A DRUIDS' DISPUTE.

Hastings Standard, Issue 267, 10 March 1897, Page 4

A DRUIDS' DISPUTE.

For some time past there has been disputation among the Druids of NewSouth Wales as to the limitation of the respective powers of the Grand Lodge and its subordinate lodges, and the matter was carried into the Supreme Court. The decision given by his Honor .Judge Fit/hardinge will be viewed as of great interest and importance to all friendly society lodges and their members. On one side there was the claim of the Grand Lodge to a kind of legislation for all lodges of the order ; on the other the refusal of a lodge to accept a bye law of the kind for which its acceptance was demanded. One view reduced the lodges to the position of dependent branches, the other treated them a-> virtually independent corporations with full powers to make by laws for themselves. 'l'he decision of the Judge is on all the points in favor of the claim to, so to si>eak, perfect autonomy on the part of the lodges, and in denial of the authority asserted by the Grand Lodge. The decision would appear I*l J* the Sydney Morning Herald) to be in s»onie of its joints applicable to uuuiv friendly societies besides that in r j * (. T t i which it was given. It may 1 hi Id t ) materially alter the guanuv ' >f ind mid well considered regulation which the more centralised r-ystt-Ui Won d -eem to .supply. IMPRISONMENT IN A (oNVI NT. A Muim/ !ad\ of 1<;, the da 1 lit r >f ll.tron Latiun. Nt, Lu-. (savs th \ mil I corr«.i|joudcu f , o! the Dtuty >tm ) tit

tempted to escape from a convent at Pressburg, in Hungary, under peculiarly romantic- circumstances. A kindhuarted woman, the mother a. family, was passing the convent when she noticed a young girl sitting om the ..-ill of a high tirst-iloor window and making moveraenis as if she intended jumping into the street below. The woman called out to her to desist her mad intention, but the girl, holding on to some architectural ornaments, glided slowly downwards, and held on to the sill with her fingers only. Delicate as she Tas, she must soon have dropped, but two men, taking the proffered shawls and capes of women passing by held them up firmly, and she was caught in their arms. Two very small hands threw some clothes after her from the window, so that it must be supposed that she had a school-girl accomplice in her flight. Baroness Laminent begged on her knees that her kind deliverers would take her to the home of a friend whom she named, as she could not live in the convent any longer, but a lady present interfered, and said that the scantily-clad girl must be returned to the convent, and this was done, although she pleaded piteously and sobbed violently. It is asserted that the superior of the convent is making her a nun against her will. She spent the Christmas holidays on her uncle's property not far from Pressburg, but when she was taken back to school after New Year's Day she was told that having been idle at her lessons, it was intended that she should remain in the convent for good.