VOLUME 18 ISSUE 4: JULY 2015 Editorial Staff Care 27B Lynmouth Avenue, Karori, Wellington 6012

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VOLUME 18 ISSUE 4: JULY 2015 Editorial Staff Care 27B Lynmouth Avenue, Karori, Wellington 6012 BOOK IN FOR YOUR MEAL If you are attending the meeting on 15 July, do not neglect to book in for your

Our Entered Apprentice was duly ushered out before the lodge was raised to the higher degrees (rest easy, Jack, by this time next year you will be qualified to see much more of the ceremony).

1 VOLUME 18 ISSUE 4: JULY 2015 Editorial Staff Care 27B Lynmouth Avenue, Karori, Wellington 6012 BOOK IN FOR YOUR MEAL If you are attending the meeting on 15 July, do not neglect to book in for your meal. Without a booking, we cannot guarantee there will be a meal for you. The more accurate numbers we have, the less it costs. the address below for bookings Tony_Cross@xtra.co.nz (Note: there is an underscore _ between y and C ) from Lodge Homewood. Our Entered Apprentice was duly ushered out before the lodge was raised to the higher degrees (rest easy, Jack, by this time next year you will be qualified to see much more of the ceremony). Our retiring Maser, Tony Cross, conducted his section of the proceedings with dignity and aplomb, while incoming Master Rolfe Everson (or El Rolfo, as he has become known to an increasing number of us) EL ROLFO PART II Installation night with all that implies! The turn of the masonic year. A relieved Worshipful Master becomes Immediate Past Master and the Senior Warden attains the Chair. A pattern that is repeated year after year except that, in this case, both have been that way before. But, before we come to the changing of the guard, there is the normal business of the Lodge to be got through. It was great to have V. Wor. Bro. Graham Redman (District Grand Master for Kapiti/Wellington under the Grand Lodge of New Zealand) with us and (ultimately) six sitting Masters in addition to the representative of Aorangi s Master. The one we really missed was W. Bro. Owen Jarrett of United Manawatu, forestalled by a vehicle breakdown outside Levin on his way down. Tough luck, Owen! The business session itself was fairly standard with one standout item, when we (finally) brought W. Bros. Tom Forster and Peter Diekermann into the fold by ballot as joining members. Welcome, Brethren! And so to the main business of the evening - the induction of Rolfe Everson as Master ( for the second time). The processional entries were, if anything, somewhat more impressive than on previous occasions, with all three official parties being piped into the Lodge, curtesy of a piper seemed to enjoy completely his return to the Chair, and sprinkled the later investiture of the officers with those touches of informality which are his trademark. Everything proceeded according to custom and El Rolfo, once seated in the Chair, was saluted as Master in the various degrees including by Jack on his return. In the absence of the unavoidably detained Owen Jarrett, the working tools in the second degree were presented by W. Bro. Bowns, Master of Lodge Tongariro a most creditable, virtually perfect performance, although a last-minute replacement. Back to the usual business of the lodge and, at the first rising, another proposition for election of a candidate for initiation this time for a more senior applicant. Members will find his name and details in the minutes which they will receive

with this posting. The visiting dignitaries then retired and the Lodge was closed at 8.45 exactly the same time as it was closed at the Installation meeting in 2013 (Trivia! Sec.

