The Manawatu Herald. THURSDAY, JUNE 11, 1908. INDECENT PICTURES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 396, 11 June 1908, Page 2

The Manawatu Herald. THURSDAY, JUNE 11, 1908. INDECENT PICTURES.

Mr M'Cartiiy, S.M., delivered judgment at Napier recently in a case against Arsene I,e Petit, charged with unlawfully exhibiting in a window picture of an obscene nature. After reviewing the evidence, the judgment proceeds : laws are directed not against the virtuous, but the vicious, and this statute is intended to protect all—whether old . or young —who are liable to fall under the malign influence of immodest prints and literature. To trained and pule minds the contemplation of such works is not harmful in effect, but to the untrained—more particularly the young continuous dwelling thereupon creates prurient and obscene thoughts, which not infrequently lead to acts of lust and crimes of violence. The strong meat of classic art is not for the delectation of the society weakling.” One picture the subject of prosecution’ could not, the Magistrate said, by any stretch of imagination be termed a work of art, and the fact that this had been exhibited, with others, compelled him to find that all pictures exhibited by defendant were immoral and indecent, and intended to have an immoral and indecent effect. A fine of 10s and costs was imposed.