lawn , and displayed great efficiency in drill exercise .