Ar00100

CONTENTS . PAGE . L EADERSThe Removal of the Boys' School ... ... ... ... 5 61 Coloured Freemasonry in the U . S . A . ... ... ... ... 5 ° Provincial Grand Lodge of Devonshire ... ... ... ... 5 <_ 3

Consecration of the Trinity Lodge . No . 2595 ... ... ... ... 5 ° 3 Provincial Grand Lodge of West Yorkshire ... ... ... ... 5 3 Provincial Grand Mark Lodgeof Lancashire ... ... ... ... 5 fi 4 Laying Foundation Stone of a New Bridge at Glasgow ... ... 5 4 J ubilee of the Lorlge of Honour , No . 526 , at Wolverhampton ... ... 5 C 15 Craft Masonry ... ... ¦•• ¦•¦ ••¦ 5 S

M ASONIC NOTESThe Removal of the Boys' School ... ... ... ... 5 7 Annual Meeting of the Provincial Grand Lodge of Gloucestershire ... 567 Proceedings of the Grand Lodge of Washington ... ... ... 5 67 Correspondence ... ... ••¦ ••• ••• 5 ^ 8 Masonic Notes and Queries ... ... ... ... ... 5

Craft Masonry ... ... ... ¦•• ••• 5 Mark Masonry ... ... ... ¦¦• ••• 57 Knights Templar ... ... ... ••• ••• 57 2 Board of Benevolence ... ... ... ••• ••• 57 2 Our Portrait Gallery ... ... ... ... ... ... 57- * Masonic and General Tidings ... ... ... ... ... 574

The Removal Of The Boys' School.

THE REMOVAL OF THE BOYS' SCHOOL .

In our article of last week on this subject we contented ourselves with Reviewing the discussion which took place on the proposed purchase of a property at Bushey , near Watford , in the County of Herts , at the Quarterly General Court of

Governors and Subscribers on Friday , the gth inst . In the present article , it is our intention to lay before our readers , as briefly as possible , a resumd of the proceedings from the outset , so that tliey may be in a position to know what steps have been taken

from time to time by the Board of Management in reference to the proposed removal and under what authority ; and also the character and extent of the opposition which sundry of the Provinces and Provincial Associations have raised to the scheme .

It will doubtless suffice if we state as regards the preliminary steps taken prior to , and inclusive of , the Quarterly General Court on the ioth April last , that the question was first raised at the Festival held at Brighton in 1 S 91 , when the Earl of

LATHOM , the Chairman of the day , expressed his opinion that the present site vvas a very undesirable one for such an Institution , firstly , because of the clayey nature ol the soil , and secondl y , because the surrounding neighbourhood was

overcrowded with an inferior class of dwelling-houses . His lordship , however , was careful to supplement this expression of his opinion by pointing out with a very distinct emphasis , that after a 'l it was a question of " money" and would have to be very

carefull y considered . At the Quarterly General Court held in April , 18 92 , authority was given to the Board of Management " to entertain negotiations for the realisation of the Estate of tht Institution to the best advantage , " and the Board at once

appointed a Committee of its members to deal with the question . After a lapse of nearly four years the Board , feeling , no doubt , for very satisfactory reasons , that its powers were not sufficiently ai ; i ple , sought and obtained authority from the Quarterly Court

• 'd , as already stated , on the ioth April last , to entertain negotiations for the purchase of a new site , it being at the same time clearl y understood that nothing conclusive would be done without '" e further sanction and approval of the general body of Governors

and Subscribers in Quarterly Court assembled . Under the additional powers thus granted , the Board acting through the medium of lts Honorary Solicitor , Bro . STANLEY J . ATTENBOROUGH—to

w hom belongs the credit of having carried to a successful issue a difficult and delicate negotiation—entered into a provisional c ° ntract with the owner of a property at Bushey , in the County

The Removal Of The Boys' School.

of Herts , to purchase for £ 13 , 000 some 66 acres of land , which from the reports of the geologist and surveyors they called in to advise them , appeared in every respect suitable for the purposes of the Institution ; a deposit of £ 650 being paid to the owner on

the understanding that , if the Court of Governors declined to sanction the contract , a portion of the said deposit amounting to / . 200 should be forfeited . Tlie Court of Governors , however , on the 9 th inst ' ., gave their sanction and approval to Ihe contract

provisionally entered into by the Board and consequently there will be no payment of any forfeit . Such is a clear and accurate statement of what has been done , as far as the Board is concerned , since the advisability of removing the School was first mooted at the Festival in 1891 .

In the meantime a warning note of the opposition that might be expected to such a proposal was sounded On the 18 th May the Charities Committee of the Provincial Grand Lodge of North and East Yorkshire , without consulting Bro . SMITHSON ,

their representative on the Board of Management ; without , as far as we can make out , informing him of the course they proposed to adopt ; and undoubtedly without waiting to know what course the Board of Management proposed to take under the

additional powers they had received the month previous , passed a resolution objecting to the sale of the School premises or the purchase of a site for the new School , and requesting that before any steps were taken in this direction , an appeal should be

made to the general body of Subscribers with a view to ascertaining their opinion on the subject . Since then the Provinces of East Lancashire and West Yorkshire have expressed themselves to the same , or a similar , effect . On the other hand ,

several other Provinces , including those of Kent , Cornwall , Nottinghamshire , and Leicestershire and Rutland , have passed resolutions of confidence in the Board of Management that thev will do what is for the good ofthe Institution and for the benefit

of Freemasonry . Our Correspondence Columns have also contained sundty * letters , some in favour of the proposal , some in opposition to it , and some proposing that a middle or other course should be pursued . But though our readers may

carefully peruse the resolutions that have been passed in opposition to the scheme , they will not find in any one of them a single argument of any real value against the proposal . Almost the very same remark may be made in reference to the opposition

speeches at the Quarterly Court on the 9 th instant . Last week vve ventured to describe the arguments adduced in them as of the flimsiest character , but we should have been much nearer the mark if we had said that arguments were conspicuous by their

absence from all the speeches made by the opposition . For instance , there is nothing in the resolutions or speeches we are thus pointedly referring to in contradiction of the main grounds advanced for the removal . No one has dreamt of denying that

a clay soil is less conducive to health than other soils , or that the estate is not hedged in on all sides by a crowd of dwellinghouses of an inferior character . It appears to be very generally admitted that sooner or later there will have to be an increase

in the number of children on the establishment , but the onl y suggestion offered with a view to meeting this prospective increase is that more boys should be " out-educated" than at present , and , as Bro . BODENHAM pointed out in his very sensible

letter , there is no need for putting the Institution to the trouble of electing candidates to be thus dealt with , when the Provinces can do this—indeed , very many of them are already doing thisfor themselves . But apart from this suggestion , which is reason-