INDECENT PUBLICATIONS BILL.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 862, 7 July 1910, Page 2

INDECENT PUBLICATIONS BILL.

Clause 4 of the Indecent Publications Bill, introduced by the Minister for Justice, provides that if any newspaper, printed or published, or sold or offered for sale, or kept for the purpose of sale in New Zealand, contains any matter or thing whereby it becomes an indecent document, every person who at the date of publication of that newspaper is or acts as printer, publisher, proprietor, manager, editor, or sub-editor thereof, and every person who has consented to the insertion of matter, shall, without excluding the liability of any other person, be conclusively deemed to have caused that matter or thing to be inserted in the newspaper and shall be guilty of an offence against the Act. In determining whether any documents or other matter is indecent within the meaning of the Act the Magistrate shall take into consideration not merely the nature of the document or the matter itself, but also the nature and circumstances of the act done by the defendant with respect thereto and the purpose with which the act was done, and the literature, scientific or artistic merit or importance of the document or matter, and no document or matter shall be held to be indecent unless, having regard to these and all other relevant considerations, the magistrate is of opinion that the act of defendant was of an immoral or mischievous tendency. Subjects deemed to be indecent under the Bill are defined as any document or matter which relates or refers or may .be reasonably supposed to relate or refer to certain diseases. Other subjects are also mentioned in the definition, and it is provided that the absence of guilty knowledge is no defence, and Magistrates are. empowered to issue search warrants for indecent documents.