The Cost Of Admission To The Schools.

THE COST OF ADMISSION TO THE SCHOOLS .

A FEW years back we called attention to the very large number of votes needed to secure the success of a candidate at one of the Elections for the Educational Charities of the Order , and we then argued that the number of proxies needed was far in 01 at it snouia

excess wn oe , Dearing m mina tne value of the benefits conferred and the initial cost of the votes needed to obtain them . But the total which was regarded then as a certain success has now to be more than doubled ere it is considered safe to venture

upon a contest with the faintest hope of coming out among the elected candidates . This rise is enormous , and seems to call for some sort of explanation , as well as the introduction of some means which shall cheek its future growth .

Seeing that votes for either the Eoyal Masonic Institution for Girls or for Boys now cost the same as they did years back , it follows that a donation to the funds of either of them now secures only half the return it did at the time we refer to , and we cannot regard this change in any other light than as a matter for the serious consideration of the Craft , or at least

of that section of it which supplies the funds annually needed to carry on the Masonic Scholastic Institutions . For the purpose of further discussing this subject , we will take our readers back to the April Elections of 1881 , that is to say , nine and a half years since . We

have not selected these Elections because they show results favourable to our arguments , but simply because we desired to go back about a period of ten years , ancl the conditions of the Elections of April 1881 are almost similar , as regards number of vacancies ,

witn tne two contests just concluded , as the following figures will show . In April 1881 twenty Boys and fifteen Girls were elected , last month the numbers were nineteen and sixteen respectively . Thus the

total is the same for the two periods , although there is a variation of one in the individual figures in the two cases . Thus no objection can possibly be taken on the ground that the comparisons are unfair in this particular between the two periods we have selected .

^ No matter what date we go to , we shall find results almost similar , and if we were to look a little further back we could make out a much stronger reason for an early and careful consideration of the points at If

> sue ; out tne figures ol 1881 will serve our purpose , and they will , we think , convince the Craft that some strange and strong influence is at work which needs attention at their hands , and a speedy stoppage .

VVe have said that twenty Boys were admitted at we Election of April 1881 , while the number at last Peek ' s contest was nineteen . In order to make the j comparison more exact , we will deal with nineteen ¦ candidates on each occasion , taking the first nineteen

01 1881 against the whole number of 1890 , although , as there were only nine votes between No . 19 and

The Cost Of Admission To The Schools.

No . 20 on the successful list of the former contest , there is no great advantage to be gained by omitting the odd one . In the case of the Girls , we have fifteen to deal with in 1881 , and sixteen in 1890 . We

shall work on similar lines here as we propose above in connection with the other Charity , and may equally refer to the small difference between the last included in our comparison , and the one omitted , which in this

case is 39 votes . We have then , the following figures „ to deal with , as showing the number of votes polled by the successful candidates at the respective periods : —

E . M . I . BOYS . R . M . I . Gluts . April October April October 1881 . 1890 . 1881 . 1890 . Votes polled by No . 1 1712 3397 2064 4212 2 1676 3146 2011 4073 3 1665 3107 1857 4014 4 1656 3099 1813 3957

5 1644 3062 1614 3832 6 1623 3055 1497 3829 7 1612 3044 1451 3771 ; 8 1575 3041 1425 3760 9 1570 3037 1376 3731 10 1562 2931 1302 3730 11 1530 2894 1264 3680

12 1522 2887 1259 3654 13 1454 2733 1221 3631 14 1451 2715 1209 3630 15 1445 2692 1163 3602 16 1431 2573 — — ¦¦ 17 1423 2525 — — 18 1385 2524 — — 19 1365 2368 — —

29301 54830 22526 57106

Grosa total , 34 candidates of 1890 111 , 936 do . do . 1881 51 , 827 Excess of 1890 over 1881 > . 60 , 109

Erom these figures it will be seen that when we said the votes of 1890 were only half as valuable as those of 1881 we were well within the mark ,, indeed we find it needed eleven votes in' October 1890 to secure similar benefits to what resulted from five in

April lbbl , and we contess we are totally at a loss to find any way of accounting for this terrible increase . It is no use saying that more money is received now , and consequently more votes are available ; the same

rate is charged for the votes now as then , and if twice the number are issued twice the quantity of benefits shoidd be available , as the votes all represent invested capital and their number should , in great

measure , give an index of the number of candidates to be elected , unless the two Schools are giving too many votes for sums paid into their coffers . This is certainly not the case , as a verv few moments

arsmment and calculation will prove , and again we have to ask what can be the cause of the enormous deterioration in the value of the votes ?

A payment of ten guineas into the Annuity Branch of the Post Office Savings Bank will produce—for a male aged about 27—a half-yearly payment of five shillings for life . A similar payment into the funds