2 with this posting. The visiting dignitaries then retired and the Lodge was closed at 8.45 exactly the same time as it was closed at the Installation meeting in 2013 (Trivia! Sec. Yes, but it fills space. Ed.) DOWNSTAIRS The increased numbers attending (there had been over 50 in the lodge room) justified a return to the more traditional U-shape set-up of the refectory, permitting the Lodge silver to be displayed to its best advantage And a cheering sight it was. times. W. Bro. Nick Griffin, in his toast to the Wardens and other officers, relied on the triedand-true expedient of witty remarks about the individual wardens, but wisely avoided going through all the other officers one by one, as has occasionally been done in the past. His sibling, W. Bro. Andrew of the same ilk, worked into the toast to the visitors those verses on English grammar which are well worth reprinting from time to time: We ll begin with box; the plural is boxes But the plural of ox is oxen not oxes One fowl is a goose, and two are called geese Yet the plural of mooseis never called meese. You may find a lone mouse or a house full of mice But the plural of house is houses, not hice. The plural of man is always men, But the plural of pan is never pen I speak of a foot and you show me two feet, If I give you a book, would a pair be a beek? If one is a tooth and a whole set are teeth, Why shouldn t two booths be called beeth? Everyone tucked in with a will, to the extent that we experienced a temporary lack of dessert for the last in line something we are going to have to provide against in future. The opening loyal toasts were dealt with expeditiously (this month s new word) but with dignity. Aorangi Lodge was saluted in a friendly manner and W. Bro. Jim Lewis replied in the same vein. The toasts flowed through smoothly, but your editor somehow managed to lose his notes between the Wellesley and home (you ve done that before Sec.) and so he will have to rely on the little that remains in his memory of speeches one week after the event. One that still comes to mind is the reply V Wor. Bro Graham Redman gave to the toast to the sister constitutions delivered by our District Grand Master. Drawing on the current bicentennial of the Battle of Waterloo, he referred to the masonic connections of the English commander the eventual Duke of Wellington, the Prussian Marshal Blucher and Napoleon Bonaparte (? see separate item below) Of the toast to the incoming master, given by the outgoing one, and the reply to it your Editor has little memory, except that he laughed several We speak of a brother and also of brethren, But though we say mother, we ever say methren. Then the masculine pronouns are he, his and him, But imagine the feminine she, shis and shim Overall, there was a very warm feeling right through refectory and, although it was a long night, a remarkable number of those present stayed on to chat after the tyler s toast. A good time had been had by all. EDITOR S NOTE BONAPARTE AND FREEMASONRY The question of whether Napoleon Bonaparte was a Freemason is still a subject of dispute in French masonic circles. I have a copy of a book (Napoléon franc-maçon?) which, in 199 pages of French, sets out the evidence for and against. There is no documentary evidence of his initiation. If it happened, it is likely to have been during his early career before imperial ambitions would have precluded him from putting himself under the authority of anyone else. It has been suggested that a likely time would have been when the plain General Bonaparte was on the way to an attempted invasion of Egypt and the fleet stopped at Malta, where there was an active French lodge.

3 Once on the imperial throne, however, he came out strongly in favour of the Craft, believing it to be a force for social stability. He encouraged all his brothers to become members and was delighted when one of them, Jérome, was elected Grand Master of the Grand Orient of France, most likely with a bit of applied imperial pressure. He also accepted the title Protector of Freemasonry and there is, in the Museum of the Legion d Honneur in Paris, a portrait in oils of Bonaparte in full military uniform and wearing a sash emblazoned with the square and compasses. Engravings of this painting were a common feature in many French Lodges in the past. But whether Napoleon was actually a Freemason has never been finally confirmed. But about the Empress Josephine, there has never been any doubt she was definitely Master (!) of a Parisian lodge under the female adoptive system of Freemasonry then worked in France. THE GRAND MASTERS THE CHALLENGE TO GRAND LODGE On 17 July 1751, during the last year of Lord Byron s Grand Mastership, there occurred the most momentous event in masonic history since the formation of the Grand Lodge in Five independent lodges joined together to form a new Grand Lodge under the name of The Most Ancient and Honourable Society of Free and Accepted Masons, later changed to The Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of the Old Institutions. These titles were strokes of PR genius, for the words ancient and old suggested that the new body represented original and authentic Freemasonry. This was so effective that the new Grand Lodge became fixed in the public mind as The Ancients and the original Grand Lodge as The Moderns. This whole question of authenticity was one of the major factors moving towards the formation of the new body. The independent lodges were offended, not only by the fact that lower class men and especially immigrant Irish were refused admission to lodges under the Grand Lodge, but that those lodges had departed from standard practice as observed in lodges under the Grand Lodge of Ireland. In particular they objected to the reversal of the signs and words of the first two degrees as carried out after the publication of the 1730 exposure Masonry Dissected, not preparing the candidate correctly, omitting the old lectures or catechisms, deleting some prayers, arranging the Lodge incorrectly, not having Deacons and using a different Master Mason s word. These were but a few of their complaints. The five independent lodges forming the new Ancients Grand Lodge contained no more than eighty members in total, but numbers increased rapidly as other independent lodges joined, immigrating Irish freemasons and tradesmen found a welcome in Ancients lodges, and some members of Moderns lodges transferred their membership to Ancients lodges. Eventually, there were even a few Moderns lodges which moved en bloc to the Ancients. What was the attraction? Firstly, the Ancients Grand Lodge officers were more efficient and responded promptly to the problems of individual lodges, their lodges appear to have been more conscientious in their workings they did not rush their candidates through the ceremonies- and also, within a few years, they had introduced into England a very attractive new degree the Royal Arch (more about this in a later issue). But now, as far as London Masons were concerned, there was more than one game in town. Let battle be joined!! Next issue: Men for the Job. THE LATEST FROM VANUATU WHERE THE MONEY IS GOING You will remember that, at the April meeting, we voted a $1,000 donation to the Vanuatu Recovery Fund set up by the Lodge of Discovery there. The following has recently been received via our member W. Bro. Russell Chilton, who is also a member of that Lodge. Lodge of Discovery has the great pleasure to announce our intention to rebuild the library at Suango Primary School. This school is in the Mele area of Efate, which is in the environs of the lodge rooms so we, and Masonry, will receive collateral benefit and recognition in our local community. The school is multi-lingual and currently caters for nearly 400 students, year 1-8, along with employing teachers and other staff from the local area.

