POSTERS AND MORALS.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1090, 31 March 1911, Page 4

POSTERS AND MORALS.

In yesterday's issue of The Dominion wc published a letter sent to the Mayor of Auckland by three gentlemen holding high positions in tho educational world, protesting against tho exhibition of certain pictorial posters on the street hoardings on the ground that they are a "dishonour to womanhood" and "have a demoralising influence on the young." A protest like this, coming from tho Headmaster of tho Auckland Grammar School, the Director of Technical Education, and the Principal of the Auckland Training College, cannot be ignored, and it raises a question of some importance affecting cvry municipality in the Dominion. • We can of course' say nothing for or against the particular poster to which objection has been taken until wc have seen it; but the fact that the heads of three leading educational institutions in Auckland feel called upon to appeal to the Mayor of the city to take action may be taken as an indication that at least a section of the community, rightly or wrongly, consider it offensive. The letter expresses the opinion. that "tho time has come when_ all such pictures should be submitted to a public censor," and this opinion will probably find endoisement from a good many people. For ourselves, wc are not inclined to extend the area of official regulation as regards the business or amusements of the community, unless very glaring reasons are shown, but it certainly does seem reasonable that some supervision should ba exercised concerning the character of posters and placards which are displayed for tho express purpose of catching the eye'of every mai and woman, boy and girl who passes up or down tho street. No one is compelled to buy or read an objectionable book, or to witness a play of which he may disapprove; but from these picture posters and the like one cannot escape, for they arc purposely exhibited in the most conspicuous places in the city. Such being the case, people who arc neither morbidly sensitive nor hysterically respectable will be inclined to agree that the public, and more especially tho boys and girls attending our schools, are entitled to some protection in this matter. The question, however, is not so easy to deal with as it at first glance might appear, and unless it is handled with wisdom and caution more harm than good will result. Censorship is a very uncertain and often unsatisfactory check on public abuses, because of the inevitable differences of opinion which follow any restraint on the liberty of the subject ; and if it is resorted to it must not be based on any extreme or narrow-minded ethical fads, but should be exercised on sane, healthy, and common-sense lines, in keeping with the average moral standards of the community. In all these matters the ideal should be to ensure the greatest amount of individual liberty consistent with .the maintenance of public order and decency. But who is to be the judge of these things?