WILD UTTERANCES.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1112, 27 April 1911, Page 4

WILD UTTERANCES.

A SOCIALIST IN' THE SQUARE. ' The by-law prohibiting the addressing of meetings in Cathedral Square, Christchurch was applied ill a manner that was almost dramatic on Sunday afternoon last. . \ hoarse-voiced middle-aged man was preaching tho doctrines of what may or mav not have been Socialism. lie declared that there was a sure and speedy answer to tho question of how the people would pay tho capitalists for the various industrial works when they took them over; they would capture them by force. The 'men who had fought to bring Chinese slaves to South Africa would fight in a better cause. In the midst of his appeal on behalf of violence two policemen stepped forward quietly. The speaker stopped abruptly as the oilicers whispered to him. The crowd began to dwindle. Ho turned to those who remained. "Don't go away, don't go —this is tho most interesting part of tho afternoon!" When what appeared to be his first scare had worn oft, lie assured tho policemen that if they wanted word about him tiiev could apply to ;he Chiefs of Police of Chicago, New York, or Colorado Springs, lie howled his name very loudly. He asked the people to allow him to tell stories until ho had recovered from the effects of the interruption. After speaking of "a thief called William tho Conqueror," he assured them that might was right in 1011 just as it had been iiY 1006. He appealed to the world at large to supply him with a Manser, a Remington, or even a Snider, and put him face to faco witli Carnegie. Presently ho stated that those who suggested niunicipalisatioii as well as all those ill the higher places in Labour matters, did not know the beginnings of political economy. When the reporter left he seemed to bo preaching anarchy, riot, and civil war to a rapidly thinning audience, which occasionally applauded ironically—"Press."