District Grand Lodge Of Bengal

Seconded by W . Bro . Turner , and carried unanimously . The Acting District Grand Secretary reported concerning the question of the lodge-building at Agra .

Permission having been accorded by the District Grand Master in the Chair , W . Bro . Locke read the following , being a portion of Art . 50 of the bye-laws of District Grand Lodge , under the Chapter " Lodges placed in abeyance . " " The presiding Officer of a Iodge , at the time

of its being placed in abeyance , shall , with the above report [ a report concerning the necessity of placing the lodge in abeyance ] forward an account of the Lodge Property and Funds ; and he will be guided by such instructions as may be communicated to him by the District Grand

Master , with the view of holding the property and funds in trust until the lodge may be reopened ; but if it be not resuscitated within two years , they shall be disposed of , and the proceeds made over to the Fund of Benevolence . Wor . Bro . Roberts expressed himself as

satisfied . The report of proceedings of Grand Committee of the Fund of Benevolence , having been printed and circulated , were taken as read , received and ordered to be recorded . Bro . Roberts had to make a remark which , he

said , perhaps hardly came within the four comers of this report , but a mistake had been made , connected with the Fund of Benevolence which he thought should be set right . In the list of the members of the Executive Sub-Committee , a name , that of Bro . W . H . Jones , had

been left out . There was also another mistake , the name of Bro . Le Franc had taken the place of W . Bro . Frew , but this was not perhaps a matter of very much consequence now , as Bro . Frew had gone away from Calcutta and his place on the Sub-Committee was filled by W . Bro . Le

Franc . The omission of W . Bro . W . H . Jones from the list , however , was certainly a matter which he , Bro . Roberts , wished to have rectified , lest he might at any time be charged w ith irregularity in sending the minute book to Bro . W . H . Tones , as he was in the habit of doing .

The Acting District Grand Secretary was wholly unable to see how W . Bro . Roberts could ask District Grand Lodge to consider the statement which he had made as to errors , which ¦ whether they existed or not , were certainly not contained in , nor in any way connected with , the

report which was now before the bretnren upon regular motion . The motion before District Grand Lodge was to receive and record a report of proceedings at a meeting of the Managers of the Fund held upon a particular date therein set forth . The names of W . brethren found in that

report were simply those of the members of the Grand Committee who where present at that meeting and of two who sent apologies for their absence . The report did not profess to g ive—it did not fall within its scope to give—a complete list of the Sub-Committee ( or of the

full committee for that matter ) , but only , as he had said , the names of those present at the meeting , with the incidental mention of two names of brethren who had sent apologies . He , W . Bro . Locke , regretted now that he had ( with a view to the saving of time ) moved District

Grand Lodge to take the report as read , and , were it possible to withdraw that motion , he would , inasmuch as if the report was read , word for word , it would be seen how wholly irrelevant to it were the remarks which Bro . Roberts had made . He , Bro Locke , would appeal to the

Chair as to whether those remarks could be considered until the motion before the brethren was disposed of . W . Bro . Roberts claimed the right of taking what steps he pleased in order to bring mistakes

to notice , He was quite aware that those to which he was now referring were not in the particular report before them—he had said so on first rising—but they had to do with the Fund of Benevolence , and it did not seem to him to be at all out of order that he should ask for a mistake

to be corrected . The District Grand Master in the chair said he must overrule W . Bro . Roberts . The statements made by that brother certainly did not bear upon the motion which was before District Grand Lodge , and they could not be considered until that motion was disposed of .

District Grand Lodge Of Bengal

The motion was then put , and carried unanimously . Brother J . H . E . Beer , D . G . Organist , in moving the resolution of which he had given notice , and which stood in his name on the agenda paper , said that the object of his motion was the supply of a want which he had felt since he had held the office of District Grand

Organist , and which he had ascertained had also been felt by his predecessors . District Grand Lodge did not posses a sheet of music , but had entirely to depend upon the kindness of musical brethren , who had frequently been sufferers by loss of what they had lent . He did

not think that this state of things should continue . They had now a comparatively wealthy Musical Instrument Fund , and as it certainly appeared to him that the application of a small portion of this fund to the use which he proposed was quite a legitimate one , he would move that a

sum of money not exceeding Rs . roo be taken from the Musical Instrument Fund , and placed at the disposal of the D- G . Organist for the purpose of providing a suitable collection of music for the use of the D . G . Organist in Lodge and after banquet , and a box or almirah in which the music can be kept in safety . He would add

that it was not his intention to spend the whole of the money at once , but carefully , from time to time , in getting what might be thought desirable . In selecting , he ( Bro . Beer ) intended to take counsel with other music al brethren , whose advice he was sure he could count upon . The motion was seconded b y W . Bro . James W . Browne .

The District Grand Master said that perhaps he could hardly refuse to put the motion , but he must confess that he felt considerable difficulty in putting it . It seemed to him to be really a motion for diverting the moneys of a fund to uses other than those for which they were

subscribed . A sheet of music might be held to be a " Musical Instrument , " but it certainly seemed to him to be stretching the definition . He could not himself think that the necessity for the purchase of music for special use at meetings of District Grand Lodge could be anything

like a pressing one . Surely the musical brethren must have a large amount which they could use when they favoured us with music . It had always seemed to him to be a characteristic of musical people to have very large collections of sheets and books of music . He had often

noticed in houses where music was cultivated what had appeared to him to be an over-abundance in this respect . ^ and he really thought that the musical brethren in District Grand Lodge could harldly be put to much inconvenience for want of music books . As to the almirah or box

in which to keep carefully any music that by accident orotherwise brethren might leave behind them occasionally , there was perhaps no objection to that ; but he must confess that , for his part , he should be adverse to see any expenditure made from the Musical Instrument Fund

for the purchase of music sheets or books . They must remember that pianos were not longlived things . The amount now at credit of the Musical Instrument Fund bore but a small proportion to the cost of a new piano , and if drains

upon the fund were made of the kind now proposed , we might at no very distant date find ourselves in want of a new instrument , and without sufficient money in the Musical Instrument Fund to buy one .

W . Bro . Locke asked whether , under Article 13 of the District Grand Lodge Bye-laws , which said that all questions of finance should be referred to the Committee of General Purposes for consideration and report , the mover of the present proposition could ask the District

Grand Lodge to pass a definite vote upon the subject until it had been so referred . It seemed to him that the most that Bro . Beer could take by his motion that evening would be leave to refer the proposal to the Committee of General Purposes .

The District Grand Master concurred with Bro . Locke , whereupon Bro . Beer said he would , with the permission of District Grand Lodge , amend his motion by prefixing to it the words , " that the following propositions be referred to the Committee of General Purposes , viz . " The

District Grand Lodge Of Bengal

seconder of the original motion expressed his assent to the proposed amendment . W . Bro . Roberts was . of opinion that there was no need at all for Bro . Beer to . have been troubled to make any alteration in the wording of his motion . It was quite open to him to have moved it as it stood , and some other brother , if he had wished , could have moved any amendment .

Bro . Locke thought that W . Bro , Roberts was mistaken . He ( Bro . Locke ) had ( asked the chair whether by art . 13 of our bye-laws District Grand Lodge could be asked to ; take the proposition into consideration that evening , and

the District Grand Master in the chair had said it could not . After that it was very evident that there had been some need for the alteration which Bro . Beer and his seconder had made .

The motion was then put" That the propositions be referred to the Committee of General Purposes . " ., The business as noted in the ¦ Agenda paper having terminated with the foregoing motion , the usual enquiry was made from tha , chair as to

whether any brother had aught further to propose for the good of Freemasonry , -upon which W . Bro . Roberts said yes , he had something to propose for the good of Masonry . It was , he thought , decidedl y for the good of ; Masonry that the . public should see-that our charities

were not less cared for than they had always been . Amongst the works of charity which Masonry had always encouraged , that of educating the children of our poorer brethren had always been conspicuous . There was nothing that so effectually stopped the mouths of

objectors to Freemasonry as our being able to point to those noble institutions at home which the Craft had founded and were supporting , those schools where the children of poor Masons received the inestimable blessings of . education . We had among ourselves an institution of the

kind , humble , of course , as compared with those at home , but still not altogether unworthy of us as a beginning . The work had been earnestly begun , and it had , there was no doubt , prospered under the hands of R . W . Bro . Sandeman , that he was willing , to admit , for , he desired not to

raise contention of ariy , kind over the proposition he was now about , to bring forward . He did not wish to contend even with the Acting District Grand Secretary . All would , however , admit—all did admit—that lately there , had been

a falling off in the support afforded to our Bengal Masonic Association , and the result had been that the Association had been placed in a position in which it had seriously , to consider how it could continue to carry on that which it had undertaken to do . The necessities of the

present year , however , were not now so pressing as they were even a few days ago . There had been a deficit of Its . 152 , and the Fund of Benevolence had passed a resolution declaring that if the remainder of the deficit were not made up by similar subscriptions , their Treasurer should meet the calls of the Treasurer of the

Association up to Rs . 500 . There was no longer therefore the pressing necessity to consider any such questions as the removal of a child from school , how means should be raised to prevent such a removal . There did remain , however , a matter which . he thought

demanded their serious consideration , and it was upon this that he desired to give formal notice of a motion to be brought forward at the next communication of the District Grand Lodge . Were the brethren in Bengal content that ( even supposing all difficulties up to that point to be

surmounted ) the Bengal Masonic Association should go no further than to undertake the charge of fivechildren ? Would-they be satisfied to be able to reply to any cayiller against Freemasonry that they had an institution which supported live children ? Would they let the institution sicken and wither , or would they hold

that the time had arrived when it behoved them to place it upon a similar footing as regarded regular and assured support as that which the kindred charity , the Fund of Benevolence enjoyed ? Did they , or did they not , consider that the Bengal Masonic Association was not less worthy of such support than the other fund , and would they tax themselves to g iye