Royal Masonic Institution For Girls.

Royal Masonic Institution for Girls .

THE Annual Festival of the Girls' School was held at Freemasons' Tavern , on Wednesday , 13 th May , Bro . the Right Hon . Lord Allerton , Provincial Grand Master for West Yorkshire , presiding . The capacity of the building was taxed to its uttermost to provide accommodation for the 700 ladies and brethren attending to support the Chairman and to testify to the sympathy and interest taken in the Institution .

After dinner , the usual loyal toasts were given and enthusiastically received . These were followed by that of " The M . W . Grand Master , H . R . H . the Duke of Connaught , " and " The Pro Grand Alaster , the Deputy Grand Master , and the rest of the Grand Officers , Present and Past . " Lord Allerton , in proposing the toast of " Success to the

Royal Masonic Institution for Girls , " said they were met that night on the 115 th Anniversary of the Institution ; therefore , it was a venerable and aged Institution , which he ventured to believe grew in respect the longer it lived . During its

period of existence it had provided a sound and wide education for over 2080 girls . The standard of its education had always been high . At the same time it had always been of a practical character . That the standard has been high , he needed only to remind them that during the past fourteen years out of 4 60 girls who had entered for the Cambridge

Local Examinations , 440 of them had passed . That was a testimony of the quality of the instruction which was given ,

and that standard of quality was being maintained . During the year 1902 , sixty-one entered for the Cambridge Local Examinations , and of the sixty-one , fifty-seven passed . That , he thought , was a plain and a conclusive answer to the question as to whether the work that was being carried on to-day was being maintained as regards its standard of

quality . There was also an interesting feature which he thought it was well to note , and that was this , that all the resident staff of that Institution was made up of pupils of the Institution . Did it not , therefore , tend to emphasise the position when those results were produced under the

guidance and care of those who have received their education in the Institution itself ? The Institution for Girls would at all times , and under all circumstances , appeal to the hearts of Masons . There was , however , at this particular time , one little point which he thought it right to mention , which made

the needs of the Institution audits claims on their benevolence a little more urgent than they had been for some years . As they were aware , the junior School had been carried on in buildings not built for the purpose and not adapted as they

should be for the purpose of instruction , and property had been acquired by the Board of Management , who had resolved upon the site of that property to erect a new building for the junior School , equipped with all the modern requirements which were best fitted to carry on the work . For that purpose they would want about £ 16 , 000 . The

total yearly expenditure was practically £ 25 per girl , which might be termed or deemed permanent . For the balance it had to rely upon yearly benevolence . That yearly benevolence had never failed it yet , and he did not think it ever would . He . would say one word more , particularly , perhaps , to the

brethren of the province over which he had the honour to rule . They were largely interested in that good work . They had at that moment from their own province twenty girls in that Institution , two of whom held positions in the Institution , many others had passed the examination of the Cambridge

Local Examiners—some of them with honours and distinction . He would say , in conclusion , that he knew if he were asked what the two distinguishing characteristics of a Mason were , he should answer the question by saying that they were loyalty and benevolence , and those meetings publicly tested

their loyalty as so expressed , and stimulated their benevolence . He had the advantage of going to see that admirable Institution on Saturday and witnessing the girls go through their calisthenics and other exercises , which were very