IMMORALITY AND BOOKS
Bookseller Protests
“In his statement relating immorality to .books, Commissioner A. J. Gilliard shows a disregard for facts . that amounts to irresponsibility,” said Mr G. Tait, a Christchurch bookseller, commenting on a statement made by Commissioner Gilliard, Territorial Commander of the Salvation Army in New Zealand, at the opening of the army’s youth centre on Sunday. Commissioner Gilliard was reported to have said: “Today you cannot sell your book unless you dip your pen into immorality.” I “It is just as true to say that the present state of morality in the community results from the inability of church leaders to face facts as it is to blame books,” said Mr Tait. “A current best-seller in this country is *A River Rules My Life,’ by Mona Anderson. If Commissioner Gilliard’s statement is true, then this book was written with ‘a pen dipped into immorality? Community leaders who make such specious statements are themselves guilty of a form of immorality.
“Never before have there been so many or such a variety of good books available as can be seen in our bookshops today,” said Mr Tait.
Permanent link to this item
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19640923.2.152
Bibliographic details
Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30553, 23 September 1964, Page 14
Word Count
188IMMORALITY AND BOOKS Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30553, 23 September 1964, Page 14
Using This Item
Stuff Ltd is the copyright owner for the Press. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0 New Zealand licence. This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of Stuff Ltd. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.
Acknowledgements
This newspaper was digitised in partnership with Christchurch City Libraries.