4 In Tropical Cyclone Pam, the roofs of all school buildings sustained damage. These, as well as the damage to the headmaster s house is being repaired by either Ratua Foundation or a collective of ex-pat residents who brought this larger initiative to the attention of the Lodge. The Lodge is very proud to be assisting the local community with this rebuild as the library provides a central hub for the students and teachers alike and we aim to not only rebuild the previous structure but to increase the size of it so it will grow with the future needs of the school, providing a legacy for everyone concerned. Since the area is just off the beach an engineer has been contracted to design the building to meet all the required standards of the Ministry of Education here in Vanuatu. As the son of a former headmaster at the school, his time and skill has been given free of charge as has the project manager we are in talks with. The manual labour and materials for this project are budgeted at Vt4,500,000 with an expected completion time in three to four months to build the new structure from the foundations up. In this region, proper upkeep of any structure is imperative to ensure it weathers the climate here. To this end, the Lodge will receive an annual report and we will make provisions to attend to any maintenance as needed. us to build a bigger and better structure than what they had previously. We have carefully looked at the supplied plans & costings and we are confidant that, using the same budget, we can increase the footprint from 45m 2 to 65m 2. This means that the school can have a media centre within the library to make it suitable for the future study of the students. The old library was behind one of the classroom blocks and next to a swamp so we have negotiated with the school to move it to a much better location. It will now be more central to all the classroom blocks and nearby to the headmaster s house; this will make the library a focal point within the school and will give the Masonic donation that made it possible huge collateral. Final planning is underway with the engineer and, with the project manager sourcing suitable materials locally, we expect work to commence within three weeks. Current projects on the site are going well with the help of other concerned parties: new classrooms are being built, older ones are being reroofed and other buildings are ongoing, so normality should return soon to the 400-odd young students of Suango Mele Primary School. Russell Chilton NEWS FROM QUEENSLAND The following has been received recently from our overseas member W. Bro. Graham Mulligan who is also a member and Past Master of the Lamington Lodge (under the United Grand Lodge of Queensland) in Brisbane. Lamington Lodge 110, UGLQ keeps going from strength to strength. Later First Site Visit It has been just two weeks since the Lodge s decision to sole-fund the rebuild of the library at the Suango Mele Primary School. Since then the committee has been hard at work making the budgeted money go as far as possible to enable The stream of new younger members keeps growing and we have a full schedule of work for the next two years. To fit it all in we do double firsts, farm- out the seconds but sometimes do double seconds. We haven't succumbed yet to double thirds! It's the only way we can get through the work and keep rejuvenating the Lodge. Double workings work very well and are not as onerous as it sounds.

5 The average age of Lamington members is coming down but the real interesting thing is we have a solid group of younger members really keen to progress their Masonic careers, willing to do any job, actively visit, and all network on Facebook. I keep encouraging the grey heads in the East to stand back, let the younger members get on with it as they are the future of our Lodge. Graham Mulligan =========== On the personal front, I'm actively involved as a director of UGLQ's charity arm the Board of Benevolence (BoB). BoB operates Masonic Care Queensland (MCQ) which is the residential aged care and retirement living facility. We have operations in Brisbane, Gold Coast, Townsville and Cairns and a few dots scattered in between. We just posted our budget for next year $70m revenue, $8.3m EBITDA, and $4m net profit. It's a big business and last year we turned the first profit after decades of losses. Aged Care is a very difficult business to be in. The emotional issues that have to be dealt with whilst still operating in a commercial environment are immense. But with good staff and proper direction good things can happen from a business perspective. I Chair the Audit & Risk Committee and I am particularly proud of our achievements in turning this business around. It is this involvement of myself and my team of fellow directors that the Grand Master Dr Gary Bacon conferred Grand Rank on me last week - PSGD. It is a humbling honour especially when my Masonic roots are at Wellington EC. I'm off to China for board meetings of the large New Zealand company Beijing Capital Waste Management NZ Ltd., which I'm sure you all are aware of. Normally we hold these meetings in Auckland every month, but four times a year we have them in Beijing. So if any Wellington EC members have trouble with their rubbish collection by the company running the big red and orange trucks, first check that it's not our competitors, then feel free to let me know and I will get it fixed. If you do use one of our competitors then change straight away otherwise this could be deemed un-masonic behaviour!!! When you least expect it I shall visit sometime soon. Kind fraternal regards to all.

Master Mason. The Apron of a Master Mason

Master Mason. The Apron of a Master Mason THE MASTER MASON Congratulations upon being raised to the 3 nd Degree. You are now a Master Mason The Apron of a Master Mason Although the 3 rd degree ceremony essentially follows the structure of the