Tee District Grand Master Of Queensland.

TEE DISTRICT GRAND MASTER OF QUEENSLAND .

The recent presentation of a testimonial to R . W . Bro . the Hon . AronsTt'S C . GREGORY , District Grand Master of Queensland , of which we published a full report in our last week ' s issue , stands out with more than the usual prominence among the numerous presentations of a similar

character which have been made to leading- individual brethren during- the past few years . We beg- our readers to understand that we are very far from being desirous of in any way lessening the importance which undoubtedly attaches to those various recognitions of honourable service which have been made in different sub-divisions of the' Craft ( say ) during the last

half or quarter of a century ; and that we have not been influenced to form an unduly hig h estimate of the merils of the distinguished brother to whom this particular presentation was made by the highly flattering terms employed in his address on the occasion by the Deputy District Grand Master , to whom had been entrusted the dut 3 ' ol handing over the gift . VVe like to

believewe have , indeed , no difficulty whatever in bringing ourselves to believethat a brother who at some time during his career is singled out for the purpose of having some special honour paid to him is fully entitled to receive it . The presentation of some kind of testimonial to some worthy Mason is an event of frequent occurrence in our annals , but \ ve doubt very much if there is a case on

record in which the testimonial presented was more thoroughly deserved than ( hat which we reported last week as having taken place in Brisbane , the capital of the great Australasian Colony of Queensland , in the month of December last . The recipient of that testimonial was R . W . Bro . the Hon . Arousri-. s C . GREGORY , C . M . G ., who has been District Grand Master of Queensland

since September , 1862 , when the Colony was constituted a District Grand Lodge ; the testimonial presented to him took the form of a half-length portrait in oils , to be hung permanently in the Masonic Hall , Brisbane , together wilh a cheque with which to purchase such personal gift as might be most in consonance with the wishes of Bro . GREGORY himself ; while the

donors were the lodges and brethren over whom our distinguished brother has presided for so many years . That the Craft in this Colony should have fleeted to pay honour to such a brother is not surprising , would not , indeed , have been surprising had Bro . GREGORY borne a less conspicuous and less protracted part in the history of Freemasonry in Queensland . But ,

as Bro . HARNETT , P . G . I ) ., D . P . G . M ., was careful to point out in . hisaddress when unveiling the portrait , " the present great system " of Freemasonry now Nourishing so abundantly in Queensland sprang " from one lodge alone , and at a distance of time which is almost obscurity to some of us , and distant , inched , lo all who were connected with that lodge . You , sir , have been connected with it all that time , and you have seen this district

grow into one of very active Masonic brotherhood , and I rejoice to think that it is one where there is to be found that genuine Freemasonry which seeks to do no evil and strives to do good . But having the example of your career before us , it would indeed be strange if it were otherwise , and I am thoroughly assured that so long as we follow that example we shall do

well indeed . " This , in ordinary circumstances , would be near akin to flattery , wit m this case there is no doubt as to the truth of the statement . The oldest lnt ' Ke in Queensland is the North Australian , No . 790 , Brisbane , which was warranted by the late Earl of Zetland , M . W . G . M ., in 1859 , the three next '" ,,, eir order of seniority being the Prince of Wales , No . 90 S , Brisbane ; he

( Queensland , No . 921 , Ipswich ; and the l . eichhardt , No . 932 , Rockwnipton , all of which were constituted in I 86 J , the year in which Bro . ^ fegory was appointed by the M . W . G . M . lo be the District Grand ' ' ° f Queensland . Five years later there were added to the roll h 1 Kenned Lod No 1175 Bowenand the Victoria Lod No 1186 ,

y ge , . , , ge , . snane , while in iSfig was constituted the Pioneer Lodge , No . . ^ ' G ympie , and in 1 S 70 the Southern Cross , No . 1315 , Toowoomba . ., year following was established the St . George ' s Lodge , \ i ' ! S 72 ' Warwick , and in 1872 the Star of I he Fast , No . 1407 , \ . " ' '" " » » , uiiu 111 io / . ' me oiai 01 inu r . asi , i \ u . 14 U / ,

w , ' " ° « gh . In 1875—the year of the Prince of W u . us ' s installation as | ; j- ' , freemasonry in this distant Colon ) - felt the impetus which the chari ¦ ' £ e"Cra " y received from that auspicious event , and there were t'ul . 1 l ' }' i the Charters Towers Lodge , No . 1546 , Charters Towers , ( Vi , the Mackay , No . i « 4 , Mackay ; the Kndeavour , No . 1505 , (" ookt »»« L-Kay , i \ o . 1554 , niacKay ; tne r . ncieavour , rso . 1595 ,

if , „ ; tne Townsville , No . 151 ) 0 , Townsville ; and the Tyrian , No . ' n j , s ' - l ' ndal , er £ > following in 1876 . The Comet , No . 16 S 0 , was constituted N'o , ( j ^ . !; * af ( c-ran interval of two years the Peak Downs Lodge , c-lapso j '"" . lermont . and the Raphael , No . 1850 , Roma . Three years Herberlo ' . " ' ^ was chartered the Lodge of St . George , No . 197 S , 1 while in 1884 there were added no less than three lodges ,

