The Manawatu Freemason

  Conspiracy theorists often tell us that Freemasons are secretly united. Supposedly, once a man joins the fraternity, he becomes part of a vast network all working toward the same hidden agenda. History suggests otherwise. John Stith Pemberton, the inventor of Coca-Cola, was a Freemason.  Caleb Davis Bradham, the inventor of Pepsi-Cola, was also a Freemason.  Yet the companies they founded spent more than a century locked in one of the most famous business rivalries in modern history. For over 100 years, Coca-Cola and Pepsi have battled for market share, advertising dominance, restaurant contracts, shelf space, sponsorships, and consumer loyalty.  Entire generations have picked sides.  Billions of dollars have been spent trying to outperform the competition. The rivalry became so famous that it earned its own name: "The Cola Wars" This presents a problem for the claim that Freemasons are all secretly united.  If that were true, somebody forgot to tell Coke...

  The Steel and the Stone: The Legend of Jim Bowie Long before his name was etched into the stone walls of the Alamo, Jim Bowie was a man forged by the untamed American frontier.  He was an adventurer, a land speculator, and a dedicated Freemason.  Bowie knelt at the altar of L'Humble Chaumière Lodge No. 19 in Opelousas, Louisiana, where he swore solemn oaths of brotherhood and virtue.  This Masonic foundation stayed with him as he traveled west, instilling a deep sense of loyalty and duty that would define his actions in the turbulent years to come.  History would truly immortalise him through a weapon that bore his name, though it was born from another man's mind.  It was his brother, Rezin, who designed the initial blade.  It was a master blacksmith named James Black who hammered the steel into its iconic, lethal clip-point shape in Arkansas.  Yet, it was Jim Bowie who gave the knife its soul.  In 1827, during the infamous Sandbar Fight ne...

  The Most Worshipful Brother William Lee Plunket Governor of New Zealand, installed for the third time Grand master of the Free and Accepted Masons of New Zealand, at Auckland.  May 9 1906 MW Bro William Lee Plunket. 5th Baron Plunket, GCMG, GCVO, KBE, KStJ, DL (19 December 1864 – 24 January 1920) was a British diplomat and colonial administrator. He was Governor of New Zealand from 1904 to 1910. Interestingly however, despite popular opinion - it was Lord Plunket's wife (m 1894), Lady Victoria Alexandrina Hamilton-Temple-Blackwood, who gave her name to the Plunket Society, a New Zealand society promoting the health and well-being of mothers and children and was a patron of the Mothercraft Training Society. SIR WILLIAM LEE PLUNKET. Educated at Harrow and Trinity College, Dublin (where he graduated B.A. and was captain of the rowing club), he joined the diplomatic service in 1889 as honorary attaché to the embassy in Rome. In 1892 he was transferred to Constantinople. Retirin...