2011 Awards were presented on
Friday 10th February 2012

The top 2011 Year 13 students from 25 of Auckland City's secondary schools received $1,250 each, at the annual 'Ara Fine Arts Awards’ ceremony held on the nearest Friday to the Birthday of the Lodge (9th February) . The Fine Arts Awards ceremony sponsored by the Ara Lodge 348 Irish Constitution, wasl held on Friday the 10th of February.

Students, parents, teachers and guardians attended the event, from 5:30pm when the student's portfolios were on display for all to view in the refectory, followed at 7pm with the awards ceremony in the Lodge Room.

The Worshipful Master Brother Marshall Basham welcomed all to the Visual Fine Arts Awards ceremony.

Very Worshipful Brother Geoff Grenfell conducted the ceremony and acknowledged all who have a part in the ceremony and helped.

Christine Lee a ten year old Northern District Knights Templar Foundation scholar entertained us with a violin item "praeludium & Allegra" Fritz Kreisler.

The following 2011 students received $1,250 awards:

ARA LODGE 348 IRISH CONSTITUTION

The Lodge is as old as Auckland City. It held it's first meeting on 9th February 1843 under a dispensation from the Australian Social Lodge 260 I.C. Sydney dated 5th September 1842. From that time it has been the premier lodge in N.Z. Many of Auckland's leading citizens have been members of the Lodge, including three mayors. The Lodge has had three homes. For the first 80 years it met in Princess Street; at the Masonic Hotel and then next door at the Freemasons Hall. Since 1929 the Irish masons of the city have held their meetings at Airedale Street Lodge Rooms.

TRIBUTES

GEORGE ARTHUR GRIBBIN 1846-1944 “Father of the Lodge”
He was truly a remarkable freemason. Originally an English Freemason he affiliated to Ara 348 from the Eden Lodge 1530 EC in 1887.
He was the WM of the Lodge in 1896-1897, after being in the Wardens’ chairs for the previous three years.
His major testimony to the Lodge is a superb book published at his own expense in 1908, entitled the ‘History of the Ara Lodges’. It is about the first 60 years of Ara’s history including the great schism of 1890 and the establishment of the second Ara Lodge No 1 NZC. When it is considered that this was written in long hand, over five to six years, before the days of modern technology, one has to be lost in admiration. It was during this time that he was also the Provincial Grand Secretary and an influential partner in a well respected Auckland City solicitors’ practice.
The major tragedy in his life was the death on the battle fields in Flanders in 1917 of his 20 year old son, Raymond Lewis Gribbin. This young man had been dedicated by his father to Freemasonry at birth, hence the name ‘Lewis’. Bro Raymond was initiated into the Lodge as an 18 year old only two years before, on the eve of his departure overseas with the army.
Bro George Gribbin visited our mother lodge in Sydney several times in the period between the two World Wars. As a 90 year old and celebrating his 50 years in masonry he last visited Lodge Antiquity No 1 NSWC in 1936. That lodge rose to the occasion and put on a special celebration for him including a cake and honoured him by having him preside over a special meeting.
He died in 1944 in the middle of the 2nd World War aged 98. The wall table in the Lodge anteroom with a brass plaque behind on which the Brethren sign their attendance, commemorates his special contributions to the Ara Lodge.

PHILIP AARON PHILIPS 1st Mayor of Auckland
He arrived from the UK in 1847 aged 18 and set up as an ironmonger in Vulcan Lane. In the 1860s he became involved in local body politics, first as chairman of the City Board of Commissioners. When city status was conferred on Auckland he became mayor in 1871. He retained this position until 1874. When his business failed in that year he took the position of Town Clerk which he held for the next 26 years during which time he repaid all his creditors. He first joined Freemasonry with the Waitemata Lodge and as a past master of that Lodge joined Ara in 1881. He took a strong stand at Ara about non Christian members being expected to attend church services as masons.

ALFRED KIDD 1851-1917
He too came to NZ as a young teenager from Hounslow in Middlesex England when he was 14. In Auckland he began work on a farm in Mangere before setting off for the goldfields on the Coromandel. Having given himself a good start in life he returned to Auckland as the publican of the Commercial Hotel in Shortland Street. While in Thames he joined the Sir Walter Scott Lodge and back in Auckland joined Ara in 1880. He was the master in 1886 about the time when he also became a City Councillor. Along with two other prominent past masters of Ara he strongly supported the establishment of the New Zealand Grand Lodge in 1890. They formed a new Ara Lodge under that constitution. He was Mayor of Auckland City from 1901-1903. At the same time he was elected as a Liberal MP for Auckland Central, 1902-1905. A keen farming enthusiast and horse lover, he was president of the Auckland Racing Club. Two years before he died in 1917, he rejoined Ara 348 from which he had split in 1890.

JOHN ALLUM [SIR] 1889-1972
He also was a young man from England. At the age of 20 he arrived from London in 1909 as an electrical engineer. In 1922 he established the very successful business of Allum Electrical Company. Over the next forty years he was a prominent figure in the Auckland Manufacturers Association and the Auckland Chamber of Commerce. He was a city councillor from 1921-1929 and elected Mayor in 1941. He held that office for 12 years and was knighted for his services to the city in 1950. Bro Allum joined Ara in 1916 and although he never took office was an active member for over 50 years. He was presented with his 50 year jewel in 1966 and was still attending the Lodge when he was 80. He is best remembered for the Auckland Harbour Bridge, being the major driving force behind that project. It is worth noting even then he foresaw the need for a second harbour crossing.

