Grand Lodge.

thing being in a good condition , that we should take every precaution for keeping them so . Wo cannot say that we have any experience in tho manner of conducting the audit : ifc has not fallen to the turn of the Lodges in ivhich we have passed the chair to come in the list fco send an auditor during our year of office ; but it did happen that during bis mastershiBro . Binckes—who ¦ it must be admitted , is a

p , good man of figures—Avas called upon to act as auditor ; and bearing testimony to the inefficiency of the audit , he seconded the motion for employing an efficient accountant . Here then Avas every appearance of a second unanimous decision ; but no—Bro . Whitmore could not approve of the motion , the more especially as he saiv a chance of casting a reflection on the Board of General Purposes elected at the last

meeting , and through them on the brethren AVIIO elected the Board and passed a vote of censure upon him for giving a notice erf motion impugning the conduct of the Grand Eegistrar—or alloiviug it to be g iven in his name ivhilst he had not the hardihood to propose or support it . He proposed that the present system of audit should be

continued—more time , however , being given for the performance of the duty , and the supper postponed until another evening—beliei'ing it less liable to abuse than the proposed alteration , as he could conceive that a time mig ht arrive when a Board of General Purposes ICSS ^ * fchan the present mig ht so cook the accounts as to deceive any professional accountant . Anything more gratuitous or unbecoming than

the sneer with regard to the purity of the Board of General Purposes could not be ivell conceived , the more especially when taken in connection with the opposition of Bro . Whitmorc ' s friends to the election of that Board less than a month since . It is impossible to believe in a period arriving when thirty gentlemen , one half of whom are nominated by the Grand Masteraud tlie other half elected by the free suffrages

, of their brethren in Grand Loclge , could combine with the paid officers of the Craft , to " cook the accounts , " for tlie purpose of deceiving the auditors ancl the Craffc ; and if such a thing could take place , it Avould certainly be more likely under the present system than that of a paid auditor , Avho after all will be only another check on the accuracy of the accounts , as the audit committee is to be continued as heretofore .

and the balance sheet prepared by the official auditor , submitted to their consideration , instead of fche mivouehed balance sheets such as they have hitherto had laid before them . Bro . Stebbing also opposed the motion , but on the fairer ground that he objected to adding to the expenses of Grand Lodge , and he had no confidence that the £ 30 IIOAV asked for might not in noma future . year be increased to

. £ 50 . We clo not sympathise with Bro . Stebbing in his fears . Indeed ive hope that the time will arrive , and that , too whilst Bro . Stebbing continues a member of Grand Lodge , when the Order shall have so risen in importance , and our revenue so increased in amount , as to render it absolutely necessary , as an act of justice , to raise the amount of remuneration given to the auditor . The motion ivas carried ancl some formal business transacted ,