American Order of Oddfellows

Gisborne Times, Volume VII, Issue 316, 17 January 1902, Page 3

American Order of Oddfellows

I Special to Times. | Wellington, last night. Bro. J. Aitken, Grandmaster of the American Order of Oddfellows in the colony, is on his way Nortli on a visit of inspection of the various lodges in the North Island. He is timed to be in Gisborne on the 28th inst, when he will visit the local Lodge. Addressing a large meeting of members of the Order here last night he indicated that the Order was making satisfactory progress. The soundness of . the principle which had guided the Grand Lodge in keeping up the scale of contributions had, he said, been proved again by the last report of the Kegistrar of Friendly Societies, on quinquennial valuations, whilst the deficiencies shown by some of the lodges of other Societies, indicated clearly that the scale under which they were working' was too low. Personally he favored the proposal made during last session of Parliament that a commission should be set up to enquire into the working of friendly societies, and that no Society shonld register until it could prove that it was working under an adequate scale of fees. As far as their own order was concerned, it had shown a surplus for the quinquennial period of nearly £6 per member, distributed over the whole of the colony. In connection with the privileges attaching to membership, he pointed to the superannuation scheme adopted at the last session of the Grand Lodge, under which a member who had attained the age of 65, and had been twenty-five years a member of the Order was relieved of payment of all dues, while retaining all privileges. The scheme was working well, and had attracted new members. He urged that attention should be given to the movement for the establishment of juvenile branches of the Order. The next session of the Sovereign Grand Australia is to be held in Adelaide in May. New Zealand will send four representatives. It is likely that the following session will be held in New Zealand.