ARTHUR PATRICK PIERCE 1879-1918
Bro Arthur Patrick (Hector) PIERCE was born in 1879 and educated at Takapuna Primary School and Kings College. His father was George Patrick Pierce one of the most influential and respected members of both the Auckland commercial world and also the Masonic fraternity between 1860-1890. He had been the Provincial Grandmaster of the Irish Constitution for over twenty years when he suddenly died in 1892; at which time Hector was 13.

When Hector left school he served articles with A P Wilson, an Auckland architect before leaving for England to continue his studies. One of his teachers in London was the famous Sir Edward Lutjens, the creator of New Dehli.. Bro Pierce returned to Auckland in 1907 and went into partnership with a fellow pupil from London, F N Bamford. In 1913, the same year as he joined Lodge Ara 348, they were chosen to design the Auckland Exhibition held in the Domain. This covered over 48 acres and the cost of laying out the grounds and buildings was £30,000. Profits from the exhibition were spent on improving the Domain and the building of the Wintergarden. The tea kiosk and the bandstand, survivals of the exhibition, are memorials to Bro Pierce. In 1915 he was the architect for the original Takapuna Borough Council Chambers.

In 1916, in the middle of the First World War, at the age of 36 and whilst married with three small children he volunteered for military duties. He left for the Middle East within a year and saw service with the field engineers in Palestine, 1917-1918. During this time he contracted malaria and was hospitalised on several occasions in 1918. He died at Ludd and was buried in the military cemetery at Ramalah, in present day Israel, on 17th October 1918, just three weeks before the armistice which ended the 1914-1918 Great War.

M. K. DRAFFIN 1890 - 1964
Brother Malcolm Keith Draffin joined the Ara Lodge in 1920. He was born and educated in Auckland and served his architectural apprenticeship in the years leading up to the First World War. He enlisted in the N.Z. Field Engineers in 1914 and saw active service in Egypt, Gallipoli, France and Germany. He was twice wounded and awarded the Military Cross. After the war he studied at the Royal Institute of British Architects in London before returning to N.Z. in 1920. He won success with two other returned soldier/architects when they won the competition to design the Auckland War Memorial Museum, the R.N.Z.Y.S. War Memorial and several theatres in Auckland. After the Second World War he designed the additions to the Auckland Museum. If you want to appreciate his work, take a look at the photos on this web site of the impressive lodge room and building. Click to read more

R. O. GROSS 1882 - 1964
Brother Richard Oliver Gross became a member of the Ara Lodge in 1924. He was born in Lancashire, England and studied in London to become a sculptor. He and his wife migrated to N.Z. in 1912 and he became a dairy farmer near Hellensville. After World War One he opened a studio in Newmarket and renewed his first love of sculpting. This was a time when communities were looking to commemorate the Great War. Much of his work was associated with M.K. Draffin. Among other work, Gross sculpted in bronze the aspiring male figure on top of the Auckland Grammar School Memorial, the lion at the base of the Dunedin cenotaph, the Athlete for the Auckland Domain Gates, the Davis Memorial Fountain in Mission Bay, the bronze Maori chief for the One Tree Hill Memorial and the bronze lions at the Wellington Cenotaph. He had an affinity for lions, two magnificent black Abyssinian lions feature at the entrance to our Lodge Room. Click to read more

CHAS. HEAPHY V.C. 1820-1881
Bro Charles Heaphy joined the Lodge in 1849. He was the son of an artist on the staff of the Duke of Wellington and studied art himself at the Royal Academy. As a young man aged 20 he arrived in NZ as the artist and draftsman to the NZ Company. Bro Heaphy was no armchair artist and in his early years in NZ he accompanied pioneer explorers Brunner and Hochstetter to some of the wildest parts of the country. He came to Auckland in 1848 when Governor Grey appointed him draughtsman in the Auckland Survey Office. He was Treasurer of the Lodge from 1851-1853 during which time he was the Gold Commissioner for the Coromandel goldfields. When the Maori or Land Wars broke out in 1860 he was Captain of the Parnell Militia. In 1864 while acting as Major with the 40th Regiment in the Waikato he rescued a wounded soldier despite being under heavy fire and hit by five bullets. For this outstanding bravery he was eventually awarded the Victoria Cross, the first ever granted to a colonial soldier. Later he was the Chief Surveyor of Auckland, Commissioner of Native Lands and a Judge of the Native Land Court.

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2011 Students' Displays

Click on photo to enlarge

Rhea Maheshwari ACG College	Hui Zhu Auckland Girls Grammar School
Wilson Lavelua Auckland Grammar School	Elysia Arnold Avondale College
Kate Mitchell Baradene College	Kaleb Greaves Dilworth School
Elizabeth Acland Diocesan School	Bronwyn Kan Epsom Girls Graqmmar School
Sarah Hall Glendowie College	Natalie Seagar Kings College
Kyle Ramuda Lynfield College	Camille Amulong Marcellin College
Jade Palmer Marrist College	Romi Kumar McAuley High School
Yabelle Empiso Mt. Albert Grammar School	Newman Tumata Mt Roskill Grammar School
Sam Samau St Pauls College	Benedict Narcis One Tree Hill College
Justin Martiniua Otahuhu College	Benjamin Timu Sacred Heart College
Ben Richards Selwyn College	Natasha Schaardenburg St. Cuthbert
David Vaca St. Peters College	Ariana Tuck Waiheke High School
Tiana Gibbons-Campbell Western Springs College	R.W. Bro R.J. Whyte Prov. Grand Master, Romi Kumar Award recipient & W. Bro Marshall Basham Wor. Master