The Manawatu Freemason

 When people speak of Mozart they think of the child prodigy and the genius whose music still fills concert halls. But Mozart was more than just a composer. He was also a Freemason. Behind the apron he wore as a brother stood the same man who wrote music that touched the divine. His life in the lodge was not a side note. It was a central part of his journey.  The Initiation In December 1784 Mozart entered the lodge Zur Wohltätigkeit in Vienna. He was welcomed into a circle of men who believed in truth, brotherhood and moral duty. Not long after, his father Leopold joined as well. For Mozart the lodge was more than a meeting place. It was a sanctuary from the rigid social classes of his time. Inside those walls a man was valued by his character, not by his rank or fortune. Music as a Masonic Voice Mozart did not leave his Masonry outside the lodge door. He carried it into his music. His Masonic Funeral Music speaks with solemn dignity, echoing the ritual and gravity of th...

  William Henry SMITH.  1854 - 1929 William Henry SMITH was born in in England in 1854, and came came to New Zealand when eleven years of age and learned the printing trade in the Wairarapa.  He was an apprentice at the age of sixteen and was earning 3/- a week  at the "Wairarapa Mercury". He founded the "Wairarapa News" in Masterton with Mr O'Mera  in 1874.   Then  was the Editor of the ‘Marlborough Times’ 1880-1882. He married Sarah Navara Loasby in 1877.  They had two sons (Lt K.G. Smith who was killed at Passchendaele and G. Smith who died in the 1918 epidemic in New Zealand) and four daughters. He came to Palmerston North in 1882 as Sub Editor of the ‘Manawatu Times’.  He purchased the ‘Times’ in 1884 and turned it into a daily.  He owned the ‘Times’ till 1915.   Also during that period he purchased the ‘Rangitikei Advocate’ in Marton, and edited it for many years  and was closely associated with it until his ...