Some Notes On Freemasonry In Australia.

heterogeneous composition of the community of which he was the vice-regal head . However , it was in 1803 that we first hear of Freemasonry in Australasia , and the locality was the then infant city of Sydney . The record referred to is brief and bald , but significant enough for cur purpose , though the climax was not by any means encouraging to the ardent

spirits who desired to found a Afasonic lodge . The originators of the movement were stated to be " several officers of his Majesty ' s ships , together with some respectable inhabitants of Sydney . " Governor King , however , to whom

CM'TAlN COOK VHOCI . AlMlNCi NKSV SOCHI WALES A 11 VUTISH POSSESSION AT BOTANY HAY . 177 » .

the petition had been addressed , promptly refused his sanction ; but , in spite of the prohibition , a lodge was held , jirobably of a formal character , and with serious results to the prime mover , one H . Brown Hayes , who was sent to Van Dieman ' s Land , which island in that very year was proclaimed

a British settlement . In the same month , though , as this occurrence is the following entry in the diary of a long deceased colonist : — " May 22 nd , 1803 .- —A number of Masons meeting at the house of Sergeant Whittell , in Sydney , New South

Wales , were arrested , and after serious report were discharged as having no wilful intention to disturb the peace . " From this it would appear that Governor King had somewhat relaxed his harsh measures , or possibly the judicial deliverance just quoted was the work of a magistrate . Some

time afterwards , however , it is stated that Capt . King had explained that but for his action " every soldier and other person would have been made a Freemason , had not the most decided means been taken to prevent it . " These precautions , in consideration of the times and of his surroundingsmay have been perfectly justified on the part

, of the governor , for it must be borne in mind that the " Secret Societies Act " had been made law in the old country only four years previously , and although the Freemasons ' lodges in the Three Kingdoms had meanwhile been exempted

from the provisions of the statute on the fulfilment of certain conditions , through the powerful advocacy of the Duke of Athol , Grand Master of the "Antients , " it is in every waxlikely that the King ' s representative in that far-off and comparatively unknown and inaccessible part of his dominions

was quite ignorant of the exemption . Suffice it to say that the Act of Parliament in question is still in force , and that the conditions of exemption render it obligatory on every secretary to forward once a year to the clerk of the peace of his county the names , addresses , and callings of the members

of his lodge . It is interesting to note that the centenary of the introduction of Freemasonry into Australia was fittingly commemorated by the United Grand Lodge of New South Wales in July , 1903 , amongst those present being his Excellency Sir Harry Raw-son , P . G . W . of England , and Governor of the State of New South Wales .

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