FREEMASONRY

Hokitika Guardian, 29 November 1930, Page 2

FREEMASONRY

GRAND MASTER'S ADDRESS. In his address to the assemblage at Christchurch on Wednesday, alter installation, Lord Bledisloe said that the invitation that he should accept the highest Masonic. office in New Zealand had been so cordial and pressing that it appeared to him that refusal would have been not merely ungracious and ungrateful, but also a violation of bis Royal master’s motto “leh dion ’ (‘‘l serve”). He bad also been assured that the brethren of the Dominion would be willing to provide him with a most experienced, popular, and .energetic” Pro-Grand Master in Mr Darkness, to exonerate him from personally. conducting many of the more important tasks normally undertaken by the Grand Master. If in these matters lie sought friendly indulgence, it was due to no lack of Masonic zeal, but simply to the limits of human strength, and the belief that in these days, when we were faced with grave industrial and economic problems, such surplus physical energy as he might possess should be devoted ipreponderanlty to their attempted solution, The welfare of the craft and all connected with it would ever be his constant concern, and an object- very his heart.

'“I rejoice,” Raid his Excellency, “that Freemasonry, with all its salutary influence upon the community at large, is such a live and .generous growth in tills country, , , . Let it be potent to the uninitiated that a typical Freemason Is one who, edified by our ritual nnd foritified by our tenets, initnitively and invariably radiates charity in his domestic and vocational environment, and who is ever raising a shapely ethical superstructure on a firm foundation of upright charactera, mail indeed to quote Wodswort-h’s description of “the happy warrior.”

Whose high -endeavour is an inward light Which makes the path before him lalways jbright. . . . Who, not content that former worth stand fast, Looks forward, .persevering to the last. From well to better, daily self-sur-passed A REVIVAL. “If as I would fain believe, we in this country, as elsewhere in the world, are on the eve of a great revival of those forces which make for the permanent uplifting of mankind nnd a more secure anchorage for human, life and conduct- than has obtained since the great upheaval occasioned by the war—a revival foreshad, owing for the human race a more confident happiness, rooted in purity and integrity of life, but nevertheless full of the “joie de vivre’’ which is in no way repugnant to the highest ideals of human attainment, and to which modern conditions, properly directed, can so generously contribute, may we not wake our Masonic temple to the nucleus of such a renaissance, tlie acknowledged treasure-home 0 f the best plans of a new ethical architecture ? At least that js the ambition apd the objective to which, on assuming for the time being thjs high apd responsible position, I am bold enough to aspire on behalf of the Craft of this fair Dominion.”

Concluding, his Excellency said: “Allow, me to express the earnest hope that Freemasonry may be an ever increasing power for good throughout this country during the period for which I shall have the honour and privilege of acting as your Grand Master, and that if, as we all believe, righteousness exalteth a nation, such exaltation will 'characterise the future history of New Zealand, and that our Craft may he a potent influence in the pmcese.”