ART OR VICE.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIV, Issue 9166, 9 June 1908, Page 2

ART OR VICE.

% A NAPIER PRODUCTION. , Press Association. Napier, Juno 8. Hr McCarthy, S.M., 'delivered judgment co-day in the case against Arsene Le Petic charged with unlawfully exhibiting in his window pictures of an obscene nature. Alter reviewing the'evidenoo.the judgment proceeds to say: “Penal laws are directed not against the virtuous, but the vicious, and this Statute was 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 pure minds contemplation of such works is not harmful m its effect, but to untrained, more particularly to 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 weaklings of society. One picture, a subject ot the prosecution, could not, the Magistrate said, by any stretch of imagination, bo termed, a work ox art and the fact that this was exhibited with others, compelled him to Hud that all the pictures exhibited by defendant were immoral and indecent and intended to hove an immoral and indecent effect, A fine of 10s and costs was imposed.