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Article THE MASONIC PROVINCE OF SUMATRA. ← Page 2 of 3 →
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The Masonic Province Of Sumatra.
at a time when quorums were not every-day occurrences . Peter Gilkes * hacl an exalted opinion of quorum numbers , e . g ., "Never mind , " ( he would say ) , " the P . G . M . for Sumatra ancl myself are , in my opinion , the most useful members , for they do manage to make a quorum , when we are present , which is not ahvays the case when we are not . " He was re-appointed on the Board in 1829 , ancl has been regularly so until the present day ; he has also been President of the Board of Finance .
I cannot gainsay , or vouch for , the holding any Provincial { Grand Lodge by him ; but I fail altogether in obtaining any satisfactory information relative to Art . 6 , p . 55 , of the Constitutions ; as however there is but one Lodge stated by the Calendar , to be under the sway of the P . G . M . for Sumatra ( if such Lodge really exists at all ) , it can be a matter of no importance whether it be held as a private or Provincial Grand Lodge . The matter altogether is a farce . You are mistaken about the payment of the fees of honour and the
P . G . M . himself , who , "Obscuris vera involvens" has , in some degree tended to the mistake . I in common with many , understood him to say in Grand Lodge , " with respect to the fees of honour , they were in my case remitted . " He probably meant to say , " a portion of the fees of honour were in my case remitted ; " whereas , he should have said , " In my case , being a district Provincial Grand Master , I was only called on for 21 / . which sum I paid on my appointment . "
, Seneca observes , " Veritas simplex oratio est ; " but some folks will make a mystery even of truth . It is perfectly clear that the P . G . M . did pay the 21 / ., as will be seen by reference to the Grand Treasurer ' s account in March , 1822 , together with three guineas ( the custom then ) , as the honorarium to the Grand
Secretary . It is also clear that by the Constitutions ( p . 110 ) , a district Provincial Grand Master is exempted from the payment oi 21 / . to the fund of Benevolence provided the Brother be a resident in such district . Now , as the residence could not have extended to two years , voyages , " et cetera , " included—say from May , 1825 , to April , 1827—and as the P . G . M . for Sumatra is very often the presiding officer of the Board of
Benevolence , it would be but a decent compliance with the spirit of the law , if he were no longer to avail himself of the mere letter thereof . Some folks may have doubts whether being no longer " a resident" of Sumatra ( many sincerely wish he were an actual resident there ) , the money is not positively due by him to the Lodge of Benevolence . The point may be reserved ; as the judges sometimes phrase it " We'll take a note , Brother . "
The Brother in question having been appointed previous to the cession of the colony to the Dutch , the opinion given by " Quid Nunc " ancl yourself does not hold . I have previously adverted to the part taken by the late Bro . Meyrick in this appointment ; it is only due to him to observe that he never would have meddled with it , had he supposed it possible that he was likely to be the means of placing over the heads of all the Grand Officers of England , a Brother who might be well suited for so limited a sphere
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Masonic Province Of Sumatra.
at a time when quorums were not every-day occurrences . Peter Gilkes * hacl an exalted opinion of quorum numbers , e . g ., "Never mind , " ( he would say ) , " the P . G . M . for Sumatra ancl myself are , in my opinion , the most useful members , for they do manage to make a quorum , when we are present , which is not ahvays the case when we are not . " He was re-appointed on the Board in 1829 , ancl has been regularly so until the present day ; he has also been President of the Board of Finance .
I cannot gainsay , or vouch for , the holding any Provincial { Grand Lodge by him ; but I fail altogether in obtaining any satisfactory information relative to Art . 6 , p . 55 , of the Constitutions ; as however there is but one Lodge stated by the Calendar , to be under the sway of the P . G . M . for Sumatra ( if such Lodge really exists at all ) , it can be a matter of no importance whether it be held as a private or Provincial Grand Lodge . The matter altogether is a farce . You are mistaken about the payment of the fees of honour and the
P . G . M . himself , who , "Obscuris vera involvens" has , in some degree tended to the mistake . I in common with many , understood him to say in Grand Lodge , " with respect to the fees of honour , they were in my case remitted . " He probably meant to say , " a portion of the fees of honour were in my case remitted ; " whereas , he should have said , " In my case , being a district Provincial Grand Master , I was only called on for 21 / . which sum I paid on my appointment . "
, Seneca observes , " Veritas simplex oratio est ; " but some folks will make a mystery even of truth . It is perfectly clear that the P . G . M . did pay the 21 / ., as will be seen by reference to the Grand Treasurer ' s account in March , 1822 , together with three guineas ( the custom then ) , as the honorarium to the Grand
Secretary . It is also clear that by the Constitutions ( p . 110 ) , a district Provincial Grand Master is exempted from the payment oi 21 / . to the fund of Benevolence provided the Brother be a resident in such district . Now , as the residence could not have extended to two years , voyages , " et cetera , " included—say from May , 1825 , to April , 1827—and as the P . G . M . for Sumatra is very often the presiding officer of the Board of
Benevolence , it would be but a decent compliance with the spirit of the law , if he were no longer to avail himself of the mere letter thereof . Some folks may have doubts whether being no longer " a resident" of Sumatra ( many sincerely wish he were an actual resident there ) , the money is not positively due by him to the Lodge of Benevolence . The point may be reserved ; as the judges sometimes phrase it " We'll take a note , Brother . "
The Brother in question having been appointed previous to the cession of the colony to the Dutch , the opinion given by " Quid Nunc " ancl yourself does not hold . I have previously adverted to the part taken by the late Bro . Meyrick in this appointment ; it is only due to him to observe that he never would have meddled with it , had he supposed it possible that he was likely to be the means of placing over the heads of all the Grand Officers of England , a Brother who might be well suited for so limited a sphere