Royal Masonic Institution For Boys.

at by the Committee of Management of the Royal Masonic Benevolent Institution that they would adopt the figures for perpetual and life presentations named in Bro . Russell ' s motion if the Boys' Institution and the Girls' Institution did the

same . Bro . R ICHARD EVE said he was going to make that statement to the meeting , as he happened to be present at the Committee of the Benevolent Institution when this resolution was come to . It seemed to be the unanimous feeling of the Committees of the three Institutions . Therefore , so far as the Girls' School and the Benevolent Institution was concerned , there was no opposition . ( Hear , hear ) .

Bro . W ILLIAM RUSSELL , A . G . D . C , Vice-Patron , then rose to move— "That this Court approves of the recommendations contained in the subjoined report of the Joint Committee as to the purchase money to be charged for Life and Perpetual Presentations , and recommends its adoption , provided it be also accepted by the R . M . I . for Girls and the R . M . Benevolent Institution for Aged Freemasons and Widows of Freemasons . "

MEM . —The report of the Joint Committee above referred to is as follows : "That this Committee is of opinion that until further resolved , the amount to be accepted , by either of the Institutions , for a Perpetual Presentation should be 155 ° guineas , and for a Life Presentation 900 guineas , and that in the latter case , it should not be granted upon a Life under 21 years of age . "

He said that the above resolution he was going to put before the meeting would he believed , have the unanimous support , or at least the support of the vast majority of those who felt an interest in the welfare of the threelnstitutions . He took it that all their supporters were animated by one motive in the aid they gave to the Institutions , viz ., to treat them in a charitable and friendly way and would not ask any one of them to accept every burden without first taking care they had

sufficient remuneration for such burden ; as Bro . Peter Brown put in a letter which was read at the quarterly meeting in October last , they would put it in a charitable way and not in a hard business-like way . —( Hear , hear . ) When the discussion on this subject of presentations and the price to be paid for them first began , the Girls' School meeting took place the day before the meetieg of the Boys ; but owing to the incident of Easter this year the position of the meetings

was now reversed , and the Boys' Board of Management had to take the first step in getting confirmation of . the recommendations of the Committee . The brethren were all aware how t he first recommendation of the Board was not sufficiently wide in its scope to please the supporters of the Charities , and at the last Quarterly Court it was referred back . The Committee met again , and now they had given the Subscribers a larger

recommendation , and this was what he asked them that day to accept . He met Bro . J . A . Farnfield , the Treasurer of the Benevolent Institution , yesterday in the City , and as unfortunately the meeting which was last held , the Benevolent Institution was not represented , he immediately stopped Bro . Farnfield , and asked him what the views of that Institution were , and he said views of unqualified support . It was very gratifying to him ( Bro . Russell ) now to say that those brethren who

had been in the habit of supporting the Institutions not only with their money , but with their brains and with their time , were now practically united in the course of action which he was going to ask the meeting to approve and adopt . He did not think it necessary that he should make any long speech on the matter , for this reason—that it had been before the brethren three times , and he thought they were thoroughly acquainted with the subject ; but he would read a few figures

to support his view . The 900 guineas for a life presentation was bised on this calculation . The Committee informed themselves that the Government estimate of the life of a person of 21 was 42 years . Other Associations undercut the Government ; and , therefore , on making the calculation the Committee adopted 900 guineas , because they understood that £ 945 invested in Two-and-Three-quarter per Cents , would allow of . £ 40

per annum being drawn from it for 38 yean . Consequently it seemed a fair and reasonable sum to adopt , and the Institution would not lose much ; they might lose something ; but it was open to discussion , and therefore they adopted the figure of 900 guineas . The sum of 1550 guineas was adopted as the figure for perpetual presentations , because it was felt that they were asking the Institutions to undertake a very serious burden , a vastly more heavy burden than that provided

for by a life presentation , and that if they undertook extra risk and extra burden , •dealing with these children until time should be no more , it was right it should be properly paid for . Therefore , they compromised the sum of 1600 guineas by making the sum / 1550 and this was unanimously adopted . He would tell the brethren that that sum invested at 2 } would provide , £ 44 15 s . per annum ; but

they must remember that was in perpetuity as regarded the liability undertaken by the Institution . Whether the Institution would be able to go on getting that rate would only be known in the future . His Opinion wis , it was exceedingly doubtful , for , reading thc history of the world , they would find that the inclinv tion was gradually moving to getting less . He concluded by moving his resolution .

