The Philadelphia-Boston Question.

THE PHILADELPHIA-BOSTON QUESTION .

We notice that the rival claims of Philadelphia ancl Boston to be the mother-city of American Freemasonry are again to the front , and are being discussed , in some quarters , at all events , with a very considerable amount of bitterness . Except in so far as it may tend to elucidate the truth as to the establishment of

the first lodges on American soil , the question is not one vvhich materially affects us . Our Grand Lodge is on the friendliest terms with the Grand Lodges of Pennsylvania and Massachusetts , both of which derive their origin from us . We naturally watch with keen interest the arguments adduced now in favour of

Pennsylvania , now in favour of Massachusetts ; but our American brethren , and more particularly those resident within the jurisdiction of the rival Grand Lodges , will readily understand that , except historically , it cannot materially affect us whether Boston or Philadelphia is ultimately successful in the assertion of its

claims : Both have our sympathies , because the contest between them is an honourable one ; and if it were in our power to determine the result by awarding the palm of merit to both , we should do so without the slightest hesitation . This , however , is quite impossible , and therefore we content ourselves with watching the

progress of the controversy , only interposing from time to time a few remarks , when we think they may help to place the question more clearly before the general body of Masons . Thus the present appears to us to be a favourable opportunity for reminding those who are engaged in this argument that there are certain

established facts which it is impossible for them to overlook or ignore . One of these is that the Deputation issued to Bro . DANIEL COXE as Prov . Grand Master for New York , New Jersey , and Pennsylvania in 1730 antedates by some three years that issued to Bro . HENRY PRICE in 1 733 . Another is . that the ledger

book ( Liber B ) of the St . John ' s Lodge , Philadelphia , for the years 1731-38—for the discovery of which we are indebted to Bro . CLIFFORD McCALLA , present Grand Master of Pennsylvaniapoints indisputably to the fact of there having been a lodge working in Philadelphia two years before Bro . HENRY PRICE '

patent of 1733 . ft may not be possible—without the production of further evidence it is unquestionably impossible—for us who are living 160 years after the circumstances in question , to prove that the St . John ' s Lodge , Philadelphia , of 1731 , was the outcome of COXE ' S Deputation of the year previous . But there

is nothing unreasonable in connecting these two facts together , and deducing from them the inference that the origin of American Freemasonry dates from the period 1730-31 . COXE may never have done anything to promote the establishment of lodges either in Philadel phia or elsewhere in the district assigned to him

by his deputation , andthe St . John's Lodge , Philadelphia , of 1731 , may have had no warrant or charter which justified it in meeting and working as a lodge . In either case the fact remains that the lod ge did meet and work some two years before anything in the shape of Grand , Provincial Grand , or private lodges was set up

in Boston by virtue of PRICE ' patent . It may have dropped from the sky , or it may have crossed the Atlantic in the packet boat of those days ; but no matter how or whence it came or by virtue of what authority it set itself up in Philadelphia , the production of Liber B establishes most clearly the fact of its having

been very much in existence during the period to which that book refers . It matters nothing if it were a chartered lodge or not . In the days we are referring to the work of Masonry was not done with the mathematical precision of the present age , and it ] s absurd to apply as a test of a lodge ' s legitimacy a century and

3- half ago the rules which are now in existence . There is , however , no overcoming the fact of this lodge having been at Work in Philadelphia in 173 1 and for some years subsequently . / his is as far as we think the evidence which has thus far been

broug ht to light justifies us in going , and here , therefore , we bring our remarks to a close , with a reminder to those engaged In _ the controversy , that it is always possible to argue a case With courtesy , if not with dignity . Such a statement as that " within twenty years last past there has been a serious

The Philadelphia-Boston Question.

attempt in Philadelphia to manufacture false history , " has in it nothing in common with the spirit of Freemasonry . It disgraces him who writes it more than it injures the person or persons

against whom it is written ; nor , as far as we know , has there been anything in the conduct of those who support the claims of Philadelphia which would in any way justify so gross an allegation ;

The Craft In New Zealand.

THE CRAFT IN NEW ZEALAND .

We continue to receive many communications from New Zealand from which it is clear that the bitterness of feeling we have before referred to has by no means as yet calmed down . These communication * represent , we might almost say , nearly every conceivable opinion on the present disorganised state of

Freemasonry in the Colony , and the causes which have produced it , but though vve should gladly deal vvith all of them , and especially vvith the long and elaborate letter of Bro .. the Rev . W . RONALDSON—who we readily admit has . expressedhis views ; in

favour of the new Grand Lodge in a temperate and kindly spirit—we can only find space to refer to one or two matters , which appear to us to be of the greatest moment . As to the address of Bro . Sir FRED . WHITAKER , Prov . Grand Master of the North Island of New Zealand under the Scotch

Constitution , to the lodges under his obedience , ¦ ' and the appendices thereto , we have to remark that the former is temperate and firm in language , and that . ' of the . seceding Scotch lodges of this district act in the spirit which that distinguished brothei * has shown , there ought to . be no difficulty in carrying out

the secession—if secession there must be—in a just and equitable manner . The appendices show ; that the Proy . Grand Master has been supported'in the course he has seen fit to adopt by the Grand Lodge of Scotland in cases , where a majority of the lodge have seceded , but a minority of three or upwards has

remained . On the other hand , the proceedings of the . District Grand Lodge of Canterbury ( N . Z . ) under the English Constitution , on the 16 th October last , show that our Grand Lodge adheres to the ' Grand Registrar ' s ruling , re Article 219 , namely , that such article was never intended to apply to the case of

lodges retiring from a Constitution , and consequently that the minority is not competent to retain and continue working under the warrant if a majority has declared in favour of seceding . Here then we have a conflict of ruling between the Grand Lodges of England and Scotland , which cannot be said to improve the

already sufficiently disorganised state of the Craft in the Colony . We have also received a Return—which we are told by its compilers has been prepared " from official Returns , " and is "thoroughly reliable "—showing the distribution of lodges in New Zealand on the ist October , 1890 . From this it appears

that the lodges remaining faithful to the old system are 9 6 in number , namely , 59 English , 8 Irish , and 29 Scotch ; while those which have seceded and work under the authority of the so-called Grand Lodge of New Zealand are 52 , namely , 28 English , seven Irish , and 17 Scotch . It is only fair to state , that the figures , given

by Bro . the Rev . W . RONALDSON in his letter , for the 14 th October , 1889—or nearly a year previous—show 92 lodges out of a . total of 147 as having voted in favour of the Grand Lodge movement ; 34 lodges as not having decided , and 21 lodges , as being opposed to it .

However , in the midst of all this gloom , there is just one ray of light . It is good news that Bro . the Earl of ONSLOW , P . S . G . W . of England , who is Governor of the Colony , and would have been Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of New Zealand had the brethren been practically unanimous in their desire for

its establishment , has taken steps by calling a meeting of the leading Masons of the four Constitutions , with a view to putting an end to the present disordered state of the Craft . What will

be the result of the Governor s action remains to be seen , but we hope it will be possible to discover a plan by which Freemasonry in this flourishing Colony can be freed from its present discord .