ALLEGED INDECENT POSTCARDS.

Press, Volume LXII, Issue 12570, 13 August 1906, Page 4

ALLEGED INDECENT POSTCARDS.

PROSECUTIONS AT WELLINGTON.

(PBESS ASSOCIATION TELEGRAMS.) WELLINGTON, August 11. Ai/ the Police Court ttMiay John Wilkinson, stationer, Vivian etreet, was charged witJi having sold five poet cards which were of an indecent nature. The sale of the cards was admitted, bust for the defence it was contended that there wae nothing indecent in them. They were eimphr pictures of weDl-shaped wometi in tigjbts —nothing more. was no *uggestkm of about them. If suoh were objected to as immoral, they would have to prosecute any airt society which presented' in an art gallery such pictures as "Psyche at -the bath" ana "The Judgment of Paris." Moreover, the Customs and the Post Office had tio* objected to the oarde. Hia Worship saidl the duty of the Customs a-nd the Post Office did not concern him, although he could not understand for a moment bow the Post Office officials let the cards before him through. What he had to deal witih wore the cards in question, and he must say candidly that he drew a broad line between them and those tlbatc&me before him on the previous occasion. These suggested to people who bought them ideas ivihioh were immoral. He quoted an English authority on the subject, and convicted tftio defendant and fined hhn £5, with 7e costs. The amending Act Of 1894, he said, provided for imprisonment without the option of a ftnc, and he hoped that the \x»lice irouM lay art iwfajfinationunder tiliis Act if a grosdly immoral card catKe under their notice. / Joseph Wedh.neT was fined a similar amount for selling a postcard which was of an indecent nature.