At The Sign Of The Perfect Ashlar.

The R . W . Provincial Grand Alaster of Essex , Colonel the Right Hon . Alark Lockwood , C . Y . O ., ALP ., has fixed Saturday . June 30 th , for the Annual Meeting of the Provincial Grand Lodge , which is to be held this year at Harwich . A Saturday has been chosen as it is thought probable that

many brethren may like to take the opportunity of availing themselves of the G . E . Railway Company ' s rail and hotel week-end tickets , or of the excellent accommodation and week-end terms offered by the hotels at Dovercourt . © < s > ©

Scottish Freemasonry has suffered a serious loss by the death of Bro . William Officer , who for many years has occupied a high position in the Grand Lodge , and was deservedly esteemed as one of its most able and zealous workers . His professional services were always at the

disposal of the Order , and it will be remembered that so recently as last year he took a prominent and useful part in the meeting in London at which the representatives of the

THK LATE 13 UO . WILLIAM OFFICKH . Grand Lodges of England , Ireland and Scotland entered into an agreement in regard to certain matters mutually affecting their resjiective jurisdictions . The funeral took

place at Edinburgh on the 14 th April . At two o ' clock the funeral service was held in St . Alary ' s Cathedral , where Dean Skinner Wilson and Chancellor Keating officiated . The congregation comprised a large attendance of Masonic brethren , each of whom carried a sjirig of acacia , the symbol

of everlasting life , to droji upon the coffin after it had been lowered into the grave . The deputation from the Grand Lodge w ; ts headed by Bros . Sir Charles Dalrymple , Past Grand Master , and Sir Thomas Gibson Carmichael , Depute Grand Alaster , and -among the other rejiresentatives were

Bros , the Rev . Dr . John Glasse , the Earl of Cassillis , General Dahnahoy , Col . L . A . Hope ; David Reid , Grand Secretary ; E . A . Chisholm , Grand Treasurer ; John Wilson , Greenpatk nnd others . The lodge with which Bro . Officer was associated , Lodge of Edinburgh ( St . Alary ' s Chapel ) Xo . 1

, was well represented , Bro . Councillor Inches , the Master , heading the deputation . Among the mourners were also a good many whose faces have become familiar as regular attenders of the Convention of Burghs meetings in Edinburgh . There were , for instance , such old friends of Bro . Officer as

Bros . D . W . Kemp , Leith ; Ex-Provost Gilmour , Linlithgow ; and many more who little thought a few days jireviously when they looked ujion Bro . Officer in his accustomed jikice in the Convention that they would so soon be called ujion to follow

his remains to the grave . Bishoji Dowden was among the congregation , and there were also several representatives of the legal profession present at the service . The procession from the Cathedral to the Dean Cemetery was headed by the choir of the Alasonic bodies , who walked , the coaches

following the hearse , with its wreath-covered coffin , conveying Bro . J . L . Officer , the son of the deceased , and the other relatives . The burial service was continued at the graveside , and the obsequies were concluded by the Freemasons passing round the grave , each dropping his emblematic sprig of acacia on the coffin .

« s » 0 « It is exjiected there will be upwards of 3 , 000 individual subscribers to the jiresentation to be made by the Freemasons of the Province of Kent to Earl Amherst , late Provincial Grand Alaster . 0 0 0

On Tuesday , May 3 rd , the Right Worshipful Provincial Grand Alaster of Cambridgeshire ( Colonel R . Townley Caldwell , J . P . ) , was the recipient of a touching mark of the ajijireciation of his Alasonic brethren . Colonel Caldwell has recently been ajijiointed Alaster of Corpus Christi College ,

Cambridge , and on Alay Day a deputation was received at Brook House , the Colonel's private residence , and the address was in the form of an album bound in antique parchment , with the arms and title ot the Provincial Grand Lodge of Cambridgeshire illuminated upon its lirst page .

Inside , the address itself was illuminated ujion two leaves of vellum , the wording conveying the hearty congratulations of the Craft on the high honour which had been worthily conferred ujion him . The address continued : — "You have so won the confidence and affection of all Masons by your

wise and kindly rule as our P . G . AI ., that we feel a jiersonal interest in all that concerns your welfare , and claim a jiersonal pleasure in your election to the Alastershiji of an ancient and distinguished college . " The address was signed bv the D . P . G . AI . and by every jiresent officer of the Province ,

and these signatures were followed by those of the Worshipful Masters , Wardens , Treasurers , and Secretaries of all the lodges in the jirovince . The presentation was made by the D . P . G . AI ., and very feelingly acknowledged by Colonel Caldwell , who said that the brethren in the jirovince could not have selected a more pleasing way of exjnessing their congratulations .

At the annual meeting of the Provincial Grand Lodge of West Yorkshire at Sheffield , Lord Allerton , who jiresided , said that as a result of the effort recently made on behalf of the West Yorkshire . Educational and Benevolent Fund , they had obtained promises amounting to £ 11 , 500 of which

£ 10 , 000 had been paid . Of that sum , /" i . aoo had been devoted to a jierjietual jiresentation of £ . ' 40 a year for an aged Alason , and named the " Lord Allerton Presentation , " and nearly £ 1 , 000 for a presentation of £ > >' eal" f ° the widow of a Alason , and known as the " Richard Wilson Presentation . "

000 The Glasgow Daily Herald lias an amusing article in a recent issue anent the female organisations which ' nave of kite sprung up , having for their object the elucidation of certain mysteries hitherto considered to be the jieculiar jirivilege of

the mere man to deal with . " Alost jieople have heard of the devices alleged lo have been adopted by inquisitive women for the discovery of the secrets of Freemasonry . These interesting efforts to gralifv female curiosity were usually , if we mistake not , carried on

by individual women of an inquiring turn of mind , and it may be stijijiosed that they usually failed . It must be taken as an evidence of the enterjirising spirit of the age , and of the development of co-operative methods , that the inquisitiveness of the eternal feminine is now being directed by -a syndicate

on almost scientific lines . If there is anything really worth finding out about the unknown doings of the creature man , it may be sttjiposed therefore that it will speedily be brought