Freemasonry In Victoria (Ausfralia).

The increase of lodges under the three British Constitutions in course of time necessitated consolidation , for the purposes of local administration , in the shape of Provincial and District Grand Lodges . The initiative in this direction was taken by the Scottish brethren , and in 18 47 the first Provincial Grand Master was installed in the person of

BRO . THE RIGHT HOX . LORD HRASSEY , THE SECOND M . W . GRAND MASTER . Bro . James Hunter Ross , who , however , was not particularly enthusiastic , seeing that eleven years passed over without a meeting being held . In the meantime Bro . Ross had

resigned , and his successor was the Hon . William Clarke Haines , who died in 1866 , and whose two immediate successors were Bros . Thomas Reid and A . K . Smith . On

the death of the latter brother the Province was for some years without a ruler . The Irish brethren were the next to start a Provincial Grand Lodge . More fortunate than their Scottish brethren , their first and only Provincial Grand Master , from 1854 to 1879 , was Bro . John Thomas Smith , an initiate in the Lodge

of Australia Felix in its opening year , several times Mayor of Melbourne , in fact , one of its most estimable citizens . Bro . Smith ' s lamented death in 18 79 left the Irish Province without a head for two years . It is singular that , although the first lodge opened in

Victoria was warranted by the Grand Lodge of England , the brethren of that Constitution , much the stronger in numbers , nevertheless were the last to set up a Provincial Grand Lodge . It was in 18 ^ 7 that R . W . Bro . the Hon . Capt .

Clarke , Royal Engineers , a Member of the Legislative Assembly of the Colony , Surveyor-General , and Minister for Public Lands , was appointed by the Earl of Zetland , and installed Provincial Grand Master . It need scarcely be explained that , although forty-four years have rolled on since our R . W . and gallant brother returned to England ,

he is still intimately associated with Victoria , as its Agent-General , and is popularly known far and wide in his green old age as General Sir Andrew Clarke , G . C . AI . G . The second Provincial Grand Master — the designation subsequentlv altered to District Grand Master—was Bro . Capt . Standish ,

who held office twenty-one years , until his death in 1882 . From this there was an interregnum of two years , the English Craft meanwhile being ruled by the late Bro . Dr . Horatio St . John Clarke , Deputy District Grand Master , and subsequently Past Grand Warden of England .

The next era in the history of the Masonic Craft in the colony was of a unique and highly interesting character . I refer to the appointment of a gentleman to rule the brethren

ot the three constitutions , that is to say , as District Grand Master of Victoria under the Grand Lodge of England and the Grand Lodge of Scotland , also as Provincial Grand Master under the Grand Lodge of Ireland . The brother so distinguished was the late Sir William John Clarke , Bart ., a native Australianand the combination , unique and hitherto

, unheard of as it was , was the most fortunate stroke of policy ever conceived under like circumstances . Sir William Clarke had , in his younger days , been initiated in an Irish lodge in Tasmania , and it was appropriate that he should have been installed Provincial Grand Master under the Irish

Constitution , some three years antecedent to his accepting the other two offices , which culminated in his induction as District Grand Master of the English and Scottish lodges in March , 1884 . Tin ' s was , up to then , the most imposing gathering of the Craft ever held in Victoria , and at this stage it is

sufficient to say that , under the enthusiastic , genial , and beneficent rule of the new chief , Masonry increased with a rapidity , that can best be described as by " leaps and bounds . "

Harking back a year , however , yet another phase of Victorian Masonry may be briefly alluded to in the shape of the foundation of an independent Grand Lodge of Victoria . Two attempts had been previously made in this direction without success , and , as regards the third effort , Sir William Clarke was , in the first instance , offered the

position of M . W . Grand Master . He declined the honour , though , and some time after stated at a Masonic meeting in Ballarat , that he was averse to " cutting the painter " that bound Colonial Masonry to the old country , furthermore urging that the time for such a movement was premature . In the

end , however , the promoters of the independent Grand Lodge carried their project into effect , and with the assistance of a few seceding Irish and Scotch lodges—not a single one of the eighty odd English lodges deserted the old standarda Grand Lodge was inaugurated in 188 3 on the basis that

, holds good in many parts of the United States , namely , that any three private lodges can form themselves into a Grand Lodge where no such supreme body actually exists . This Grand Lodge , like its older congener in New South Wales ,

THK I . ATK HRO . KKORGl . 1 SAKI . IS , THE EIJi . ST R . W . DEPUTY GRAND MASTER . was granted recognition by most of the American and Canadian Grand Lodges . On the other hand , the Grand Lodges of England , Ireland , and Scotland , as well as two

or three of the oldest and strongest in the United States , refused to countenance Victoria , as they had hitherto similarly dealt with New South Wales , on the grounds that no Grand