Festival Of The Royal Masonic Institution For Boys.

come under the regulations of tlie Board of Education , and this would bring the advantage that the system of education would be carried out under the advice and inspection of tlie highest educational experts . Two old boys had taken university degrees . The Countess of Yarborough then

presented the prizes and was thanked on tlie motion of the Earl of Cork , who testified to the excellent work of the institution and to the admirable arrangements for tlie health and comfort of the boys . The Earl of Yarborough acknowledged the vote .

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

Some Notes on Freemasonry in Austraiasia . – –( Continued ) .

By Bro . W . F . LAMOXBY , P . D . G . M . of Victoria , and P . A . G . D . C . of England .

VICTORIA .

IT has alread y been observed how , in the year 1803 , a government official from Sydney had reported on the immutability of that part of Australia , now known as Victoria , for colonisation purposes . However , private enterprise , more than thirty years later , proved the opinion to be

entirely erroneous . In 18 34 , two of four brothers by the name of Henty , natives of Sussex , disappointed with their experiences in Tasmania and in the northern part of Australia ( Queensland ) , resolved to try the western portion of Port Phillip ( Victoria ) , and , fortunately for themselves and the future

colony , settled there as the pioneers of the pastoral and agricultural industries ; indeed , what was subsequently known as " Hen ' y ' s woolstore" was really the first building

LIKET .-GE . V . SIR ANDREW CI . ARK ' I-:, G . C . M . G ., FIRST l'KOVI N ( W A I . GRAND MASTER OF VICTORIA , E . C . erected in the country . The colony was actually founded on August 31 st , 18 35 , and in the middle of the year following the first public meeting of the settlers was held , when , as

appears from a document only recently brought to light , "James Simpson , Esquire , was elected unanimously as ruler of the people . " In three months Capt . Lonsdale with a party of soldiers and workmen arrived from Sydney with the view of putting the new settlement in order . In 18 39 , however ,

tlie home government gazetted Mr . Charles Joseph Latrobe Superintendent of Port Phillip , an office carrying with it the functions of Lieutenant-Governor . In October of the same year tlie ruler of tlie infant settlement arrived from England , and on the 23 rd ol December the first Masonic meeting was held in Melbourne . The appearance of the Melbourne of

18 39 , contrasted with the capital of Victoria fifty years later , was strikingly portrayed br a jubilee historian of 188 9 . He wrote :

" The intelligent foreigner , sauntering down the well-paved streets of Melbourne , will hardly be able to realise that half a century ago the present fashionable promenade of Collins Street was marked b y a line of gum tree stumps , deep ruts , and reservoirs of

mud ; that a piece of board nailed to a tree bore the inscription : — ' This is Bourke Street' ; that a waggon and a team of horses were absolutel y swallowed up in Elizabeth Street , and that at one time the settlers talked of using stilts ! The site of the present Treasury was then a cabbage garden , and Emerald

Hill ( now the important suburb of South Melbourne ) a sheep walk . " Such were the surroundings when a meeting was held in Melbourne with the object of founding the first Masonic Lodge in Victoria . The minutes of the Lodge of Australia

Felix in Melbourne , now No . 1 under the Victorian Constitution , state that a meeting was convened of Freemasons who were desirous of forming a lodge in " this colony , " twenty-one members of the Craft being present . A petition was prepared and forwarded to " R . W . George Robert Nicfiolls , Esq ., Provincial Grand Master of Australasia , " in

which Bro . George Brunswick Smythe , of St . Mary ' s Lodge , No . 76 , London ( now No . 6 3 ) was designated the first W . M . ; Bro . W . Meek , of Restoration Lodge , No . 128 , Darlington

( now No . 111 ) , first S . W . ; and Bro . Isaac Hinde , Tasmania !! Operative Lodge , No . 31 : 3 , Irish Constitution ( now No . 1 , Tasmanian Constitution ) , Hobart Town , the first J . W . A provisional lodge was established until the dispensation should arrive from Sydney , and a full complement of officers was named . A lodge was next opened in the First Degree ,

and after confirming the minutes of the outside meeting , by-laws were ordered to be brought up for confirmation at an adjourned meeting in the ensuing month . It will not be gainsaid that the proceedings were gone about in quite a business-like manner . The formal opening of this , the first

lodge in Victoria , was on the 25 th of March , 18 40 , and the constituting officer was Bro . John Stephen , P . M . of the Lodge of Australia , No . 54 8 , Sydney , whilst it is duly recorded that tlie ceremonies were performed "according to the pristine mage of the Order . " At this same meeting eleven candidates were proposed , also eight joining members . The first

Master , it is interesting to observe , was , at the end of his term of office , presented with a silver snuff-b > x , and in four years more a Royal Arch Chapter was opened in connection with the Lodge of Australia Felix , under the title of the Australasian Chapter , and the two are working together to

this day . The lodge in question was warranted by H . R . H . the Duke of Sussex , Grand Master of England , in 18 41 , and on the fiftieth anniversary of its birth a jubilee celebration was held .

English Freemasonry progressed amain with the concurrent opening of new settlements in the colony , and the gold discoveries in the early "fifties , " to which the now important cities of B . illarat and Bendigo and other nourishing places , owe their birth , and it is but natural to assume that these developments very materially helped and disseminated the work of Ma- ; onry .