The Daily News. THURSDAY, MAY 2, 1912. THE HECKLERS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 259, 2 May 1912, Page 4

The Daily News. THURSDAY, MAY 2, 1912. THE HECKLERS.

. Freedom of, discussion on every social subject is-one of the finest insurances against abuse 'this country (or any country) has. It is a rule more honored in the breach than the observance that he who has nothing worth saying should remain silent. When any ' class is j.striving' to assert iself and to gain a recognised place as a new power, wouldbe Napoleons rise and beat the air with phrases. Heckling, which is blooming opulently in New Zealand at the present time, is a peculiar form of conceit," never BnoAvn by any but the most mediocre men. In every town of importance in New Zealand, there are small bodies of mediocrities who believe that amelioration is a matter dependent on the use of misunderstood phrases. The habitual heckler appears to be under the impression that he is helping the cause of humanity by disturbing meetings, by reiterating socialistic or Labor catchwords made famous by men who understand their use, but in most New Zealand cases bandied about irritatingly by men I who have no real ideas themselves and who have never been guilty of a constructive act. Peculiarly, this type of heckler presumes to voice the sentiments of the worker. He is no more typical of the mind or the ideal of the worker than sauerkraut is typical of the food of the New Zealander. Labor, which has perfectly legitimate aims in New Zealand, has up to now allowed a too large latitude to the disorganiser, but Labor is at the moment showing distinct symptoms of aggressive antagonism to its miarepresentative firebrands, its raucous Tom Manns, its conceited and destructive hecklers. No one denies that a united Labor party in New Zealand might capture the political machine if it entirely dissociated itself from the raucous minority whom bo many regard as typical of Labor. It is conceivable that our best, truest and most powerful men might fight under the banner of Labor, if it were proved that the possession of the machine by united Labor meant real democracy and not a hobnailed autocracy, big brother to the disappearing menace of a droning aristocracy. The gospel of work is the finest preachment for a country that must win its' place by toil, but the gospel of the idle heckler is the gospel of national damnation. The other day Professor Mills spoke many reasonable things at the formation of what is to be called the United Labor Party. He was badly heckled, by idle windbags. It is significant of the change that js coming over the real workers' sentiments that these windbags were immediately and effectively pricked, that Professor Mills simply refused to proceed until a heckler had left and that Labor saw that every idle windbag in the building followed their leader.

RATES OF INTEREST. A Parliamentary return dealing with the mortgages registered and discharged last year, which Ims just been issued from the Government Printing Office, gives some interesting particulars of the rates of interest paid for money borrowed on this class of security. During the yeaT 20,421 mortgages were registered, securing £20,995,022 in loans, and the rates of interest varied from l-20th per cent to -25 per cent. The .sum of £20,543 was lent free of interest, but this, of

course, represents family and friendly arrangements which need'not be taken into account. The same probably may be said of the small sums lent at rate's running from l-20th per cent, to 2% per cent. People who are content with these rates do "not, unfortunately, fix the value of money. A total of £4421 was invested at 3 per cent.. £15,!H)5 at 3% per cent., and £02,931 at 4 per cent. The amounts rose rapidly from £1.513,252 at 4'/; per cent, to '.£7.1102.307 at f> per cent., and then gradually declined from £2,000,028 at fiy a per cent, to £2,411,492 at (i per cent., and down to £600,881 at 7 per cent, and £440.844 at 8 per cent. The good old rate of in per cent., which was considered quite reasonable thirty years'ago, was charged on £107,040, and 15 per cent, on £4251. Only £750 was let out at 20 per cent. and only £OOO at 25 per cent. The rates charged upon £3.830.505 were not specified. There were 10,710 mortgages, securing £13,820,457. released' during the year, so that the number of mortgages seems to have increased by 0702 and the amount of loan money by £7,180,11>5. The largest increases were in Auckland and Wellington, due, as the Lyttelton Times points out, no doubt to the amount of .settlement going on in those provinces, but Canterbury came a good, or a bad, third, well ahead of Otago.