Ruling sought on manuscript

Press, Volume CXIII, Issue 33381, 13 November 1973, Page 2

Ruling sought on manuscript

(N.Z. Press .Association? I WELLINGTON, ' November 12. The Indecent Publications Tribunal for the first time heard submissions today on an unpublished book. Mr S. W. Shirley, author of the manuscript “Over-ex-posure” referred it to the tribunal, and Mr R. G. F. Barker made submissions on behalf of the Secretary of Justice (Mr E. A. Missen). The tribunal reserved its decision.

The manuscript was an account of the author’s experiences with censorship in New Zealand both as a bookseller and a private citizen, the Secretary of Justice said in his submission. “But it also provides a vehicle for him to express his views on sexuality, philosphy, science, religion, and many other subjects.” Had the manuscript stopped there, exception to it could hardly be taken under the act. But the book also contained a number of long and detailed accounts of sexually explicit conversations and episodes in-

cluding a graphic account of an act of bestiality, the submission said. As well, there were more than 70 photographs “many i of which the author would probably agree are pornographic.” The problem was to balance the two elements in the manuscript—“the experiences of the crusader against censorship and an impassioned argument against the law on one hand, and the possibly deliberate coat-trailing in the form of sexual episodes and photographs on the other.” The work, with its popular discursive style and

: strong crusading, was de- • signed to appeal to and influence a wide audience. ■ The author had taken a ’ proper and responsible 1 course in referring the • book to the tribunal himself, but sincerity could not be ■ invoked as a licence to pub- ! lish what was in fact indecent, the submission con- • eluded. Mr Shirley said that to re- ; move photographs or the , sexual descriptions would i bmasculate the book. “It would be like describing something without being able to show what is described. There would be no purpose in it,” he said.