Expenditure At The Boys' ' School.

EXPENDITURE AT THE BOYS ' ' SCHOOL .

THE serious attention of the Craft is invited to the fact that the income of the Royal Masonic Institution for Boys fell short of the bare necessary expenditure during 1890 , to the amount of

. £ 860 17 s 2 d , which sum would have been largely augmented but for the receipt of £ 1500 paid in on account of the Festival of 1891 . This is one of the cheering items in the report just issued by the

Provisional Management Committee of the Institution , and will doubtless secure from the Craft not only the serious attention asked for , but will likewise call for serious inquiry as to how so large a deficiency

arises . It certainly does not seem a satisfactory result after the tremendous economy sought to be demonstrated by the Committee when they issued their accounts for the last half of 1889 , when they professed to have reduced the expenditure per boy from £ 50 16 s to £ 39 5 s tier annum .

We were severely taken to task at that time for doubting the accuracy of the statements put forth , but expressed ourselves as satisfied to wait the natural course of events , and see what the then

future would bring forth . We expressed an opinion twelve months back that the accounts of that period were so prepared as to create a false impression ,

and we now ask the Craft if our remarks were justifiable , or " very far " from correct ?

The gross expenditure for 1890 , as given in the balance sheet just issued , was £ 13 , 312 Is lid . This distributed amonff the 264 children on the

funds of the Institution gives an average of £ 50 8 s 6 d per boy—a tremendous jump from the £ 39 5 s which was claimed last year on the

statement of accounts then presented . Efforts have been made elsewhere to create a false impression in

regard to the average cost per boy , by conveniently leaving a large item of expenditure on so-called improvements out of the reckoning . This mav be

legitimate , but it was not so recognised by those who put the Provisional Management Committee

into power , when it helped them to make up a strong case against the old executive ; and it is a questionable course to adopt now , when it makes matters appear somewhat in their own favour . In the

accounts which gave an annual average of £ 50 16 s per boy , as the cost at the Institution , there was an item of £ 736 4 s 3 d for household reauisites . and

another of £ 501 19 s 9 d for repairs and renewals . These two sums , amounting together to £ 1238 4 s , were referred to at the time as exceptional , and it

was urged that allowance should be made on account of them in striking the average , but to do so would have weakened the case " created " bv the

Committee of Investigation , who could not afford to lose such a large amount of expenditure from their summary . Why , then , should these same men

Expenditure At The Boys' ' School.

ignore the £ 2 , 183 16 s 7 d spent in 1890 on " improvements , " which , after all , are virtually the same as " repairs and renewals " ? Simply because

in the one case they wanted to make out as heavy an expenditure as possible , while in the other they want to try and justify their empty boast of 1890 ,

that they had reduced the expenditure per head by about 23 per cent . But figures are dangerous matters to play with , and although—as we pointed

out last year—they can be made to prove almost anything in the hands of a skilful manipulator , they have an unpleasant knack of retaliating on

those who seek to make them subservient to personal desires . A year back we said we were content to wait for results ; we have waited , and we are now

content in knowing that the defence we then made on behalf of the late Secretary and Committee of the Institution was justifiable , while the fierce

and un-Masonic assaults made on the old executive were undeserved and unfounded . That there was room for improvement we never denied , but that the severe and even cowardly attacks of the reformers

were justifiable , we never admitted , and to-day we have the best of proof—the balance-sheet of the " new brooms "—to support our opinion . The

reformers , as they like to be called , have miserably failed in their endeavours , and among the many evils they have created for the Royal Masonic

Institution for Boys is a deficiency of £ 2 , 360 17 s 2 d on a year ' s work ( for the borrowing of £ 1 , 500 from the 1891 Festival still makes the 1890 receipts short

of that amount ) , a deficiency they will find it very difficult to smooth over , much less make up . The

loudest speakers are often the most quiet in action , and it would not be a very hard task to demonstrate that many of those who made the noise in advocating a change in the working of the Boys' School two years back have since been conspicuously quiet in

interesting themselves on its behalf . Some of these were clever enough to secure a following to bring about an alteration , and it is for the present

supporters of the Charity , men who do not care to see the old Institution wholly wrecked , to express an opinion as to whether the change has not proved

a descent , from bad to worse . A few advantages may have been secured , but who shall estimate the amount of injury that has been wrought ? Are the members of the Provisional Management

Committee satisfied with their labours ? Can they tell the subscribers to the Institution that they have succeeded in the work they were asked to perform ?

Or do they share with us the opinion that a false impression was created prior to their appointment ? Further than this , will the Craft believe that they

have satisfactorily discharged the work required of them ? Does it not rather seem they were invested with false powers , or at least asked to perform a

labour which was impossible , and cure evils which did not exist ? On the whole then , they may not be much to blame , except in circulating that unfor-