Correspondence.

CORRESPONDENCE .

—•Oi—We do not hold ourselves responsible for the opinions of our Cor ' respondents . ¦ , We cannot undertake to return rejected communications . All Letters must bear the name and address of the Writer , not necessarily for publication , but as a guarantee of good faith .

MASONIC BOYS' SCHOOL . We have received a number of lettors on the subject of the Boys ' School Management , and though we aro the reverse of anxious to keep this controversy before tho public , we feel it is only just to our correspondents to allow them the opportunity of expressing their views . With reference to the proposal emanating from one of them ,

that a testimonial should be raised for Bro . Rev . 0 . G . D . Perrott , we publish the letter out of regard for bur esteemed correspondent , but we feel it our duty to point out the act of publication must , under no circumstances , be construed into a doparturo from that strict neutrality vre have so carefully striven to observe .

To the Editor of THE FREEMASON ' S CHRONICLE . 2 nd November 1875 . Snt , —As a Steward of 1870 , for the Boys' School Fostival , and a Lifo Governor in virtue of my donation then made to the funds of tho Institution , I received the current report , that for 1869 ; and have now

examined it in order to find how far it bears out Bro . Tew ' s statement .-I regret to say that , as far as the expenditure on the maintenance of the Sohool for the year 1869 is conoernod , Bro . Tew ' s assertions are very far below the mark ; so that , if the state of things at the . Boys '

School is bad now , it was worse , to a considerable extent , five years ago ; .... .... .. In the year 1869 , the Seoretary seems to have received as his personal share of tho expenditure as much as £ 817 ! The items are as follow : — - ¦ ¦ ; -.-...

Commission on " Snrplus" receipts ( p . 39 ) £ 350 0 0 Provincial travelling expenses ... ... 67 12 6 To recoup office expenses ... ... . ¦ 100 0 0 Salary ... ... ,.. ; .. ... 150 0 0 . Commission ( a second item , on p . 40 ) ... 150 0 0

£ 817 12 6 This £ 100 office expenditure thus recouped must be increased by : — Rent of office ... ... ... ... £ 36 0 0 Clork ... ... 78 18 0

Messenger ... " „ . ... " ... 10 0 0 Petty Expenditure ... ... ... 75 0 0 Printing and stationery ... ... 215 3 5 Collector ... ... ... ... 170 0 0

Making a total of £ 1 , 402 13 11 spent in secretarial and clerical expenses during a single year ; to which might fairly be added some of tho following : ¦ — Advertisements ... ... ... £ 39 6 5 Pension to past Secretary ... ... 100 0 0 '

Examination fees ... ... ... 48 19 3 Recreation of boys during holidays ... 23 14 4 Hire of omnibus for Committeo ... 19 10 0 Election expenses ... ... ... 18 11 0 Gratuities , grants and outfits to boys leaving the Institution ... ... ... 60 0 0

Making a grand total of £ 1 , 712 14 11 of actual solid expenditure confined specially to the year , and leaving nothing to show , as building does , but necessarily to be repeated to some extent every year . This heavy office expense is very nearly a third of all tho annual ex .

penses of the whole establishment , large as they are . The following was the total oxpense of tho year : — Secretarial , clerical and miscellaneous office expenses , apart from tho Institution ... ... £ 1 , 712 14 11 Salaries of 5 Masters , 1 Matron , !

wardrobe keeper , 1 Chaplain , 1 Medical Officer and 1 Drill Instructor ... ... 728 0 8 Wages of all the servants ... ... 281 . 9 0 Provisions ... ... .., ... 1 , 277 15 8 Clothing and repairs ... ... ... 703 18 7

Furniture , lineu , & c . ... ... ... 78 3 1 Earthenware , glass , & o . •••... 15 4 Coals , gas , and water ... . ... ... 34113 9 Rates and taxes ( no rent ) ... ... 154 17 3 Miscellaneous ... ... ... 177 17 6

Grand total £ 5 , 457 15 9 All this was money spent during the year for tho purposes of the year ; and on the then average of 106 boys amounts to £ 5110 s per head . Comment is superfluous .

Your obedient servant , A WEST YORKSHIRE LIFE GOVERNOR . [ Our correspondent must bear in mind that his letter cuts both ways , and that as between 1869 and 1874 the figures in the two accounts show a marked reduction for expenses of management . — EDITOR FREEMASON ' S CHRONICLE . ]

Correspondence.

To the Editor of THE FREEMASON ' S CHRONICLE . Pontefract , 2 nd Novomber 1875 . DEAR SIR AND BROTHER , —The best reply to Mr . Binokes ' a assurances , that " the aocounts of the Boys' Sohool are stated and set forth in a manner sufficiently clear for any unprejudiced enquirer to spot expenditure under every head , " is the subjoined

letter in answer to a communication from the Secretary in last week ' s Freemason . That he should again commit himself to suoh blunders must be perfectly conclusivo to the mind of every " unprejudiced enquirer" as to the manner in which the accounts aro kept . Wo have no doubt tho Secretary will assure your readers that wo are in error ; let tho proofs be adduced .

