LOYAL NELSON LODGE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LVI, 7 April 1924, Page 4

LOYAL NELSON LODGE

PIONEER LODGE OF ODDFELLOWS

82ND ANNIVERSARY

Tiie following interesting extract is taken from the report of Die Grand Master and Board of Directors presented at the Biennial Conference of Oddfellows which opened in Nelson this morning:—“The 12th Biennial Movable Conference opens on an historical .date, and on historical ground. On the 7th April, 1842—m what is now the City of Nelson—was established the pioneer Lodge of the Manchester Unity in New Zealand, the Loyal Nelson Lodge No. 3315, ancl thus to-day celebrates the 82nd anniversary. The founding of the Order of the Manchester Unity- of Oddfellows in Nelson, was practically contempora neous with the foundation of the settlement, and first took form amongst the passengers on hoard the ship Martha Ridgway, which left England in 1841 with emigrants for the intended settlement, arriving at Nelson Haven on April 4th, 1842. “Amongst the passengers was Bro. T. Sullivan, am enthusiastic Oddfellow, of many years’ experience in England, who associated himself with eight otliei Oddfellows on the passage out —Bros. G. P. Kearns, A. McGee, E. JNiooll, E. Cropper, J. Si tig ley, J. Hanley, G. Grcaliiead, and A. Patterson—to whom the honour is due, as being the promoters of the new Lodge. Their number was increased by Die following passengers joining later, Messrs Butterfield, Thus. Radcliffe, Jas. Rowboltom, TWaterhouse, and John Waterhouse, making fourteen all told, who thus formally originated the Loyal Nelson Lodge, ail subscribed the amount necessary to procure a dispensation through the Sydney District (as being nearest) to open ancl work the Lodge in duo form. “The name originally decided upon was “The Strangers’ Refuge,” no doubt a name fraught with much meaning to those ,wlio, at that early day of the settlement, had left friends and associations far behind them, and were about to face the future in a new, and to a great extent, unknown land. By a strange coincidence the Pioneer Lodge of the Sydney District was known as the “Stranger’s Refuge,”; and as it was contrarv to the Rules of the Order for two Lodges in the same District to bear the same name, it was decided to designate the new Lodge the Loyal Nelson Lodge. “April 17th, 1923.—The brief review in Die foregoing passage of the birth of the Manchester Unity in New- Zealand, although not. specifically in conformity with the requirements of your Board, “to prepare a report of their proceedings for the past term,” was introduced primarily as a prelude to record an interesting factor with regard to the New' Zealand Branch. Measured in mortal span, the Loyal Nelson Lodge may be likened to the attainment of ripe old age, whereas the New Zealand Branch, established on the 17th of April, 1902, is in the full bloom of manhood, having attained its majority, coming as it were “of age” on the 17th April. 1923.”