BANNED BOOKS.

Hokitika Guardian, 9 August 1926, Page 3

BANNED BOOKS.

CUSTOMS DEPARTMENT'S TASK. CRITICISM OF CENSORS. WELLINGTON, Aug. G. “I think it would be wise to cut out the whole of the Censorship Board. It has become a standing joke,” said the leader of the Opposition’ill the House. “Even if it were admitted, and I am not prepared to admit it for one moment, that the" three gentlemen who comprise the board are competent to judge what the .public should read, the principle is still bad. One wondered how it could be decided whether a thing was indecent or decent. How is tlie line drawn? “Nobody to-day would dare write either verse or prose in the style of Chancer. Why Chaucer’s Tales are positively indecent,” declared Mr Holland, “yet nobody would dream of having them placed on the banned list. Some of Burns’s poems in the light of the board's interpretation arc indecent, but if the Minister suggested that they should be censored everybody would laugh at him.” Mr Holland said lie had received a letter from

a Wairarapa man who tried to get the “Economic Consequences of the Peace. ’ The Minister: Are you sure it was bannedP Mr Holland : I know it was. The Hon W. Downie Stewart: Why, I have seen it selling freely. Mr Holland said “Red Europe’’ was also banned and “Money Power.” The Minister remarked that they were not on the list now. Mr Holland : No, they were taken off the list after men who read them had lived in tho shadow of gaol for three or four years. He also instanced the case of a little hook written round the drink problem, entitued “Victory or Defeat,” which had been banned in Australia. It was easy for a board to ban anything. Mr Holland said he was not so concerned about the indecent literature, nobody wished to make a. case for that, but bo was concerned about the censorship of historical, economical and political literature. Books advocating violence were supposed to be banned, but he could take the Minister to tho Parliamentary Library anil show him book after book advocating violence. Ho could point out hooks wlicli contained the very essence of I.WAY.

The Minister (laughing) : That shows how liberal the censorship is.

Mr Holland: No, it shows how stupid it is, because it means that books of one class are allowed, while others are not-. It was wrong in principle to have a board of three gentlemen wlio could dictate to members of the House what they should read. The Hon W. Downie Stewart said that Mr Holland had repeated a good deal of what he had said often before and to which the Minister hail often replied. The reason why a board had been set up was that the Customs Act placed an obligation oil the Customs Department in regard to allowing certain books to enter New Zealand, because there was a complaint about obscure officials of the Department exercising eensor.s'fnp. He had set up the board. Nobody suffered under the present system, as the board’s findings were not binding and could lie appealed against in the Courts. Air J. A, Lee: It should be left to the Courts without the board. The Atinister said there would be hopeless confusion, as one Alagistrate would rule one book out and another would leave it in. .

Air l-ee said that everything went well enough before the board was instituted.

The Alinister said that was untrue, because lie had received complaints. He had set- up the board under this system. Booksellers were glad to get advice as to what they could handle. The Alinister stated that a list was now being prepared, but it would not be published till it had been brought thoroughly up to date. Alany wartime publications were being deleted. The Alinister said lie did not know that it would be wise to publish a list of indecent books, as that would probably create a demand for them, but other books could quite well be included in the list. He felt sure that if Parliament altered tlie law and allowed the country to be circulated with a certain class of literature there would be an outcry. He thought by setting up the board lie was improving old conditions.

Ah-' Fraser said he was not satisfied with the gentlemen who constituted the board. They were not qualified. nml their interests lay in other directions. The discussion occurred on the Customs Estimates, which were passed unaltered.