The Secretary , in his letter , admits tho correctness of our calculations , and we find from the Reports for the last three years , that the amount for " gratuities" ( only 10 s per boy ) , during this period comes to £ 31 viz : £ 9 in 1872 , £ 4 10 s in 1873 , and £ 17 10 s in 1874 ; whereas , in hi 8 letter of last week , tho Seoretary accounts for only £ 18 10 s , and this , ' too , incorrectly , as only 37 boys ,

according to Reports , left between January 1872 and December 1874 , two at least , of whom ( thero were probably more ) did not receive the " gratuity , " so that we have only 35 boys with the money award of 10 s , or £ 17 10 s : adding to this "tho most unaccountable" ( as the Secretary terms it ) charge of £ 1 5 s for silver medal , we have to subtract £ 18 15 s from our correct total of £ 314 5 s , which

gives £ 295 10 s to be accounted for , and not £ 294 10 s as shewn in Mr . Binckes ' s last letter . While the total of £ 9 , £ 4 10 s and £ 5 is , as proved , wrong ; each itom , acoording to the Reports , giving numbers of boys leaving from time to time is also wrong . At the top of third column , page 481 in last week's " ' FREEMASON , " we obsorve quoted together " Grants and Gratuities , "

whilst in the three Reports before us , " Gratuities to Boys on leaving Institution , " are put down as one item , separate and distinct from " Grants and Outfits for Boys on leaving Institution , " some three or four lines below the former item ; we do not understand the reason for this confusion , of what hitherto had always been treated as quite distinct . The "Grants and Outfits , " for 1872 wore £ 110 according to 1872 Report and See ' s letter ,

„ 1873 „ 122 „ 1873 „ „ 1874 „ 51 5 s „ 1874 „ but according to Mr . Binckes ' s last letter were £ 62 10 s , whilst the item for " Gratnities" only , according to 1874 Report , was £ 17 10 s , which the Secretary now says was only £ 5 ; here , then , wo have a difference of £ 12 10 s .

A little lower down we aro besonght to attend to tho thereto annexed statement , with an obvious inference from incon-ect data . Now , the very first item of this statement is wrong , according to the Reports for 1872 and 1873 ( two editions of the latter ) , for in these three books George Augustus Frederick How is credited with £ 5 5 s , and the total of page 37 of 1873 Report , published in 1874 ,

is £ 50 5 s and not £ 50 as the Secretary gives it . As regards four of the nine ^ blunders pointed out by us , tho Secretary styles them " Clerical errors , " though perpetrated a second time in tho Jnne edition of 1873 Report ; we hardly think yoar readers will be disposed to regard so lightly errors , involving a sum of £ 20 , in so simple a matter as the account of

appropriation of three or four hundred pounds , and wo feel we wero not far wrong in warning tho readers of our Pamphlet against them . Still lower down we have a referonco to page 48 of 1874 Report ; wo turn , accordingly , to the page and fiud , not £ 47 10 s , but £ 67 10 s for "Amount of grant not previously made or ascertained , " to which sum we suppose mnst bo added the £ 5 for marine outfit

from "Fund for the advancement of boys on leaving the Institution . " As one instance of proving an impossibility , " Samnol CoHingwood ' s " grant is adduced ; The Secretary informs us that £ 5 wero granted on 6 th June 1873 , and , as we believe , all such grants are made by the General Committee , who always meet on a Saturday , this Committee , according to Mr . Binckes ' s date , see

Calendar 1873 , mnst , in the month of June of that year , have sat on a Friday ; we find , moreover , that Samuel Collingwood is credited in the Report for 1872 with £ 5 , so that , if the grant was not formally made till somo day in June 1873 , it must have been given to the lad withont the proper sanction . Wo observe tho Secretary admits a discrepancy of £ 3 , even accordiug to his own reckoning , in which , including dates , we have pointed out twelve

jnaccnracios . - In Report for 1874 , under Stock account , a balance is stated as due to the Secretary , though not shown in the 1873 account : Bro . Cox ' s Canonbury Medal iu 1874 Report is , in one place , page 41 , put down at £ 4 , in another , page 53 , at £ 4 4 s ; in 1872 Report , pages 34 and 53 , Bros . Winn and Cox ' s Prize Money is put down

at £ 17 18 s 6 d , of which sum only £ 9 9 s appear to hare been awarded . We could point out many other discrepancies did we not feel that we have already trespassed too much on the space available in yoni columns , and we deem it due to our correspondents to state that their valued assistance has enabled us to detect several errors .

We are , Dear Sir and Brother , Yours fraternally , ( Signed ) THOMAS HILL TEW , O . G . D . PERROTT , M . A .

To the Editor of THE FREEMASON ' S CHRONICLE . MY DEAR SIR AND BROTHER , —In all probability the majority of your readers will be of opinion that you have , on the whole , dealt tolerably fairl y -with both parties in the remarks you have thought proper to offer on the extraordinary Pamphlet of Messrs . Tow and Perrott . Eqnally probably you will think me very unreasonable if