Masonry In The Sandwich Islands.

MASONRY IN THE SANDWICH ISLANDS .

JONSON , SATURDAY , AUGUST 0 , 1862 .

No . I . COJDIUS'ICATED BX Bl _ 0 . D . Mui-EAT LATCI * , E . " W . PEOV . J . G . W . OP ATESIIIEE . " Mother Kilwinning " was last week the reci pient of quite a budget of documents of no little Masonic

interest , inclosed under the seal of the department ' of foreign Affairs of the Hawaiian kingdom , and extending as it were , the " grip fraternal , " from shores g irdled by the Pacific . Ocean , to those washed by the waters of the Clyde . Having as a member and Past Office-bearer of the mother lodgebeenby the courtesy

, , of its Secretary , favoured ivith a perusal of these papers , in the absence of more important home news , and from a desire to contribute our mite to that grand fund of Masonic intelligence , ivhich you and your able coadjutors are from week to week engaged in disseminating among tho Craft "Universalwe

, have devoted a leisure hour to stringing together a few sentences , suggested by our attention being called to the Polynesian despatches , already referred to , and shall feel gratified and more than compensated for our trouble , should the publication of what follows lead brethren to feel renewed interest in the

Masonic history of the islands which the discoveries of Captain Cook introduced to the notice of his countrymen , in the latter part of last century , and in one of ivhich the intrepid navigator and distinguished brother met his death , at the hands of its beni ghted inhabitants . " Who among us have not in our

boyhood spent many pleasant hours in following Cook through the animating aud sometimes' strangely grotesque scenes depicted in the published narra- i tive of his intercourse with the natives of the islands

in the Polynesian seas ; and yet numbers of us Avho have now reached the meridian of life , and who have joined ourselves to the mystic circle , may not be aware that in those very islands upon which the foot of a European never trod till the discovery by our brother , there exists a flourishing kingdom ,

governed by constitutional laws . But so it is , as the sequel will show . As Freemasons we cannot feel other than fraternal sympathy with a nation of freemen , which may with truth be said to have "jumped into civilisation , " and is making still further progress under the fostering care of an enli gthenecl and highly

talented sovereign and brother ; having for its chief officer of state , a free born Briton , possessing diplomatic talents of a very high order , and competent in other respects effectively to discharge the duties , and support the dignity of his exalted position . English Masons must feel peculiar

interest in that nation from a consideration of the fact that from the loins of a Lancashire man has sprung the queen of the youthful sovereign , into whose hands The Great Architect of the Universe seems to have entrusted the destinies of the "dusky tribes" inhabiting the Sandwich Islandsand our

; brethren in the South will not , we are persuaded , deny us on this side of the Tweed the expression of our gratification , that in the councils of that infant monarchy is represented the " Land of brown heath , and shaggy wood—Land of the mountain , and the flood . "

Masonry In The Sandwich Islands.

A recent number of Punch contained a humorouslywritten paragraph , in review of another appearing in the Tost , showing " the variety of lands " into which Scottish tartan and kilts were being introduced . It appeared from the Tosl ' s informant that the Prime Minister of Kamehamcha TV . lately presented himself at Courtarrayed in Hihland costume" to the

, g , great delight of his Majesty and Court . " In the " canny Scotchman , " accoutred as he ivas in the "garb of old Gaul , " we recognise his Excellency Eobert Crichton "W ylie—a native of the far-famed cheesemaking district of Dunlop , in Ayrshire—a member of the Craftex-office-bearer in the Grand Lodge of

, England , and one ivho has bowed before the " burning bush , " and circumambulated the " delta" in proof of his devotion to Masonry and the religion of the Cross . "We are thus bound "bj the ties of country and of Masonry to the distinguished individual at the helm of state among the people inhabiting the group

of picturesqueislauds forming the Hawaiian Monarchy ; and it is very gratifying for us to know that amid the multifarious cares of an office of such wei g hty responsibility , Bro . "W ylie has not only not ceased to devote some attention to the interests of the Order in

the land of his adoption , hut still continues to feel a lively regard in the doings of the Craft in the land of his birth . His Eoyal Master , the readers of the MAGAZINE do not require to be told , is an expert , accomplished , and enthusiastic craftsman , and has once and again formed the subject of notice in these pages . His ivhole personal history teems with

the memorials of his devotion to pure and undefiled religion , ancl the acts of his government furnish evidence that at its head stands one imbued ivith the true spirit of Masonry . And having struck this chord of the Masonic harp , ive cannot resist prolonging its vibration "b y giving a short extract from one of Bro .

"Wylie ' s enclosures . In laying the corner-stone of the Queen ' s Hospital , now erected in the city of Honolulu , the King , our brother , in addressing the multitude ivhich had assembled to witness the ceremony , gave expression to his sentiments in language at once noble and truly beautiful , and which , in the words of another , " fell down like dew upon the hearts of his hearers , and there made to bloom the flowers of phi . lanthropy—the blossom to ripen into fruit in every

sympathising bosom , and yield a rich harvest for the support and furtherance of a noble charity , an honour alike to the kingdom where it thrives , and to the generous contributors who have erected it . " His Majesty , after stating the object for which the Queen ' s Hospital ivas proposed to be erected , and the progress made in obtaining funds for the building and

endowment of the same , remarked : — " Contributions towards the support of an hospital are declarations of kindness and forethought , and of a long-sighted policy of love towards those who need other hands than their own to smooth their restless pillows . The means at our disposal are not drawn

forth hy the sight oi' any particular case that shocks and haunts us . We do not offer up our alms as a prayer to God , that He will save us personally from such anguish as we see before us , but quietly and with unshaken nerves , we provide against misery that needs must be , though we see nothing of it . In a word , there ivas nothing spasmodic or fitful in the feeling which prompted those who assisted in the establishment of the Queen ' s Hospital . "What their hearts