ANCIENT ORDER OF FORESTERS.

Evening Star, Issue 3026, 31 October 1872, Page 3

ANCIENT ORDER OF FORESTERS.

The following extract from a letter from the fourth quarterly report of the York Executive Council, dated July, 1872, will be read with interest by members of the Order Respected Brethren,—The time has at length arrived when the officers and members of Court Pioneer of the West, Mo. 5519, A.O.F. feel it their bounden duty to return you without further delay their heartfelt thanks for the prompt and efficient manner in which you, and through yon the brethren of Great Britain, came to their rescue. At a time when our beautiful city was shrouded in mourning, Avhen over 100,000 of its inhabitants (amongst whom were a majority of the brethren of this court) were made homeless by a calamity without a paraliel in the annals of history, when panic and despair seemed to paralyse the senses and energies of the people, when the cry went forth for aid, its echo was heard across the Atlantic, and answered in tones that brought hope and comfort to many a stricken one amongst our brethren. The magnificent donation, amounting to LS7O 8s 4d, was indeed a gift worthy of our beloved order, and a proof, if any were needed, that with Foresters sympathy is no idle phrase, but a living, acting, guiding rule, tending to strengthen in no small degree the popularity of tiie order in this great western country. We assure the officers and brethren of the E.C. that although the wise distribution of of the funds entrusted to our disposal was no easy task, the committee at least tried to relieve each and every brother in a just and equitable manner. Mid the inclemency of a rigorous winter the committee have held over twenty-three different meetings, at each of which claims were analysed and various sums donated, the committee acting without entailing one single cent of expense other than the sums appended to their names, they, be it remembered, being also sufferers, to a greater or less extent, as other brothers by the fire. Wo are happy to be able to state the e.isis is past, the winter is over, ihol retlueu are all at work again, and settling down to something like the old routine, and any more relief distributed would be superfluous.