"Exhibit A." Original Charter of Grand Lodge of New Zealand, 1869.

A. I. O. O. F.

Friendship, Love, and Truth.

To all whom it may concern:

Know Ye, That the Grand Lodge of Victoria, of the Ancient Independent Order of Odd Fellows, as the source of all true and legitimate Odd Fellowship in the Australian colonies, and by virtue of its constitutional authority to organize Lodges, Grand and Subordinate, doth hereby create and erect into a distinct sovereignty the various Lodges of Odd Fellows heretofore existing in New Zealand, by the name and style of The Grand Lodge of A. I. O. O. F. of New Zealand, with power in all matters relating to Odd Fellowship within the said province, except in the following respects, viz.: That the said Grand Lodge of New Zealand shall not at any time hereafter in any wise alter or repudiate any of the signs, tokens, passwords, lectures, or charges, or any part or portion of either the written or unwritten work of the Order, as known and practised within the jurisdiction of the Grand Lodge of Victoria.

That this Grand Lodge reserves to itself the right to give to the said The Grand Lodge of New Zealand, the annual traveling password to be used within the jurisdiction of the said The Grand Lodge of New Zealand, and both jurisdictions shall use the same traveling password.

That the qualifications for membership in the Subordinate Lodges within the jurisdiction of the said "The Grand Lodge of New Zealand," shall be identical with those established for membership in Subordinate Lodges within the jurisdiction of the Grand Lodge of Victoria.

Otherwise, this Dispensation to be of no force or effect.

Given under my hand and the seal of the Grand Lodge of Victoria, at the city of Melbourne, in the Colony of Victoria, this nineteenth day of February, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine.