The Approaching Festival Of The Royal Masonic Institution For Boys.

THE APPROACHING FESTIVAL OF THE ROYAL MASONIC INSTITUTION FOR BOYS .

The third and last of the great Anniversary Festivals of the year is now fast npproaching , and it becomes our duty to draw attention to the circumstances of the Royal Masonic Institution for Boys in whose behalf it will be held . The day appointed for the celebration is Wednesday , the 28 th prox ., and Bro . Lord BROOKE , Provincial Grand Master of Essex , has very kindly undertaken the responsible duty of presidingon theoccasion . The Board of Stewards

svhich will support his lordship is a sufficiently numerous one to justify our hopes that the total of donations and subscriptions which it will devolve on Bro . J . M . MCLEOD , the Secretary of the Institution , in the course of the proceedings , to announce , will suffice to meet the actual requirements of the year , and leave a'fair margin in hand for contingencies . But though the prospects

are very encouraging , it is none the less our duty to make an earnest appeal to the brethren to co-operate heartily with the Stewards in their endeavours to obtain the necessary supplies . The Institution for Boys stands at a very serious disadvantage in having so very limited a permanent income . It provides annually for the maintenance , education , and clothing of between

260 and 270 boys , at a cost of between £ 12 , 000 and £ 13 , , yet its invested capital is only slightly in excess of £ " 30 , 000 , and the dividends from this capital , with the grants from Grand Lodge and Grand Chapter , furnish a stated income of about £ " 1000 a year . This is by no means a pleasant picture to complete — this very marked disproportion between the yearly expenditure and fixed income . It necessitates that

the appeal , which is annually made to the Craft generally , must always be successful on a large scale , or — and the alternative is a particularly unpleasant one—the modest amount of savings which the authorities have been enabled , not without considerable difficulty , tc accumulate will stand a fair chance of being diminished . The time may come when even so generous a body as the Masons of England may find it very

far from an easy task to subscribe regularly every year the £ 40 , 000 or thereabouts which is now required for the maintenance of our three great Central Charities in a state of efficiency . The country may find itself involved in a war , or it may be suffering from a serious monetary crisis . Or we may be confronted with dangers and difficulties of another kind , which equally with those we have specified must have the effect of diminishing the voluntary

contributions on which these Charities arc obliged to depend ; and then it is that our Institutions will reap the benefit if they have husbanded a substantial portion of their receipts . Once our Institutions are provided with a permanent income which of itself will go a considerable way tosvards meeting their annual outlay , and the labours and anxieties which our Festivals on the present large scale on which they are held now entail will be very

appreciably diminished . In thc meantime , however , but more particularly in the case of the Boys' School , the policy of the authorities is the simple one of Paging away firstly to raise the year ' s supplies , and then with what may come in after they have been met to keep on increasing as much as possible the invested capital . That the Board of Management fully realises the necessity for a policy of this kind is shosvn by the fact that

whereas when thc old regime came to an end in 1 S 90 , the invested funds amounted to about £ " 17 , 500 , they have now been increased in the brief interval of between two and three years to some £ " 31 , 500 . this increase has been rendered possible , firstly , by the splendid success of the Festival in 1891 , when Bro . the Earl of LATHOM , Pro Grand Master , and Provincial Grand Masterof West Lancashirepresided as Chairman ; and

, p n ty tne very satisfactory average Return of last year , when the respected provincial Grand Master of Gloucestershire , Bro . Sir M . E . HICKS-BEACH , part ., M . P ., was the President . It will , however , be admitted that £ " 31 , 500 is not a very large amount of funded property for so important an Institution as our Boys' School to possess , and as there has this year been no overwhelming demand on the Dockets of the Craft , such as was made last year

when the Jubilee of the Benevolent Institution was celebrated , or in 1888 , wn . cn the Girls' School Centenary was held , we trust the ultimate issue of the approaching anniversary of this Institution will be a further considerable addition to its capital . But there are other reasons than this which it is our duty to urge on the attention of the brethren . Under the new regime the School is fulfilling aamirabl y the purposes for which it was established . It has more boys on s establishment now than at any previous period in its career . We believe

of ac tual number for which provision is made is 268 , and the course . training through which they are put fully merits the encomiums which . ave been passed upon it by competent judges . And what is of still greater thr-P ° rtance ' and wi " be thoroughly appreciated by all lovers of Freemasonry , Ma t ° " of t , 1 e School has been vastly improved under the present Head the 1 era"d ' •is staff | actin fs " in concert with the Board of Management , svhile 0 t nuer body is engaged , not only in still further strengthening the hands Sn . ed ucational staff , but is likewise formulating a plan by which boys of I cial merit and ability may be still further benefited . In short , what-Inst ' | ? ossible 's being done by the authorities to raise the character of the scho 1 "' ' anc- P Iacc •' on a Ievel wit- " tlic vcry best of our micldle-cIasi > a eo d S 0 tl ' at thosc b ° y s wn 0 are elected i u P the foundation , may stand thcrpf chance ° f making their way successfully through life . We trust , elore , that no effort will be spaced to ensure a large return of donations

The Approaching Festival Of The Royal Masonic Institution For Boys.

and subscriptions on the 28 th of June next . There is , as we have said , a strong board of Stewards , on which both London and the Provinces are adequately represented . VVe may rely upon the noble Chairman and the brethren who constitute this Board to leave no stone unturned in order to accomplish the end which they have in view ; and if the response by the lodges and brethren to their and our appeals are no more than commensurate with the earnestness with which they are made , we know full well they will not have been urged in vain .

