Constitution Of Italian Freemasonry.

Should a Grand Eegent be named , he shall possess the power to confer the grade which he has held previously in the Council on his successor , to be named by him . The Grand Master shall be elected for three years . Members of the Grand Council retire yearly , in the proportion of a third of their number , who are selected during the first two years by lot ; they afterwards retire

in the order of their seniority . The Grand Master and the members of the Council are at all times eligible for re-election . ART . 22 . The Council of the Grand Master will hold one regular sitting in each week , and will , in addition , assemble together so often as the Grand Master may direct . ( To he continued . )

Australasian Freemasons And Destitute Children's Society.

AUSTRALASIAN FREEMASONS AND DESTITUTE CHILDREN'S SOCIETY .

The following report was adopted at a meeting of the subscribers , held at Sydney on the 31 st of January last : —Your committee having finished the duties entrusted to tlieni , we beg to give the brethren a brief account of the origin and progress of the Freemasons' Orphan Pund under the English Constitution , together with its present position .

In the year 1 S 5-1 a meeting was held for the purpose of taking into consideration the best method of appropriating the sum of £ 90 2 s . Id ,., being surplus monies arising from two Masonic balls ; it being suggested by your committee , with others , at that meeting , that its best use would be to lay it as the foundation stone of a Masonic Orphan Fund , resolutions to that effect were

passed and a committee was appointed to draw up rules and regulations for its government . At that time it was considered necessary to make its usefulness as comprehensive as possible by calling on all the lodges then recognised in the colonies to join in the undertaking , as well as lodges in the sister colonies , that all might be

participators in the good work . Two members were chosen from each of the five lodges then assembling at the Freemasons' Hall , namely : —Lodges No . 5-i-S , S 14 , 8-1-3 ( S . C . ) , 22 G , and 2 G 7 ( I . C . ) , when a mutual agreement was entered into to ensure the

permanency of the funds ; that each lodge should pay- one shilling per month per member until the Fund hail increased to such an amount as would render the interest arising therefrom available for the purpose intended . * Three years elapseel , but no lodge beyond the colony or member of the Craft beyond the colony had contributed to the support of the fund , neither did our Irish brethren or lodges

contribute , while the movement was steadily carried on and supported by the lodges under the English Constitution . In the mean time two new lodges established in Sydney , Nos . 9-1-1 and 91-2 , together with Nos . 903 , Illawarra , and 904 , Bathurst ( E . G . ) , joined and co-operated in the measure . The monies then collected from the English lodges and their

members , by donations and contributions , amounting to five hundred pounds , had been lent on mortgage , when it was mutually agreed that the funds then in hand , as well as the mortgage money ( when it became due ) , should be invested in the shares of the Australasian Freemasons' Hall Conn-any , so as to carryout the ori ginal intention of the Craft , when the purchase was

first made— " That the hall should become in time the property solely of the lodges and their charities , " and that individual shareholders should gradually cease to exist . Accordingly the money was so invested , and the first purchase made in 1 S 57 was forty shares at £ 3 5 * . per share , £ 4 paid up , and no higher sum

Australasian Freemasons And Destitute Children's Society.

has been paid in proportion for any £ 5 shares since that time . Under the altereel aspect of the institution it was deemed advisable then to appoint your committee , three to form a quorum , to revise the laws , with instructions to fix a minimum sum that the funds should arrive at heforo the interest derived therefrom should be available for the object of the institution ,

and it was decided that £ 2500 should be the amount . Your committee met at different times and drew up several laws , but from certain differences and difficulties with the then Provincial Grand Secretary , those meetings lapsed , and no meetings were convened from that time until the 11 th July in tlie present year . Meanwhile tlie lodges under the English

Constitution liael considerably increased in number , and have assisted tbe fund , which has steadily progressed , and been , applied as intended , until by donations , contributions of lodges , interest , and bequests , it has approached closely to the sum of £ 2500 .

Your committee have taken especial care , by the new laws , that the funds invested in shares of the Australasian Freemasons' Hall Company shall be properly represented by two trustees and all the members of the General Committee , so as to insure a thorough representation of the interests of the Orphan Fund in the institution .

Your committee had in contemplation several laws relative to the mode of education and the sum to be expended on each recipient , but have thought it advisable to leave them in the hands of the General Committee as subjects to be embraced in their hy-laws . In concluding the duties deputeel to your committee , they

trust tho laws , as amended , will meet the object kept in view by your committee , i . e ., an equitable application of the interest arising from the Orphan Fund . And your committee hope that this institution , so far successfully carried out , will be as steadily supported in the future of Masonry in this colony as it has been in the past . Sydney , Sth January , 1 SG 3 .

Masonic Notes And Queries.

MASONIC NOTES AND QUERIES .

STRDTGENT LAWS 01 ' HA 5 . 0 VER . The Grand Lodge of Hanover has the most stringent rules in respect to the advancement of candidates extant . It provides that " No brother can be elected an officer of a lodge until he has been three years a Master Mason . A Follow Craft must work at least a year before he can be

admitted to a third degree . An Entered Apprentice must remain at least two years in that degree . " - —LEX MASOXICA . FELLOW CRAFT ' S DEGREE . 'Where should the volume of the Sacred Law be opened for the second degree ?—M . B . —[ Amos vii . is considered tho most appropriate . ]

IS BRO . PEPPER ' S GHOST A 3 IAS 0 N ? As Pepper ' s ghost is all the rage , I should be glad to know if ib is a Mason ? This question is not put out of mere curiosity , but is bona fide . In the late appeal to the Lord Chancellor for a patent , his lordship is reported to have said " he remembered seeing the same

thing , when a boy , fifty-five years ago ; " adding that" the then visitant was exhibited by Belzoni , the famous African traveller . " Now we know , from the pages of THE MAGAZINB , that Belzoni was not only a brother , but a Knight Templar ; and supposing Bro . Pepper to have rapped for him , and had an interview with his spirit , might not the latter kindly have communicated to Bro . Pepper the means of exhibiting the ghost of some ancient