CONTROL OF READING

Evening Star, Issue 19408, 17 November 1926, Page 5

CONTROL OF READING

PRACTICE AT PUBLIC LIBRARY LITTLE CENSORSHIP REQUIRED. Recently a cable appeared in the 1 Star ’ from London, which stated that certain municipal library officials were suppressing many books, including those of Wells, Shaw, Anthony Hope, Bennett, Maxwell, Anatolo France, H. de Vere Stacpoole, and Eden Philpotts. It was stated that the librarians acted on their own initiative* and frequently marked undesirable volume with a red star, locking them in private rooms. Borrowers were closely watched and prevented from specialising in a certain type of fiction. When approached by an ‘Evening Star ’ reporter on tho subject, rne public librarian (Mr W. B. M'Ewan) said that, as far ns Dunedin was concerned, very little censorship of the reading material that went into the library was needed, though a certain amount of censorship was necessary with the present tendency of modern writers to lean towards sex novels. He expressed the opinion that it would be better not to have the books in the library at all than to have them locked away, as was the caso at Homo, which implied that they might be issued to adult readers.

Ho thought it out of the question to watch subscribers with a view to seeing that they did not read too many books of a certain type. “It would bo far better,” said Mr M'Ewan, “ not to place such volumes on the shelves at all.” Mr M'Ewan was asked it he thought that novels with sex appeal had a very wide vogue as far as the library was concerned. “There is no great demand for them,” was the reply, “and I certainly do not think it is the duty of the Public Library to supply this type of book at tho ratepayers’ expense.” He added that it seemed to him that the sex phase in novels was beginning to pass, so far as tho public demand was concerned, detective, adventure, and outdoor stories being tho most popular and wisely-sought at the present time. “These may hot be in a high class of literature,” he stated, “ but they arc healthy, and this is what the reader wants.”

Mr M'Ewan said that he could see no reason why any of 11. G. Wells’s works should he censored, tho same applying to those of Arnold Bennett and G. B. Shaw. Anthony Hope’s Inst book had rather unusual sex features, but it was not really objectionable in these days when such hooks were so numerous. The hulk of W. B. Maxwell’s books had been placed in tho Dunedin Library, but tho librarian fought shy of some of his later works because of the introduction of sex appeal of a rather unwholesome type. Ahatole France was all right for a private library, but only a few of his books were (it to be put into circulation in a "public library, and that was the practice followed here. Mr M'Ewan was unable to account for any ban being placed on the books of H. de Vere Stacpoole and Eden Philpotts." ‘