ANCIENT ORDER OF FORESTERS

Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21180, 2 June 1934, Page 26

ANCIENT ORDER OF FORESTERS

CENTENARY CELEBRATION NEXT WEEK HISTORY OF THE SOCIETY The centenary of the Ancient Order of Foresters, one of the best known of the friencHy societies, will be celebrated next week. This year marks the centenary of the present order, but Forestry has been in existence cerlor 144 year;, and probably for it great deal longer than that. For 20 years before 1745, there had been soipe commotion in Masonic circles, and, as a consequence, a number of convivial societies were formed, chiefly in London, with more or less terrifying ceremonials. It was at this time the Oddfellows were first heard ®f in London, and it is not too much to assume that the first Royal Foresters came into existence about the same time, ant were men of similar tastes, who. being in Yorkshire, close to the scene of the exploits of the famous outtaw, Robin Hood, took to themselves the name of Foresters. The history of the order falls naturuly into four periods. The first period is that following the suppression of religious and trade guilds in the reign of Edward VI. These guilds, which had as their object the mutual help of their members, were superseded by the poor laws of the reign of Elizabeth, but they continued in existence as convivial societies. This period in the history of the order is shrouded in mystery. There were a great many of these societies, but their provident assurance activities were merely accessory, and were generally crude. The second period is that of the rise cf the great friendly societies which exist to-day, and the first authentic record of the or er of Forestry in 1790. Owing to the disturbances throughout "Europe which culminated in the French revolution, meetings of societies were frowned on by the authorities. and the history of most of the friendly societies of those times is obscure. The third period in the history of the order of Foresters was a short one, from ] 315. when the Royal order was reorganised, till 1834. when the present Ancient order broke away from the Royal order, drafted its own general laws, and obtained a -large following. The fourth psriod is the story of the rise of the Ancient order till courts can be found in many parts of the world, and its adherents can be numbered by hundreds of thousands. The oldest court in New Zealand ij Court Star of Canterbury, which was bounded in 1852. Ten years later Forestry was established in Wellington, Otago, and Nelson, and in 1863 in Auckland. Courts were formed rapidly after that year, and now in the Dominion there are 19,083 adult Foresters, the order possessing fun. s totalling Jj 837,662.