Progressive Societies

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 303, 14 March 1928, Page 8

Progressive Societies

ECHOES OF ‘THE WHEAT SHEAF’

Lodge Meetings in Auckland

PICTURES of lodge meetings, in the lowly taverns of early Auckland are lifted from the past by the opening of the new Manchester Unity building. This latest city enterprise signifies the progress of New Zealand Friendly'Societies which, between them, control funds totalling three and a-half millions.

o N the Martha Ridgway, reaching Nelson in 1542, came Thomas Sullivan, founder of the friendly society movement in New Zealand. From the simple institution founded by Sullivan developed to-day’s impressive roll of societies, which have a total membership of 100,000, and distribute £150,000 a year in sickpay and death benefits. The main divisions of the friendly societies in this country consist of the different branches of Oddfellows, Foresters, Masons, Shepherds, Druids, Rechabites, Hibernians, Good Ternp-

lars and Buffaloes. Along with the major orders there are a large number of smaller organisations, so that the complete roster presents a formidable appearance, covering the registration of slightly over one thousand individual district lodges, courts and branches. The steady increase in numbers and membership is shown by official figures, the latest available showing that in January, 1926, there were 962 lodges, courts, etc., and 91,353 members, whereas in January, 1927, there were 991 lodges and 94,467 members. Allowing for subsequent expansion, and for the fact that a number of lodges fail to send in returns, it is clear that the figures by now are 1,000 for lodges and 100,000 for members. In relative strength the most powerful of the orders in New Zealand is the Manchester Unity, with 227 branches, a reserve of nearly £1,000,000, and investments which bring in £56,156 a year. Next come

the Independent Order of Oddfellows, Ancient Order of Foresters, and Ancient Order of Druids, each of the first two having 160 odd branches, and the last 140. The Druids and A.0.0.F. both collect some £35,000 anually in interest from investments. The Rechabites realise £7,886 a year in interest, and the Hibernians, another of the larger orders, £3,873. Most of this revenue, of course, is distributed through the benefit systems of the lodges, and is a reflection of their stability. New Zealand friendly societies bear a high reputation for the wisdom with which their affairs have been administered, and their average capital per member, £35 6s Bd. is far and away above the corresponding figure for any of the Australian friendly societies. HISTORIC ASSOCIATIONS

In Auckland the history of the societies is closely associated with the history of the city, and with the record of its social and commercial advancement. It was toward the close of last century that the different orders developed the prestige on which their present strength is founded. Mr. C. C. McMillan, who died recently, was for a long time Grand Master of the Masonic Order, which the Freemaspns’ Hall, Princes Street. The Waitemata Lodge, which at that time met in the same hall, was founded as far back as 1856, while Lodga Ara, the oldest Masonic lodge in New Zealand, was founded in 1842. The Foresters, which for a long time met in the Foresters' Hall, Newton, are another old-established Auckland orde’*, which, like the Manchester Unity, has made a substantial investment in city property. The section on which the M.U. 1.0.0. F. has raised its new building, at the corner of Hobson and Victoria Streets, was in the early days a scrubcovered patch traversed by the track from Freeman’s Bay to the old community well in Albert Street. When first sold it changed hands for £10; but when the Oddfellows bought it the price they paid was £13,000. To-day’s conference, the first held in the new building, recalls the first district conference held in Auckland, when ten delegates, representing 403 members, gathered at the Wheatsheaf Inn, Queen Street, which stood about on the site of the entrance to Fullers’ new theatre. Before that the lodge had met at the Commercial Inn, Shortland Street, and it is on record that so eminent a person as the Hon. W. Swanson, who had just arrived in Auckland, was refused admission because his ‘clean blue sweater and new moleskins did not conform to the meticulous sartorial standards prescribed for the lodge meetings of infant Auckland.