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Article GRAND LODGE ← Page 5 of 9 →
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Grand Lodge
obtain a charter Unless the application was recommended # by the members o £ an existing Lodge , as will be seen by the following extract from the Book of Constitutions ' : — ¦
" Every application for a warrant to hold a new Lodge mtist be by petition to the Grand Master , signed by at least seven regularly-registered Masons ; and the Lodges to which they belong or formerly belonged must be specified . The petition must be recommended by the Officers of a regular Lodge and be transmitted to the Grand Secretary , unless there be a Provincial Grand Master of the district or province in which the Lodge
is proposed to be holder ! , in which case it is first to be sent to him , or to his deputy , who is to forward it , with his recommendation or opinion thereon for the Grand Master . If the prayer of the petition be granted , the Provincial Grand Master may issue a dispensation , authorizing the Brethren to meet as a Lodge , until a warrant of constitution shall Jbe signed by the Grand Master . ' '
Now , as we have just stated , there was but one Lodge at Hobart Town ( whose recommendation it was necessary to obtain before a Charter could be granted ) ., what , therefore , could be more natural than that new charters should be applied for by members of that Lodge , many of whom live at a distance of twenty miles from the place of meeting , and that Masons unattached to any Lodge should
seek for their first officers lor new Lodges from the only working Lodge in the district ? We perfectly agree with the H . WVD , Gr . M ., that it was not the province of Bro . Toby , or any other Brother or Brethren , " to question the prerogative of the G . M . " in the appointment of his Prov . Gr . M . ; but it does appear to us that , as a matter of courtesy , the oldest Lodge in the Province might have been informed—if not consulted— -as to the appointment about to take
place , before the warrant was actually issued . On this point the K . W . D . G . M . says : — " I simply ask what better test could the G . M . have of the fitness of a Mason for dignity in the Craft than the testimony of three out of four of the Lodges in the Province , and the fact that for five years he held the chair in his own Lodge , with ,
credit to himself and with advantage to the Brethren ? " " "We freel y credit to himself and with advantage to the Brethren r We freely acknowledge that the test would be one of the best possibly to be obtained , but we think we have shown that the three Lodges could not have been in existence at the time when the recommendation to Grand Lodge was made .
Furthermore , we wish to be informed of what Lodge Bro . Ewmg was for five years Master , —whether it was No . 901 , the only Lodge in Launceston holding a Grand Lodge charter , or the Lodge working under dispensation ?—and from whom Bro . Ewmg obtained his dispensation to hold the chair for so long a period , the Book of Constitutions saying , —
" No Brother shall continue Master for more than two years in succession , unless by a dispensation , which , may be granted by the Grand Master or the Provincial Grand Master in cases of real necessity . " —for it would not appear that any such " real necessity " existed if
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Grand Lodge
obtain a charter Unless the application was recommended # by the members o £ an existing Lodge , as will be seen by the following extract from the Book of Constitutions ' : — ¦
" Every application for a warrant to hold a new Lodge mtist be by petition to the Grand Master , signed by at least seven regularly-registered Masons ; and the Lodges to which they belong or formerly belonged must be specified . The petition must be recommended by the Officers of a regular Lodge and be transmitted to the Grand Secretary , unless there be a Provincial Grand Master of the district or province in which the Lodge
is proposed to be holder ! , in which case it is first to be sent to him , or to his deputy , who is to forward it , with his recommendation or opinion thereon for the Grand Master . If the prayer of the petition be granted , the Provincial Grand Master may issue a dispensation , authorizing the Brethren to meet as a Lodge , until a warrant of constitution shall Jbe signed by the Grand Master . ' '
Now , as we have just stated , there was but one Lodge at Hobart Town ( whose recommendation it was necessary to obtain before a Charter could be granted ) ., what , therefore , could be more natural than that new charters should be applied for by members of that Lodge , many of whom live at a distance of twenty miles from the place of meeting , and that Masons unattached to any Lodge should
seek for their first officers lor new Lodges from the only working Lodge in the district ? We perfectly agree with the H . WVD , Gr . M ., that it was not the province of Bro . Toby , or any other Brother or Brethren , " to question the prerogative of the G . M . " in the appointment of his Prov . Gr . M . ; but it does appear to us that , as a matter of courtesy , the oldest Lodge in the Province might have been informed—if not consulted— -as to the appointment about to take
place , before the warrant was actually issued . On this point the K . W . D . G . M . says : — " I simply ask what better test could the G . M . have of the fitness of a Mason for dignity in the Craft than the testimony of three out of four of the Lodges in the Province , and the fact that for five years he held the chair in his own Lodge , with ,
credit to himself and with advantage to the Brethren ? " " "We freel y credit to himself and with advantage to the Brethren r We freely acknowledge that the test would be one of the best possibly to be obtained , but we think we have shown that the three Lodges could not have been in existence at the time when the recommendation to Grand Lodge was made .
Furthermore , we wish to be informed of what Lodge Bro . Ewmg was for five years Master , —whether it was No . 901 , the only Lodge in Launceston holding a Grand Lodge charter , or the Lodge working under dispensation ?—and from whom Bro . Ewmg obtained his dispensation to hold the chair for so long a period , the Book of Constitutions saying , —
" No Brother shall continue Master for more than two years in succession , unless by a dispensation , which , may be granted by the Grand Master or the Provincial Grand Master in cases of real necessity . " —for it would not appear that any such " real necessity " existed if