At The Sign Of The Perfect Ashlar

it appeared that consideration had been given to the fact that the Grand Loclge of New South Wales had not only recognised a Grand Loclge of Queensland at Brisbane , but that its Grand Master had gone from Sydney to Queensland

and installed as its office-bearers certain members of the English and Scottish Craft who were suspended members of these two Grand Lodges . The Committee were of opinion that these acts of the Grand Loclge of New South Wales and of its Grand Master , were unfriendly , unmasonic , and

disrespectful towards these two Grand Lodges , and had contemptuously ignored their jurisdiction over their respective members . One of these brethren had been expelled from Freemasonry , and the expulsion intimated in ordinary form . In the circumstances the Committee recommended

the Grand Loclge to terminate its connection with the Grand Loclge of New South Wales by recalling its representative to that Grand Loclge and by requesting its representative to the Grand Lodge of Scotland to return his commission . © © ©

At the same meeting it was agreed to grant new charters to Lodges St . Bryde , Kemnay , Aberdeenshire West ; Golden Thistle , Naauwpoort Junction , Cape Colony ; Benoni Kilwinning , Benoni ; Krugersdorp , Krugersclorp ; and Germania , Johannesburg , Transvaal . Bro . C . Murray Stewart was

appointed Provincial Grand Master of Perthshire West , and Bro . James Maxstone Graham , Provincial Grand Master of Perthshire East . The Grand Committee reported that it had had under consideration petitions from certain of the lodges in the Goldlields District of Western Australia , seeking the

erection of a District Grand Lodge there , and also a letter from the District Grand Secretary recommending the erection of the new District Grand Lodge . It was unanimously agreed to grant the prayer of the petition , and that the Grand Secretary- be instructed to communicate with the lodges asking them to recommend a brother for appointment to the District Grand Mastership .

© © © A meeting was held a few clays ago , at the Town Hall , Manchester , under the presidency of the Lord Mayor . There were present a number of influential brethren , representing East and West Lancashire , Cheshire , West Yorks . and

Staffordshire , and resolutions were unanimously adopted pledging those present to support the candidature of Bro . Louis S . Winsloe , P . Prov . G . W . of West Lanes , V .-Pat . of R . M . I . B . and R . M . l . G . as Grand Treasurer of England , and forming a committee with power to add to their number for the

promotion of this object . Among those present were Bros . Burrows , Slyman , Goodacre , Sir Thomas Shann , Walker and Winsloe , of West Lancashire ; Bros . Barlow , Cheetham , Newton and Goulburn , from East Lanes . ; Bros . Lilley , Ellis and Cookson , from Cheshire , and Bro . Taylor ,

from Staffordshire ; and letters in support were received from Bros . Wilson , Raynor , Childe and Green , of West Yorks ., Bro . Kent , of Staffordshire , and Bro . F . May , of Cheshire . Bros . Goodacre ( West Lanes . ) and Newton ( East Lanes . ) were appointed secretaries to the committee .

© © # . Just about a century ago Freemasons were so numerous in the French army that a lodge often consisted of an entire regiment . A particular organisation of Freemasons , known as the " Philadelphes , " numbered some distinguished

militarymen , such as Moreau , who were not friendly to Napoleon . He contrived , however , to get possession of their secrets and symbols , and constituted himself Grand Master of the " Philadelphes" by the effective device of turning their chief symbol into the cross of the Legion of Honour . Moreover ,

he borrowed four triangles and a compass to make the star of the order , which thus became a masonic emblem of the most mystical quality . Whether there be any truth in this story , or whether it has been invented to disquiet the minds of those officers of the Legion whose sympathies are clerical , we do not know . What does Mine . Bartet say ?—Daily Chronicle .

A public function of great interest took place at West Bromwich on July ioth , when R . W . Bro . the Earl of Dartmouth , Provincial Grand Master of Staffordshire , laid the foundation stone of a Nurses' Home with Masonic ceremonial . Thousands of people witnessed a procession of Freemasons

wearing their regalia , and of civic bodies of the district , with the members and officials of the District Hospital , in connection with which the Home is being provided for the accommodation of a staff of 24 nurses . The expenditure is estimated at £ 13 , 000 , including £ 10 , for an endowment fund , and up to the present £ 5 , 000 has been realized towards this outlay . It is noted that the last previous stone-laying

R . W . BRO THE EARL OF DARTMOUTH . ceremony in which the Masonic Brotherhood of the Province participated , was the laying of the foundation stone of the Nurses' Home at the North Staffordshire Infirmary by Lord

Dartmouth in 1902 . The other functions of this kind in which the Provincial Grand Master has taken the principal part were the laying of the foundation stones of a chapel at the Wolverhampton Orphan Asylum , of enlargements to the nave and chancel of the Old Church , Willenhall , of St .

Barnabas' Church , Stoke , and of St . Chad's Church , Smethwick . Lord Dartmouth was assisted at the laying of the foundation stone of the Sutherland Institute , Longton , by the King , then Prince of Wales , in 18 97 . © © ©

Not long ago , in a loclge renowned for the hospitable reception it accords to visitors , the latter turned the tables on their hosts . Their health had been drunk with the usual enthusiasm and then some ten or twelve rose to reply and in doing so proposed the health of their host , and burst into

song , performing the fine old English ditty " For he ' s a jolly good fellow . " The loclge members had to exercise considerable self restraint to avoid joining ' -in- the air , which to them is as a part of the ritual , and necessarily the most eloquent member had to be put up to reply .