The Festival Of Wednesday Next.

THE FESTIVAL OF WEDNESDAY NEXT .

A few days hence and the Festival of the Royal Masonic Benevolent Institution for the current year will be an event of the past , and nothing will remain of it but the memory of what we sincerely trust will prove a pleasant and successful celebration . The arrangements of that indefatigable Secretary , Bro .

JAMES TERRY , are all but complete . He has been able to obtain the services of upwards of 300 brethren as Stewards , who are fairly apportioned between town and country . He has enlisted the support of one of our most experienced Provincial Grand Masters as Chairman , a Provincial Grand Master , moreover ,

who can rely with confidence on the assistance of a strong and thoroughly well-organised band of lodges . To this extent , therefore , Bro . TERRY may look forward with tolerable equanimity to the near approach of that particular day in the year to the success of which he is in the habit , and has been in the habit for

close on 18 years , of devoting the greater part of that zeal and energy which he possesses in such superabundance . In fact , it was only a few weeks since he spoke with a certain amount of confidence of the results of the event which will take place on

Wednesday next , and as the prospects have undoubtedly improved since then , we , too , may be excused if we indulge in the pleasurable excitement of hoping that the total he will be called upon to announce in the course of the proceedings may be proportionate to the needs of the Institution .

Our readers , however , must not delude themselves into the belief that all is over but the shouting . Bro . TERRY may have expressed himself with a certain amount of confidence as to the

result , but , as we have made a point of observing in many previous articles , the amount required is a large one . There are needed many and many a three-figure list from the London section of the Board of Stewards and the generous contributions

of several such wealthy and well-disposed Provinces as Kent in order that so considerable a total as £ 15 , 000 may be accumulated . And this sum , even if Fortune should prove so far favourable as to ensure its realisation , will only suffice for the actual requirements of the present year . It was stated in the report we

published last week of the Committee of Management on the nth instant , that there are 147 candidates , namely , 66 men and 81 widows , on the lists for the election in May next , while the number of vacancies on the two Funds , including the deferred annuities , is 26 , of which 14 are on the Male and 12 on the

v \ idows' Fund . Probably more vacancies will arise between now and the third Friday in May , but under the most favourable conditions we may estimate that certainly 100 of these poor candidates will be found ranged , according to their respective Funds , under the head of the " Unsuccessful . " However , we have so often laid the facts before our readers that we shall rest

content with expressing ourselves as hopeful , though by no means over-sanguine , of a good result next week . Bro . TERRY nas the assistance of fewer brethren than he had last year , but , on the other hand , the distinguished brother who will preside as Chairman has a strong and loyal Province at his backwhile if

, jere is much to be desired in the case of sundry strong Provinces , which are ordinarily well represented , there is a goodly array of brethren from the London lodges . In line , the indica-1 Q ns , so far as we are able to estimate themare by no means

, unfavourable , and we trust that a week hence it will be our privie ge to congratulate the friends of this important Charity on the Enlevement of a great success at the Festival of Wednesday next . & 3

A Mistaken Idea Of Masonic Charity.

A MISTAKEN IDEA OF MASONIC CHARITY .

* n one of those elaborate Reports on Foreign Correspondn ce , of which our United States brethien are so justly proud , ^ CORNELIUS HEDGES , G . Secretary of the Grand Lodge of kj-ntana , in reviewing the recent work of the Indiana Masons , thp ° ? P them the very highest possible commendation for assistance they spontaneousl y rendered to the unfortunate

A Mistaken Idea Of Masonic Charity.

brethren of the lodges in Johnstown , Pa ., who lost their all , or nearly their all , by the terrible floods which almost entirel y swept that town away some year or two since . We fully endorse

every word of praise thus bestowed . The Johnstown sufferers lost their property , and in many , instances their lives as well , owing to a terrible calamity , and all who sent them help in their time of need acted in accordance with the best and truest

instincts of that Charity which it is one of the chiefest objects of Freemasonry to inculcate in its members . But while lauding the Indiana Masons for the kindness thus shown to the Johnstown brethren , Bro . HEDGES condemns their conduct , or the conduct of some of them , because they turned a deaf ear to the alleged

claims of the Hanley Lodge in the Idaho jurisdiction to be reimbursed a sum of 230 and odd dollars , which the latter had expended in nursing and burying an Indiana brother . In this instance we feel inclined to question the justice of Bro . HEDGES ' S criticisms . We do not consider it is an act of Charity

when a kindly office is rendered to some person in misfortune , which involves the expenditure of money , if it is rendered in the expectation that the money so expended will be reimbursed . We do not for one single moment question the kindliness of the members of this Hanley Lodge . They nursed and buried a poor

sojourner in their midst who was a member of the Fraternity , and it is more than probable that in doing so they must—¦ especially as they are described as a poor lodge—have spent what for them was a considerable sum of money . But their kindness can never have attained to the level of pure Charity if

they rendered it in the belief that the money would be returned to them . But while we must deny these Hanley brethren the exhibition of true Charity in this particular instance—their conduct towards the poor sojourner , whatever may have been the expectations they formed afterwards , shows them to be

thoroughly good men—we so far agree with Bro . HEDGES as to blame the Indiana brethren still more severel y for turning a deaf ear to the request of the Hanley Lodge . It was not , as we have said , true Charity to relieve a brother ' s necessities and then ask for repayment , but still less does it realise our ideal of the same

virtue when we read of men refusing to recoup moneys expended in nursing and burying a member of their own jurisdiction . The Hanley Masons did what was right , though from a wrong

motive—or shall we say under a wrong impression—but the Indiana Masons have done wrong morally , though they may be able to justify their conduct from a strictly legal point of view , and deserve no sympathy .

Masonic Ceremonial At St. Mark's, Tembuland.

MASONIC CEREMONIAL AT ST . MARK'S , TEMBULAND .

St . Mark's is a village in Tembuland , just over the Kei River , which forms the dividing line between the Territories and the Cape Colony proper . It is comprised of a few houses which have grown up round a Mission Station , founded ancl carried on by the energy of a great and good man and Mason , the late

Venerable Archdeacon Waters , who obtained a grant of the ground from the Chief Kreli , and after a life of self-denying labour , passed to his eternal rest at East London in the year 1883 , the present editor of this paper performing the duty ot reading the Masonic burial service over his remains . To

commemorate the memory of one who had done so much for the cause of religion and humanity in South Africa , a project has been set on foot to build a memorial church , and the foundationstone of this was laid on the 6 th of January by the BB . of Lodge Star in the East , Queenstown , of which lodge the late Bro .

Waters was for many years Chaplain . W . Bro . J . Ryan , P . D . G . W ., acted as Presiding Officer , assisted by the following : W . Bro . Melrose , as W . M . ; W . Bros . Ramfert , C . Howse , and

Col . Griffith , M . L . A . ; Bros . J . Charlton , S . W . ; J . Carlisle , J . W . ; H . Tiffin , P . M ., Treas . ; W . K . Mager , P . M ., Sec ; Rev . A . Grant , P . D . G . C , Chap . ; W . J . Hughes , as S . D . ; Harry Ross , as J . D . ; F . W . Strong , as LG . ; F . W . J . Westlake , P . M .,