MASONIC.

Otago Witness, Issue 1419, 1 February 1879, Page 15

MASONIC.

In pursuance of a charter granted by tho Grand Imperial Council (f EngUnd cf the Illustri 'Us and Anciout Order of the Kn'ghts of Rome and of the Red Cross of Coii3tantine, and the Orders of the Holy Sepulchre and of St. John, the first conclave in Dunodin of the above-named Orders was f >rmed and held there on tho ?Oth Jiecember, 1878 The charter has been granted to the following Knighta Coni|,anions of the Orders, viz. :— John Hyde Han is. K.T., ■** First Grind S> vereijrn ; Thoims .sherl.uk '-wham, X T.. us Fii-nt CJrand Viceroy ; and Kuiirht> Conipuiioiia Willum Caldwull, K-T. ; Louis Court, XT. ; wMliam Tait. aad El want John Schlotcl, who have all been appointed to clliceain the conclave, which is named tho BurdeU Concave, aftur the present Grand Sovereign of the Ordor, Colonel Francis BurdeU. Compinions J.O.Eva and J. ThouiaH Harris Yates were received and iustal'ed by the Sovereign and officers. Hro G. Harvey, P.ist Sovi reign an old and distir cuished member of the Order, whs present as a v.sitor, and aasiMeJ in tho installation ceremony. The jrvival of this ancient Ordor was mainly due to the influonuo of the late much-lamented Bro Robert Weutwonh Little, who precured the degree from odo of the old mombois. now deceased, who had wo'ked ie with his Eoy n l Highness the late Duke of Sussex, then Grand foveroign. Bro w. H. W hike, a former Grand Secretary of the Ovder, was then living, and having held the office of Grand Recorder for the degrees uncL-r his R'tyel Highness, ws made the first; Grand Sovereign cf the restored Urand Conclave. Tho records of tho «Td<r in Knglaud extent backwards ior upwards of a contuty, siud on the Continent to a more remote period. r J he mxt meeting <>f tho Bi'rdett CoucHvo will I o hold in Dunedin on tLe first Ss*turd<>y of March next.

The Wesleyan Special and Memorial Fund Committee has resolved to give L 40.000 to the existing Extension Fund; L 4500 toassistin providing and furnishing houses for married ministers ; L4OOO for evangelistic efforts in behalf of soldiers and sailors ; L2OOO in aid of the memorial chapel at Oxford ; L15,0f10 in aid of tho school for ministers' sons ; LIO.OOO in aid of the establishment of middle-class boarding schools j and smaller guius to other objects.