Masonic Life-Boat Fund.

It is a reproach to our Order that Avhilst other bodies such as the Foresters , OddfelloAVS , & c , can raise large sums for such a purpose , it takes us ten months to raise £ 50 toAvard a similar object . Why , even Sunday-school children Avith

their pennies have raised a sufficient sum to pay for a life-boat ! Upon referring to the annual report of the National Life-boat Association for 1868 , we find that for the "Forester" lifeboat a sum of £ 973

lis . 5 d . was raised from August , 1866 , to January , 1868 . The " Licensed Victualler " fund amounted to £ 823 lis . ; " Eoutledge's Magazine for Boys " lifeboat fund to £ 315 12 s . 6 d . ; and the " Stockport Sunday-school" fund to £ 429 14 s . 4 d ., whilst

the "Quiver" subscriptions amounted to more than £ 1 , 900 , thus enabling three lifeboats to be added to the list . We cannot think it possible that the Craft will any longer alloAV this meritorious proposal to sleep ; let it not be said—to quote the Avords of

the Eev . J . Molyneux , when he refused to alloAV the use of his church on the occasion of opening a lodge at Sudbury— " notwithstanding all their loud , boastful professions of universal philanthrophy , I never ever heard of one useful Avork ,

public or private , done by the society of Freemasons outside of its own body . " Widespread as Freemasonry is , numbering its tens of thousands of members , not only ought a sufficient sum to be raised for one lifeboat , but no difficulty should

occur to build two or three more . The expense of a lifeboat station is about £ 640 . This sum is made up as follows : —Lifeboat and her equipment , including lifebelt for the crew and transporting carriage for the lifeboat , £ 440 ; boat-house ( average cost ) , £ 200 . The average annual expense of maintaining a lifeboat station is £ 50 .

Masonic Life-Boat Fund.

The " Masonic Lifeboat " will be built on the universally-approved model of the National Lifeboat Institution . We give a representation of the boat , with the transporting carriage expressly fitted to the shape , and adopted for the

transition and launching of the institution model boats . It Avas proposed that Avhen the necessary amount Avas subscribed , to hand it over to the National Lifeboat Institution , the only stipulation being that the boat Avas to be called " The

Masonic Lifeboat . " There is issued from the Board of Trade every year a chart of our island , which , around the coast line , is studded with black spots . The one just issued tells a sade tale , dotted all round as it is

from the Land ' s End to the Foreland , and northward by the Fain Island to Wick , and round by the Hebrides to the Irish Sea . It is sad to think that each dot represents a shipwreck , -and the number for the past year amounts to 2 , 513 , Avith a loss of 1 , 333 lives . Not

a coast that has not its dot ; but it is clear that these symbolical spots cluster most thickly along the highways of commerce , which are whitened by the sails of ships of every nation all the year round .

Let our readers picture to themselves the scenes of fearful woe that these black dots represent , and let them set zealously and actively to work to get subscriptions for the "Masonic Lifeboat . " Let our brethren in EnglandIreland

, , Scotland , aye , wherever Masonry is known , ? id with their mite , and thus diminish the fearful loss of life Avhich annually occurs . The Lifeboat Institution does much , but let us Masons strengthen its hand that its sphere of usefulness may be

extended , and thus be enabled to do more . Sis dat cpd cito dat .