Bro . C . E . KEYSER , P . G . D ., in seconding the adoption of the motion , said : As one of the representatives of the Boys' School on the Committee , he was glad to find that the sums suggested were going to bind the other Institutions . They were very careful to find whether it would cost more for the Girls , the Boys , or the Old People , but he thought the sum was s ifiicient for the most extensive endowment of the three Institutions . Last Wednesday he was present at the monthly

meeting of the Committee of tbe Benevolent Institution , and he found it was by some misunderstanding that the representative of that Institution was not invited to the meeting of the Joint Committee . But Bro . Farnfield said he should have attended , even though he had not been invited , if he had known of the meeting , therefore he ( Bro . Keyser ) moved the resolution that the Benevolent •- " — \— ' - — ¦ » --w jn ** tf •••v •uu vow ibjviuuwil HIQI . hill . UCilvtUItlH

institution would accept the report if the other two Institutions also accepted •" was a very large Committee , there being as many as 30 present , and that resolution was carried unanimously . The object of the resolution was to prevent competition between the three Institutions . There was a very great temptation , they would all feel personally if they were to see uoo guineas nut

own before them and were asked to provide a perpetual endownment for memers of their families ; they would be tempted to take it ; and it was to provide , £ ainst s"ch temptation and this subject had been specially considered . He 1 ° P ? - . 'he resolution of the Benevolent Institution would be binding on that Br H'T and als 0 on the Girls' Sch ° - lt was brought up on the reference of It i ° uP 0 n the regular Agenda of the meeting and it was binding on them , vould be on the Benevolent provided the Girls' Institution at their meeting on Saturday adnni » H th » r „<^! ,,. ;„„ " £ ¦ nuvmnuii

* - •— — ••. « . , lion •(¦ RlCHARD EvE said ! t was not necessary for him to make any observa"notio " M there seemed t 0 be no opposition whatever . He therefore put the Carried unanimously , "f the ? ' f . '''Ar ! Ll-Y J' ATTHNHOKOUGH , P . A . G . D . C , Patron and Honorary Solicitor ol 111 * ? utl ?" next mov , ed— ' •Thatin order to celebrate the Centenary year

, .. ' , annum hi ' 0 " ' ' ° Urt resolves that an allowance at the rate of £ 20 per towards th ™ j . ach of the unsuccessful candidates at this year ' s elections , cated at I eoucation and maintenance , provided that such candidates be edu'he rul « 1 ° L ° a PP roved by the Board of Management , and be subject to es applicable to boys maintained and educated out of the Institution ; that

Royal Masonic Institution For Boys.

such allowance commence from the date upon which such candidates would , if elected , have been admitted into the School , and be continued until the dite of their admission into the School , or the date upon which they become ineligible for admission by reason of age . " He said the short effect of the motion was to put on the books of the Institution the whole unsuccessful candidates at the present and the October election until they were elected in the ordinary way or until they attained the age when they would be excluded under Law 7 . There were two objections at

first raised to the proposition ; one was that it would disturb the voting power and that the votes would be useless . He thought , however , that that would be at once done away with when a candidate was deprived of the allowance when he attained the allotted age of 11 if he had not been previously successful in being elected . The next objection was on the question of expense . The Chairman of the Finance Committee had gone into that question , and he had found that the total expense of making the proposed allowance to the unsuccessful boys would come to about . £ 1000 altogether . Two or three brethren suggested that the

allowance of £ 20 proposed for this time should be extended to the unsuccessful candidates until the age of 15 , but he could not put that proposition because it would have the effect of destroying the voting power at this and the October election . The reason of the present proposition was that at present they had no Institution capable of taking every one of the candidates at the April and October elections . It had been reported by the Board of Management that the next best thing to do was to have out boys in this Centenary year . He did not think he was called upon to say anything more in support of his proposition , but he was willing to answer any question the brethren might feel disposed to ask .

Bro . WILLIAM RUSSELL seconded . It seemed to him that Bro . Attenborough was proposing to pursue a middle course , and he did not think the Board of Management should be accused of being parsimonious probably and not properly recognising their own boys or those who are likely to be our boys in this happy year of the Institution ' s Centenary . If , on the other hand , they made efforts to do what the Girls' Institution did at its centenary , take in all the candidates they might be diminishing interest in it , and

when human nature found that it could not get valuable pieces of paper for money subscribed , that was the real bottom of it , they ceased to be interested , and the Board had taken warning by that , and did not propose to do anything that might be detrimental to the Institution . They felt that when ^ 1000 would help the boys they would be just in what they proposed , and they appealed , consequently , to the brethren to adopt this resolution , so that those boys who might be , unfortunately , not successful , might not be debarred from some benefits of the

Institution until they were properly elected . The laudable example set by the Girls' School they admitted , and they felt that they could not do better than what they proposed . They could not admit more boys because the School was crammed full already , but they were doing the next best thing by paying tor those outside . As it would not cost a great deal of money , from beginning to end , under ^ iooo , he had great pleasure in seconding the proposition . The motion was carried unanimously .

