ADDRESS OF GRAND MASTER



  I had scarcely reached home from attendance on our last Grand Commu-
nication, before I received an importunate request from one of the oldest.
and best conducted Lodges in this jurisdiction, to interpose my official au-
thority and prevent the organization of a Lodge which had just received a
dispensation at your hands, alleging as important reasons that its proposed
officers were wholly incompetent, that as the recommending Lodge they
had been taken by surprise, and that there was clearly no necessity or suit-
able material for another Lodge in that locality. This was a Lodge to.
which I had previously refused a Dispensation; but the Grand Lodge having
overruled my decision, I of course did not feel at liberty to assume the res-
ponsibility sought to be imposed by this request, or to permit this old
Lodge "to take advantage of its own wrong" in defeating the organization
in pursuance of your dispeinsation. The work of this Lodge, U. D., will
necessarily undergo your inspection, and I trust will prove better than an.
ticipated-such work as we are authorized to receive. I have alluded to
this instance only by way of abundant caution and to suggest the reflection
that if the Grand Lodge is thus liable to e.r, with all the representatives of
surrounding Lodges present to ftirnish the needed light, much more so is
the Grand Master, whose decision is of necessity almost solely influenced
by an exparte representation of the case.
  Such cases also suggest very forcibly the propriety of the recommenda-
tion on this subject, made in.my last report (which is now a pending amend-
ment of the constitution,) that it be required as an indispensable prelimi-
nary to the granting of any dispensation, that the proposed Master and
Wardens shall undergo a satisfactory examination in open Lodge, and that
this fact shall be duly attested by the nearest Lodge granting certificate of
recommendation. The official experience of another year has only more
fully demonstrated the expediency of some such provision, that will practi-
cally test the capacity of Lodges U. D., for the work we authorized them
to do.
                 IMPROPER DEPLETION OF GRAND TREASURY.
  The pernicious consequences of an indiscriminate exercise of the Lodge-
making power, are not limited to the respective communities in which they
are established; but they are also very sensibly and disastrously felt in
their depleting influence upon our Grand Treasury.
  There is a constantly recurring and increasing drain upon your resources
to continue in being many of the Lodges you have organized. Some of
these Lodges have been in existence for many years, but having only a
small membership, and located in a remote part of the State, they annually
receive more through their representatives, from the general fund, than they
contribute. If you will examine our last year's returns, you will find that
this was the case with a large number of our subordinates, and that in



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