IMOORTAL BOOKS.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 322, 8 October 1908, Page 4

IMOORTAL BOOKS.

CHIIISTCHURCH BOOKSELLERS INTERVIEWED. (Br TIU.EG It A Til —I'EIESS ASSOCIATION.) Christchurch, October 7. The booksellers express strong opinions in regard to the prosecutions for selling imnioral books, and one of their chief grievances is that assistants and not proprietors or managers of businesses have been fined.' Mr. G. H. Whitcombe, managing director of Messrs. Whitcombe and Tombs, told a reporter that tho prosecutions had been illadvised, as they had given the books complained of considerable notoriety. As a mat-, 'tor of fact, in ordinary circumstances, very few people displayed any interest at all in books of the nature of some of those complained of. To prove this Mr. Whitcombe stated that for several yoars his firm had received only, six or seven copies of Victoria Cross's books for each of its New Zealand houses, while it had received as many as 500, and in some _ca6es 1000, copies of the high-class, romantic novels. That fact displayed tho absurdity.,-of tho prosecution, .if it was intended toprevent tho kind of literature complained of getting wide circulation. There was practically no demand for sex novels in Christchurch until the police authorities' theniselves created it. 'Ever since the subject was brought prominently forward his firm had been pestered.with applications'for the few books it had been prosecuted for selling. Now, it could not meet the demand. ■ The action of the police had opened up a great literary question, and it was impossible for the booksellers to say exactly what their position was. Not only tho ephemeral sex novel of tho day, but also some of the finest writing in the English language, was affected. From a bookseller's point of view, tho position was a peculiarly difficult one. - . ■ Mr. J. S. Williams, of Messrs. Simpson and Williams, said that, by next mail ho would, sond a, long letter to the Publishers' Association in London, reviewing tho case and enclosing a verbatim report of the Court proceedings, and recommending that a man should be appointed as a kind of censor it London, and that his judgment should be recognised throughout tho English-speaking world. ■ . Mr. Fountain Barber said that if the authorities wished to stop tho" publication of books that might bo described as "doubtful," they should go to the publishers in London, not to the booksellers in New Zealand. It was quite impossible for • a bookseller in Christchurch to make himself acquainted with all the contents of all the books ho sold. Tha publishers' export "reader," on tho other hand, must know .what a book contained. If it was felt that a book-should not be given to tho public the publisher should be told that it was an improper work, and then whoever sold it would do so at his own risk.