LODGE MEETING

Evening Post, Volume LXXXV, Issue 48, 26 February 1913, Page 2

LODGE MEETING

The weekly, session of the Star of Wellington; Lodge, No. 12, 1.0. G.T., was held in St. tfeier'S Mission Hall. Bto. ' W. Donaldson" presided over a good attendance. The District Executive was officially received. -» Bro. ' Atkinsoa, D.C.T., presided for the' remainder of the evening. - The- election of the Grand Lodge representative took place, Sister L. Rigarlsftfrd 'being duly elected. It was decided to place on record their sincere sorrow at the loss of Cuptain. Scott and' ftisibTave comrades in their heroic ■endeavours <to explore -the inhospitable Antarctic regions. '

- The Australian. Minister for External Affairs hoe a -grievance against the conveners of the ' Conference of State Agricultural Authorities,'' now being held at Hobatt. "Hofr is tt," he asked, with a smile, "!thatT:he Minister for Agriculture for the .Northern Territory was not invited to -take^part^' "Who is he?" Mr. Thomas wa^ ask^d, and the Minister triumphantly( replied, "I am. T don't know, howiever^ that I complain very much, 'in- view of the fact that a fe\v months' -.ago fcjiere' ■Was a conference of_ State, surveyors ' to. arrange for a trigonometrical survey 01 Australia, and 'the surveyor >of the Territory, which is a pretty' gocrti slic^ of ' the Commonwealth, Avas riot incited. The Surveyor for the Fod§r^l Capital was there also. That particular part/ of Australia would not make v, decent-sized farm in the Northern Territory." The time-honoured joke anenl the "Swiss Navy"^ stands in some danger of losing ite point if a proposal now vi sder consideration comes tr> anything. The scheme (says Syren and Shipping), which involves a sum of about a million sterling, provides for the improvement of the upper portions of the River Rhine from Lake Constance, via SchaffhatraeTr and Basle, up to StrasbUrg, so that the industrial centres on the upper Rhine may be brought into direct water communication with the North Sea. An international committee, composed of representatives of Germany, Switzerland, Holland, and the Duchy of Baden, aro devoting their attention to tho proposition, and there appears to be "ood reason to believo that steps will be taken to curry it through.