Royal Masonic Institution For Boys.

ROYAL MASONIC INSTITUTION FOR BOYS .

Nothing could have been more satisfactory than the manner in which the proceedings at the Quarterly General Court , on Friday , the 31 st ult ., were carried out . There was a tolerably full attendance of Governors and Subscribers , and , what is still more important ,

the bitterness of feeling which has been exhibited at many of the later Courts and Committees on this occasion was , to use a conventional expression , conspicuous by its absence . It was originally the intention of the Provisional Committee to

recommend that a pension of £ 250 per annum for life should be granted to Bro . BlNCKES on retiring from the office of Secretary , in substitution for one of £ 350 which had been carried only by a very narrow majority at the previous Court . But the proposal

was not pressed , as the same Provisional Committee had , in the interval between its declaration of this intention and the clay appointed for this meeting of the Court , given its sanction and approval to a scheme which , while it would secure to Bro .

BlNCKES a life annuity of equal value , would , at the same time , not trench upon the resources of the Institution . By this scheme , as our readers have already learned , it is proposed to raise by subscription among the Craft generally such a capital sum

— £ 2500—as will suffice to purchase for Bro . BlNCKES a life annuity of £ 250 . ' This sum , indeed , has alread y been advanced by a very distinguished brother , on the understanding that it shall be reimbursed by subscription in the manner indicated ,

within a period of six months , and that any excess that is obtained over and above the necessary £ 2500 shall be handed over to the funds of the School . Under these circumstances , the General Court unanimously endorsed with its approval the

scheme to which the Provisional Committee had lent the weight of its sanction , and the necessity for considering the motion which the latter had , in the first instance , intended to submit no longer existed . As regards the motion to award Bro . Dr . MORRIS

a sum of & 450 as a kind of honorarium for his- services , it was defeated almost unanimously , the late Head Master having , as Bro . EVE , Past Grand Treasurer , announced , given a receipt for £ 255 paid him in full of all demands . Thus the two great difficulties with which the brethren were confronted on the eve of

last week ' s General Court have been satisfactorily disposed of , and it onl y now remains for the members to use their utmost influence among the Craft generally in order to raise the £ 2500 in reimbursement of the sum advanced for the purchase of Bro .

BlNCKES'S annuity . That the scheme for obtaining this sum is a good one , and reflects credit on the brethren who conceived and worked it out , cannot be doubted . The amount is large of itself , but seeing that it is only proposed to invite the lodges in town and

country to contribute at the rate £ 2 10 s . per lodge towards its realisation , we apprehend there will be little or no difficulty in obtaining it . Moreover , the idea is such an excellent one of relieving just this particular Charity , which has the smallest permanent income ,

of what undoubtedly would prove a considerable permanent charge , and at the same time of recognising the very long and meritorious services which Bro . BlNCKES has rendered , that we cannot bring ourselves to believe there will be any hesitation on

the part of any of the lodges in voting their respective quotas . It is not often we hear of a scheme , cleverly devised as this lias been , to effect the double purpose of enabling the Craft to

suitabl y recognise the services of a valued public servant without trenching upon the funds of an Institution , which , at all times , but more especially now , stands in need of all the sup-Port that can be obtained for it ; and we say again , the Craft is

Royal Masonic Institution For Boys.

under a deep debt of gratitude both to the brother—Bro . W . F . SMITHSON , Honorary Secretary of the West Yorkshire Charity Association—who reduced it to practical working order , and " the distinguished brother " who originated it , for affording the Governors and Subscribers an honourable mode of escape from a very serious dilemma .

Attendance Of Past Masters.

ATTENDANCE OF PAST MASTERS .

It appears from the report , to which we referred last week , of the proceedings at a regular communication in June last of the District Grand Lodge of the Eastern Division of South Africa , that a long discussion took place on a motion submitted by Bro .

Dr . DARLEY-HARTLEY , Past D . G . D ., to the effect that the Secretaries of lodges , in making their annual returns to the District Grand Secretary , should include a return of the several stated

and emergency meetings which each Past Master had attended . Bro . DARLEY-HARTLEY argued that there were Past Masters and Past Masters . There were those who never ceased to take an

active interest in the work of the lodge , who were regular in their attendance , and who were always ready to undertake any duty from that of W . M . to Tyler . On the other hand , there were those who , having once passed the chair , never troubled

themselves further with the business of the lodge and rarely , if ever , attended its meeting ' s . He maintained that the return he proposed should be made , was necessary in order that the Uis-. trict Grand Master , in his distribution of District honours , might

know what manner of men they were who were entitled to receive them and make his awards accordingly . Bro . DARLEYHARTLEY deprecated the idea that in proposing his motion he was in any way desirous of trenching upon the prerogative of

the District Grand Master , his object being to place him in possession of that information respecting the Past Masters in his District , which it was impossible for him to have under existing circumstances . In spite , however , of Bro . DARLEY-HARTLEY '

eloquent speech , the motion was decisively and , we think , wisely rejected . We are well aware that our worthy brother ' s classification of Past Masters is correct , and that there is hardly a lodge holdingunder the Grand Lodge of England , which is old enough

to have a fairly numerous array of Past Masters , of which it cannot be said that many of these worthies are as invariabl y absent from , as others are invariably present at , its meetings . But what then ? The absent Past Masters have done their share

of work , they remain subscribing members in order to be able to retain their status in the Craft , and they very naturally leave the bulk of the work to be done by the younger brethren . Bro . DARLEY-HARTLEY admitted that there were Past Masters who

accepted office as Treasurer , Secretary , or what not , and were diligent in attending to their duties , while , on the other hand , he failed to show that there were any lodges which had suffered any detriment by reason of the absence of their Past

Masters who had no duties to perform . His main contention in behalf of his motion was that occasionally some Past Master who never went near his lodge obtained District honours . Well , we like to see Past Masters supporting their lodges by their

attendance , as well as by their subscriptions ; but we consider it is far better that a District honour should occasionally be bestowed on a Past Master who is generally absent from his lodge , and

who , for that reason and that reason only , is supposed to be less worthy of it than others , than that the whole body of Past Masters of a District should be annually called upon to give an account of themselves . There are lodges which suffer by the