Bro . RICHARD EVE said the next matter upon the agenda was to receive a statement from the Board of Management respecting the progress and development of the Bushey site for the new School . After the elaborate stitement made at the last Quarterly Court , he might tell the brethren at once that the Board had very little to add . They knew the plans and the prices had been settled , and . that the plans of Messrs . Gordon , Lowther , and Co . had been accepted . Those gentlemen were excellent architects , and the Board had selected those gentlemen

to take out the quantities . This was a matter most essential , and they had drawn out smaller plans , which were requisite , to give effect to what the brethren had seen . Since the last meeting of the Board of Management , they had a special meeting to visit the site at Bushey , and they had fixed on the exact site of the Schools that were to be in the future . The representations of the Schools which the brethren had seen and the plans which had been shown to them were quite sufficient ; and what had he to say ? Until the next step had been

accomplishedthe receiving of the quantities and the consideration of the ways and meansnothing could be done ; but the Board were willing to give any information . He had only to report that all was going on as quickly and as favourably as could be wished . He congratulated the brethren and all the Institution that her Royal Highness the Princess of Wales had . most kindly and graciously fixed June 7 th to present the prizes in the Albert Hall . It would be a great meeting—( cheers)—and on June ioth his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales , Most

Worshipful Grand Master , would preside at the Festival . He hoped they would have on those occasions two great meetings , and that the result would be to the benefit of the Institution in the present and for many , many years . ( Applause . ) ( After a piuse ) . It had been intimated to him that so far as the Albert Hall and the presentation of prizes on June 7 th by the Princess of Wales , the Stewards had tickets for distribution among their friends and all those desirous of being present , but after the Stewards , they would be only too happy to give tickets to those

who were subscribers to the Institution in order that they might have an opportunity , as far as possible , of seeing the boys receiving from the hands of her Royal Highness the prizes they had so well earned . ( Cheers ) . Bro . C . E . Keyser was declared re-elected Treasurer of the Institution . Bro . C . E . KEYSER , in acknowledging the compliment , said he could only thank the brethren very much for that kind mark of their confidence . He had conceived that considering the importance of this year it would be better , as he

suggested to several brethren that they should appoint some one of higher rank than himself for this honour . Theiefore , he might say , and he said , he accepted the honour with greater pleasure than he did before . It was a very high position to hold , and he thanked the brethren for their confidence in him . ( Cheers . ) On the motion of Bro . J AMES WILLING , Jun ., , ' seconded by Bro . C . PULMAN , the following brethren were elected as members of the Council , representing the life and annual subscribers : Bros . Thomas Evans , A . Flatman , George Glover , John Harris , E . Hewett , D . Jacobs , F . Kite , F . W . Levander , G . W . Hunt , Hugo

Hempel , W . J . Rowe , and A . Woolf . The election of 10 Life Governors from a list of 13 candidates for the Board of Management was then proceeded with . At the declaration of the poll the following brethren were found to have been elected : London Brethren—Bros . Robert L ) . Cummings , Charles W . Hudson , Joseph D . Langton , W . H . Kempster , and John J . Thomas . Provincial Brethren—Bros . Charles K . Benson , George Corbie , Harry Manfield , Edward Margrett , Major Oliver Papworth , and Francis B . Westlake .

Bro . W . C . LUPTON , before the election of boys commenced desired to be informed whether at the forthcoming festival the Lady Stewards who had been invited to become Stewards on payment of two guineas' fee and five guineas personal subscription were to receive differential treatment from those who were invited to become Stewards at 10 guineas each . A letter had been received by the Prov . Grand Secretary of West Yorkshire saying the donation must be 10 guineas . Were the larger subscribers to have a differential treatment to the smaller ? If they were he did not think it was fair to those ladies who were originally invited to become Stewards .

Bro . RICHARD EVE said this did not concern the Quarterly Court . Bro . Lupton ' s observations had been duly considered , and he would ask him to attend the Jioard of Management at their next meeting . Bro . J . M . MCLEOD , Sec , added that Bro . Lupton was quite in error in saying that ladies were invited to become Stewards on a personal subscription ot five guineas , Ladies had been invited to become Stewards , but no sum was men . tioned . He wrote to Bro . Herbert Green , Provincial Grand Secretary West