Tee District Grand Master Of Queensland.

namely , the Springsure , No . 2051 , Springsure ; the Douglas , No . 2052 , Port Douglas ; and the Prince Leopold Lodge , No . 206 7 , Gympic , there having thus been constituted during the brief interval of 2 j ; years which had elapsed since the foundation in iS > , q of the senior lodge on the roll as many as 22 lodges . Since 18 S 4 the Craft has made still more remarkable progress , tho

District Grand Lodge now comprising no less than 40 lodges , the i . S which have been warranted during these few years being scattered about tho Colon ) -, and , as far as wc can judge from the reports which reach us at tolerably frequent and regular intervals , are in a fair way to remain permanently on the roll of lodges . Thus the eulogy bestowed on

Bro . GREGORY by his respected Deputy District Grand Master as the mouthpiece of the whole English Craft in Queensland is richly deserved , nor can we wonder at the latter saying both for himself and his brother Masons— "We wish to show you our appreciation of and thankfulness for the help you have brought to us in all times of difficulty and danger so far

as our Masonic affairs are concerned ; " or that as it is on account of what Bro . GREGORY has done for them that Freemasonry in Queensland occupies so sound and prosperous a condition , they should have offered him as a testimonial a portrait of himself in oils , so that they might ever retain in their central home a memorial of so distinguished a chief . As for the

personal gift , which took the form of a cheque , in order that Bro . GREGORY might make his own choice of something especially appropriate , it will have been seen that Bro . GREGORY intends consulting the District Board of Benevolence with a view to ascertaining the form in which it may be employed as " the nucleus of a fund , possibly for establishing a scholarship for the sons

of Freemasons , " or in some other way which shall prove equally or still more beneficial to the Craft in the Colony . Here , indeed , is an instance of honour having been bestowed on a brother to whom it is due , and we most cordially echo the hope that our distinguished brother may be spared for many years to preside over that Craft of which he may say truly and without the slightest exaggeration -cuiuspars martin fni .

The Fraternity Company's History*

THE FRATERNITY COMPANY'S HISTORY *

KNIGHT TFMPLARY . There is no name that will go down to Masonic posterity wilh more fame as an authority on matters connected with the Order of Rni ght Templars than that of our late beloved Bro . Col . MacLeod Moore . It is many years since I first secured his friendship , and , although I never met him in the flesh , we always maintained a close correspondence , having discovered a bond of sympathy which drew tis together , and through an interchange of

ideas enabled us to join hands across the Atlantic and work fraternally for the good of Masonry , and especially for the Order of the Temple . It was very soon after becoming a member of the Order that I had the privilege of making the acquaintance of our late gallant and distinguished brother , and I believe it was in consequence of my having written a paper attempting to connect the ancient Order of the Temple with the modern Masonic Society

that Frater MacLeod Moore lust wrote to me . At that time he held somewhat similar views to those I then propounded , but since that period both of us saw reasons for the abandonment of the ground wc then took up , and after much careful thought and investigation , we both agreed that so far as reliable authority and information up to date werj concerned , there was no justification for the belief that any connection existed between the ancient and modern Orders .

It was our revered brothers annual custom to carefully prepare an allocution , which he read before the Great Priory of Canada , of which he was the learned adornment and chief , and for a series of years these allocutionswere printed and published . The fact of their presence in the published archives of the Great Priory of Canada give to those transactions a value that they would not otherwise possess .

In his allocutions the Grand Master ad vitam for Canada entered in great detail into the history of the ancient and modern Orders , and dealt with every point wilh the greatest care . To myself the annual appearance of these essays , for they were nothing less , was an intellectual feast , and I ventured to ask my learned frater to take the trouble to arrange the whole of the information embodied in his allocutions , and publish the same in a

concise form for the benefit and instruction of the members of the Ordei throughout the world . This he has done , and the result apppears in that division of the latest American work on Freemasonry , " History of Freemasonry and Concordant Orders , " which is devoted to the subject ol British " Temptary . I have been asked to review this section of the work ,

and whilst 1 do not know that any task could afford me more pleasure , for it draws the reviewer into close contact with the memory ol one who will always appear to him to have been head and shoulders above any member of the Templar Order of his day , yet I am at the same time dillident as to my own fitness for the work that I have perhaps rashly undertaken .

In his treatise , Col . Moore gives a summarised account of the Ancient Order of the Temple from Ihe period when Hugh de Payens was the original leader and chief until the final and awful scene when its noble head , S .