BOOKSELLER CHARGED

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 56, Issue 206, 13 June 1936, Page 5

BOOKSELLER CHARGED

SALE OF AMERICAN MAGAZINES. , ALLEGED INDEOENT DOCUMENTS (Per Presr Association.) AUCKLAND, June 12. The plea that public opinion {had changed considerably since the Mid--Victorian era, was made by Mr G. P. F inlay," when appearing on behalf' of a. city bookseller, W. P. G. Ladd, Who was charged in the Magistrate’s Court with selling indecent; documents. The charges referred} to the covers of two American magazines, which had been sold to a detective.

Mr Fin-lay said that sales of magazines of the type referred ‘to totalled £ISOO a week. Pages containing cer: tain types of advertisements were removed hy the Customs Department, and the fact that the magazines received some sort of censorship misled wholesalers and retailers. That, however, was no excuse if the publications were held to be indecent. He quoted a case in 1917 in which Mr Justice Cooper held that the well-known picture, “The Sleeping Beauty,’ " exhibited in a. shop window, was indecent. His Honor had held that anything which tended to deprzwe or corrupt was indecent. That was the only authoritative case in. the Dominion.

However, Mr Finlay said, the standard of public opinion, public enlightenment, and public morals had greatly changed since. What was regarded with horror by mid-Victorians was not so regarded to-day. There was nothing, salavcious in the magazines, submitted counsel, and from the commonsense View they were not indecent Within the meaning of the Act. The Magistrate (Mr \V. R, McKean) reserved his decision. ' .