The Recent Elections To The Royal Masonic Benevolent Institution.

THE RECENT ELECTIONS TO THE ROYAL MASONIC BENEVOLENT INSTITUTION .

The elections to the two Funds of the Royal Masonic Benevolent Institution were held on Friday , the 19 th instant , at the annual general meeting of the Governors and Subscribers . As was generally expected the competition was a very keen one , especially for the Widow Vacancies , which were fewer in number by comparison with the list of candidates for the Male Fund . Indeed , there were two widows who polled upwards of 4000 votes , and three who polled between 3000 and 4000 and yet failed to win places , while in tbe case of the men the lowest successful candidate scored 2650 votes , and there were only five below him who polled over 1000 votes . Here , hosvever , the number elected was 20 from an approved list of 61 , reduced by two deaths and a withdrawal to 58 , while 12 widows were elected from a reduced list of 54 . Taking the Funds in this order , we find that for the

MALE FUND , there werc , as we have just said , 20—including the three deferred—elected , out of a reduced list of 57 , the place of honour at the head of the poll being secured by the Herts candidate , who scored 5056 votes , at this , his first application , the brother's success being due , on chief measure , to the energy displayed by Bro . C . E . Keyser , P . G . D ., the Secretary of the Hertfordshire Masonic Charity Association . One of the 13 candidates , hailing from

London , svas placed second , with 5029 , and he likewise was a new . case ; two of the other brethren from East Lancashire , who were similarly candidates for the first time , being third and fourth , with 4953 and 4235 votes respectively . A second and nesv London candidate stood fifth , with 416 9 votes , and then followed a Kentish brother , svho started with 37 votes to the good , and raised his total to 4026 . A Devonian applicant , who

brought forward 106 votes , obtained such further support as served to increase his total to 4008 , the eighth in order being also an old candidate from Gloucestershire , who had previously obtained but four votes , and-on this occasion finished the day by polling a total of 3866 votes . London secured the ninth place with 3618 votes , of which 755 were brought forward from last year , and West Yorkshire the next two places with 3536 votes and 3528

votes respectively , the managers of the two cases having manifestly shosvn great judgment in the distribution of the votes at their command . Warwickshire , which carried three out of its four candidates , placed one of them at No . 12 on the list with 3430 votes , of which all but 30 were polled on this occasion , while the Cambridgeshire candidate , who brought forward 561 votes , and had claims on two other Provinces , stood next with

3420 votes . No . 14 , who was a new candidate from Kent , polled 3411 votes ; No . 15 , hailing from Sussex arid . having 673 votes already to his credit , was close up with 3328 votes ; No . 16 ( Warwickshire ) , with a ' few votes in hand from last year having 3284 votes j and No . 17 i ( London ) , 3202 votes . The three who brought up the rear

polled 3077 , 3049 , and 2650 votes respectively , the highest of the three hailing from Warsvickshire , the next from Essex , and the lowest from London . Thus London succeeded in winning five and the Provinces 15 places , the number of unsuccessful remaining over till next year being eight London and 30 Provincial . In the case of the

WIDOWS' FUND . The number of candidates as stated at the outset was 54—one haying died since the issue of the voting papers , while the number of elected , including the three deferred , was 12 . Here , the highest on the poll was one of seven candidates from Devonshire , who started with 263 votes to the good , and obtaining 5912 further votes , made up her total to 6175 . The second in order of votes was the widow of a West Lancashire brother , and had the

good fortune to win his election at the first attempt , with 5882 votes , one of six Kentish applicants , who brought forward 257 votes , raising her total to 5615 . No . 4 , hailing from West Yorkshire , polled exactly the same number , but all her votes were obtained at this election . No . 5 was also a new candidate , and was close up with 5605 votes , svhile No . 6 , from Hampshire and the Isle of Wight , secured her position by

adding 5337 to the 259 votes she had already had in hand at starting . No . 7 was a nesv candidate from London , who scored 5509 , and No . 8 , who hailed from the District of Bengal , put in 5024 votes , and by so doing , escaped all further anxiety about her admission to the benefits of the Charity . The next in order was a London candidate who had already standing to her

credit 825 votes and converted this figure into a round 5000 , while Essex furnished No . 11 on the list who started with 298 to the good and emerged from the ballot with 4755 votes . The last to win vacancies hailed from London and Kent respectively , and were both candidates for the first time , the number polled for the London widow being 4474 and for the Kentish