INDECENT PICTURE PROSECUTION

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 219, 9 June 1908, Page 8

INDECENT PICTURE PROSECUTION

; A NAPI EH CASK. : [BYTEt'EGBArU.—MESS ASSOCIATION.] • '• 1 Napier, June 8. > Mr. M'Carthy, S.M., delivered judgment to-day ill,'a: case against 'Arseno Le Petit, charged _with unlawfully exhibiting, in a window pictures'of ail obscene nature. After reviewing the evidence, tho judgment") proceeds: "The 'penal - laws are directed not, against - the' virtuous, but the vicious, and this statute, is -intended ,to 'protect all — whether old or young—who are liable to fall under the malign-influence of immodest pi'ints iand literatnro. To trained and pure minds the contemplation of such works js not. harmful in effect, .but to tho untrained—more particularly the young—continuous dwelling thereupon creates- prurient : and obscene thoughts, -which.not infrequently lead to acts of lust and crimes. of , violence. The strong meat of classic art; is net for the delectation of tho society weakling." One picture the subject-of prosecution could not, tho Magistrate said,- by any stretch of imagination be termed a work pf art, and the fact that this had been exhibited, with others, compelled him to find.that all pictures exhibited by defendant wore immoral and indecent, anil intended to have a<n immoral and indecent effect. A fine.of' lOs.-'arid.costs was imposed.