ADDRESS ON SOCIALISM.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 310, 7 January 1908, Page 2

ADDRESS ON SOCIALISM.

MR. KHIR HARDIE REPUDIATES INDIAN STATEMENTS. Per Press Assoctetton. Wellington, Monday. Mr. Keir Bardie, the Kn ;lish Ijaltor leader, addressed over two thousand people in the Town Hall last evening. The Mayor (Hon. T. W. ilislop) presided. The meeting was remarkably enthusiastic, the speaker being repeatedly cheered, and there was not a single Interruption. His address in the main concerned Socialism and the aims of the Socialists.

Speaking in reference to his doings and sayings in India, lie stated that "a discredited journalist in India had cabled an incorrect version of his sayings to one of the Home papers. Four other accounts (which were correct) had been ignored by the press here. It was a strange tiling that the people of India and the officials from the Viceroy downwards and the public press there knew nothing about these tilings. He could well remember the astonishment there was in Calcutta when the news was published there from London that he was playing the part of a firebrand and exciting the people to sedition and rebellion. The man who had sent that incorrect report was proved to be a liar, lie Had beert subjected to some criticism in his time, but to nothing so insulting as the remarks of the New Zealand press concerning himself, his personality, and his opinions. (Applause.) At the proper time and. place he would have a "ood deal to say about Tndia and the conditions of that unhappy country.

■He stated that Socialism was rapidly a<lvancin<r, anil he hoped the day was not far distant when the workers of this country would show more zeal in trades unionism and more interest in political nlTa'rs—when the element that would dominate Parliament would not lie the landlord or the capitalistic element, but the human element of the workini classes. "

KEIR HARDIE HOES SOUTH. Per Press Association. Wellington, Last Night. Tliore was a lar<*e crowd n : t the wharf *n-ni<rlif tn Mr. Keiv H>irdie off hv the Maori. Mt. TTardie leaves Xew Zealand via the Bluff next Monday. MAYOR TWTJXF.S TO HECETVK KKltt ITARJME. Per Press Association. Dimedin. Wt lit, Tli» Mavor lias written to tlie Trade* *nid T.abor Coun"il iWViinicr to to their th'it lm should offifi-jllv r eoeive Mr. Krir Hardi« on hi* arrival here on Wednesday night.