THOSE POSTERS

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3100, 2 June 1917, Page 8

THOSE POSTERS

MINISTER AND CITY COUNCIL

QUESTIONS OP MORALS

MINISTER DISAPPROVES OF COUNCIL'S DECISION The. decision of tho City Council not to follow the advice of the Minister of Internal Affairs that they should tako stops to prevent tho exhibition of objectionable posters outsido picture theatres and on hoardings in the city was brought under the notice of the Hon. G. W. Russell yesterday. Tho decision of the council. was that "as the question appeared to bo one of morals the council.,had no power to deal with it." This was in terms of tho ruling of tho Supremo Court on the Sunday golf case, in which the Court held that the council had no power to enforce Sunday observance by by-law, and declared the by-law under which the council instituted tho prosecution to be bad for the reason that n breach of it invoked a broach, only of a religious or moral rule. Tho Minister said that tho decision of the council seemed to him to bo prepostewnis, and he declared that there weTe clauses in the Munoipal Corporations Act which gave the council full power to deal with the matter, and that he,had drawn the attention of the council to these clauses. He quoted Sub-Clause (o) of Section 344 of tho Act, which runs as follows:— The council may from timo to timo make such, by-laws as it thinks fit for the purpose of "regulating,. controlling, or, prohibiting the_ display upon or over public buildings or bridges, or upon or over buildings, walls, fences, lamp-posts, pavements, or hoardings, situated in.or upon or adjoining any land or' street, the property of tho corporation or under } the control of. the council, or the disi play in. any manner so that it shall I be visible from any such street or public place, of costers, placards, hndbills. writings,, pictures, or deI vices for advertising or other pur-

poses. I Tho amending Act of 1013 amends this clause by giving the council power to deal with the "continuance of the msP "lt is quite true," said Mr. Russell, "that there is a sub-section to Clause <J47 which is quoted by the council in its resolution to the effect that as.it is inexpedient that questions of religion or morals should be regulated by by-law, no by-law shall bo valid if a breach thereof would involve the broach only of soino religious or moral rule. But the common sense of this sub-clause does not need legal interpretation. Its object is to prevent tho making of by-laws to deal -with questions of morality or religious custom. It is a guarantee of noninterference by local public bodies with the private affairs of the people. The simplest illustration that occurs to my mind may be obtained from, the law relatin" to what are known as disorderly houses. -It is not within the power of the council to mako a by-law to prohibit persons from visiting such places, but the council has ample power to legislate against the existence of these places for an immoral purpose. In the same way the council could not made a bylaw to prohibit tho exhibition of pictures dealing with certain religious opinions, but whero pictures have clearly an immoral tendency and aro, apt to corrupt the minds of onlookers, and especially tho minds of children, it is absurd, to'my mind, for any body to which is committed tho administration of the Municipal Corporation Act to refuse to exercise its powers on the ground that by preventing the exhibition of an immoral picture it will bo over-riding tho clauso in question. Tho suggestion that has been'made that tho Internal Affairs Department should censor pictures and post-cards and placards in connection with films is absurd on the face- of it. This Department has no officers suitable for tho.purpose, and it would certainly bo impossible for any censor to undertake the examination of pictures and other matter illustrative of films that wero under consideration. Practically every municipal Corporation iu tho Dominion, with tho exception of Wellington, has, in respoiiso to the circulars I .iiavo sent out, given mo tho assurance that it is quito prepared to recognise its responsibility for seeing that its doorways a.vo kept, clean, and that no indecent op immoral pictures shall bo shown. The decision of tho Wellington City Council, which should set an example to tho rest of tho Dominion, has certainly taken me very much by surprise."