NEW ZEALAND BOOK CENSORSHIP NOT SO RIGID AS AUSTRALIAN

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 12, Issue 17, 30 January 1948, Page 4

NEW ZEALAND BOOK CENSORSHIP NOT SO RIGID AS AUSTRALIAN

Many of the 100 books that have recently been removed from the banned list in Australia have been on sale in this country for a number of years, said a bookseller when asked about the recent Sydney message regarding banned books. Hemingway’s “Farewell to Arms” and Huxley’s “Brave New World” were two examples. “The Well of Loneliness,” which was in any case out of print, and Balzac’s “Droll Tales,” would probably still be banned. This opinion applied also to cheap editions of Rabelais and Baccaccio, which, according to the message, were still banned in Australia. Another comment on the matter was that a good deal of responsibility rested on the bookseller. If he were allowed to import and sell a book it did not necessarily mean that he could sell it to anyone. Much depended on whose hands the book got into; and even when a book had been allowed into the country by the Customs authorities, police prosecution for selling it was not ruled out. The bookseller also said he believed there was an unofficial list ■of banned books which was not freely available, but which might be consulted by Customs Department officials. A number of the books on this list, he understood, were definitely pornographic. “Forever Amber” was still banned as far as he knew. A safeguard is provided in this . country, he concluded, by a clause in all import licences. In the case of imports from foreign countries this stated that no periodicals or magazines except approved publications, and no subversive publication or publications which gave prominence to sex, obscenity, horror, terror, cruelty, or crime, would be admitted under the licence.