Masonic.

Otago Witness, Issue 1787, 20 February 1886, Page 11

Masonic.

The work in charity, which is the prominent feature in English Freemasonry (says a Home paper), produced in the year which closed last night a total sum of £54,416 2s 7d to the three Masonic charitable institutions. This exceeds any previous year's total by several thousands of pounds. The largest amount hitherto attained m one year was in 1880, when £49,762 11s 5d was the total. The Royal Masonic Benevolent Institution again takes the lead with the enormous total of £21,374 7s . Id. The Royal Masonic Institution for Girls comes next with £16,768 19s 6d, and the Royal Masonic Institution for Boys brings up the rear with £16,272 16s. The donations and subscriptions alone to the Benevolent Institution were £17,570 11s 4d, to the Boys' School £14,423 Is lOd, and to the Girls' School £14,203 15s Bd. This last sum includes £1050 given by West Yorkshire for a perpetual presentation of one girl, called th 6 Sir Henry Edwards Presentation. Grand Lodge swells the total of the Benevolent Institution with a gift of £1600, and that of the Boys' School with a special grant of £1000. The Benevolent Institution is payiug away, in annuities of £40 to men and £32 to widows, the sum of £13,804 ; the Girls' School is boarding, clothing, and educating 242 girls from 7to 16 years of age ; and the Boys' School 230 boy 6 from 7 to 15. During the year 1885 the Board of Benevolence, which sits once a month at Freemasons' Hall, has granted £10,153 to 387 eases of distress. This is the largest amount granted in one year from the fund of benevolence, but the number of cases has also been the largest. This record of Masonic charity does not rep-<3sent all that is done in' that way througb.<sip the country. There are 43 provinces in England, each of which has its fund of benevolence, and several of which — such as Cheshire, Bast and West Lancashire, West and North and East Yorkshire, and Devonshire, Kent, Surrey, and Sussex— have their charitable or educational organisations, and all of these are doing excellent work. The Mark Masons also contribute very largely to the cause of charity.