Some Notes On Freemasonry In Australasia.– –(Continued).

Coming to the Grand Lodge period , it may be premised that before the movement for the existing sovereign body fairly got under weigh , a Grand Lodge of another character took possession of the '' unoccupied territory . " The founders apparently were unaffiliated to any private lodge , at all events they could not even claim to have behind them a single one of Mackev ' s requisite three lodges minimum . The incident ,

IIOX . . 1 . W . IIACICKTT , LL . II ., SKCOXI ) UliAXI ) MASTKII OK W KSTEHX A USTKA T . IA . it need scarcely be observed , was too ludicrous for arguments and a very short period sufficed for the extinction of thi travesty on Freemasonry . Previously an application to the Grand Lodge of Victoria for a warrant to open a lodge under

that Constitution had been properly refused . The short career of the mock Grand Lodge spurred the founders of the real institution to immediate action , and there can be little doubt but that the promoters were far too hasty in the preliminaries ever to secure the union of rival forces

and the consequent harmony , without which experience has clearl } 7 shown that a new Grand Lodge in a comparatively young country cannot hope for substantial and lasting success A practical proof of the hurry displayed by those responsible for the movement , is the circumstance that , on October nth ,

18 99 , the Grand Lodge of Western Australia was declared formed and a Grand Master elected ; but Sir Gerard Smith was not installed until February 27 th , 1900 . And the hasty example shown by the West Australians was copied by the Grand Lodge of England , as at the March Communication

or within a week after the installation of the Grand Master the new Grand Lodge was formally acknowledged as a Sovereign body , England thereby departing from its established precedent , whilst it is significant that one of ( he Australian Grand Lodges ( Victoria ) postponed recognition for a while .

Now , from the very day the Grand Lodge ot Western Australia was constituted , it is no exaggeration to say that strife has prevailed between if and the Grand Lodge of Scotland , and for a certainty relations will be strained until the contending forces are welded into one unanimous whole . When that happy day arrives the better will it be for Masonry and all concerned . The movement altogether was too premature , and a year or a year-ancl-a-half of cool

diplomacy and of calm deliberation , would have brought about a complete amalgamation . It is true that during the latter part of 1904 a better spirit prevailed , and that there was a distinct inclination on both sides to give and take ; but Scottish administration is , in these latter days , very little more expeditious than it was thirty or forty years ago , so tar as

Australian Masonry is concerned . in spite , however , of the arguments put forth by the defenders of the West Australian Grand Lodge , Scotland is distinctly within its rights in claiming to charter new lodges in the colony , for it held jurisdiction there years before a

Grand Lodge was even thought of . This contention , it is gratifying to note , is upheld by some of the American authorities , not omitting others in Australia . Another phase of the dispute , contributing as it has to the

present regrettable situation , is the fact that the Grand Lodge of Scotland from the very first declined to recognise its young sister of Western Australia . This was consistent with precedent , the reasons given being that the movement was not the act of a majority of the lodges of each Constitution . This contention is pretty well on the same lines as

England in 1890 , when the late Sir John B . Monckton , in moving that the then Grand Lodge of New Zealand be not recognised , laid down that there appeared to be a divergence of opinion by a large number of lodges that did not desire to form a Grand Lodge of their own ; but when there was

unanimity on the subject , recognition was merely a matter of form . But there is still hope that the compact recently entered into between the Grand Lodges of England , Ireland , and Scotland , may before very long bear good fruit in Western Australia , and lead to universal harmony .

ItKIIIT IIK . V . (' . O . T ,. HIl . KV , D . D ., THI HI" ) ( iHAXI ) . MASTKII OK WKSTKRX A I .. STI . AJ . IA . The following are the Grand Masters of West Australia : — Colonel Sir Gerard Smith , K . C . M . G . ... 1900 Hon . John Winthrop Hacked . M . L . C .,

LL . D . 1 9 Right Rev . Charles Owen Leaver Riley , D . D ., Bishop of Perth 1 904 Bishop Riley , it may be observed , is a Past Provincial Grand Chaplain of West Lancashire .