NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTE.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIX, Issue 244, 12 October 1908, Page 3

NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTE.

We have received several letters offer-; ing suggestions with regard to.changing; the name ..of Karangahape-rojud," but as a representative -meeting of business men in that street has. decided against; the alteration it is';not worth .while devoting more space to the subject, which has already Been very, fully discussed. A.H.—Darvel Bay is in North Borneo. J.C.E.—-We avoid religious controversy as possible. .: S.H J.^You; probably have 'overlooked' the fact that correspondence' on'" the subject of License v. No-License,. after extending over many weeks, was recently closed.; •"'' ''- ; ' Shaft.—During '1907 materials for axles, _ axle arms, and boxes were imported to the value of £W,o_7, and carriage and cart shafts, spokes and felloes in the rough to the value of £8410. White manuka makes good shafts, but owing to the difficulty of obtaining supplies, is not used. .There is no one in New Zealand making shafts, etc., exclusively ■on a large scale.. Carriage shafts, spokes, and felloes (dressed) are subject to a duty of 20 per cent ad valorem. Shaft's, spokes, and felloes in the'rough, hubs and poles, if unbent and unplaned,' are admitted duty free. P.J.A.—You misapprehend the position. The prosecution in the case of "Venus and Adonjs" was not instituted by the Christchurch .police, but; by leading booksellers with the object of discrediting the action of the police regarding the novels for which they summoned a number of the most prominent and respectable members, of the. trade: These tactics resemble the 4 device adopted by George Jacob Holyoake, ;'. who retaliated upon the instigators "- of prosecutions brought against him for infidelity by threatening actions against..the'publishers: and vendors of Shelley's writings, and other classical works. The wide circulation of demoralising, neurotic literature is one of the most serious dangers to the moral well-being of the community. Its effects are already visible in the tendency towards racial suicide. How it may be controlled, so. long as English publishers of repute accept responsibility for questionable books, and the British Government do. not apply a censorship to novels as well as to plays, is a difficult matter to determine. But surely no sensible man contends that the law should allow the indiscriminate circulation of indecent literature. Whether a book is immoral within the meaning of the Offensive Publications Act must, of course, be determined by the magistrate before whom the case is heard upon the evidence submitted.