Regarded as Indecent

Hawera Star, Volume LIV, 18 January 1935, Page 8

Regarded as Indecent

Bookseller Who Imported Balzac’s “Droll Stories” COURT ADJOURNS CASE (By Telegraph—Press Association.) AUCKLAND, To-day. Mr. Wyvern Wilson, S.M., had submitted to him for decision to-day the question whether Balzac’s “Droll Stories," written in 1833, arc indecent within the meaning of the New Zealand law. After hearing some evidence he adjourned the case until January 25. Cecil George Swallow, a bookseller, wag charged with offering for sale an indecent document, “Droll Stories,” by Honore de Balzac. Detective Hamilton, who saw the hook in defendant’s window, said defendant told him that he had imported six from England, but the Customs Department held them up. A week later the department' allowed him to lift them. Cross-examined, he said he believed the book was stocked generally throughout New Zealand. He had not heard of a prosecution on this book before. Counsel for the defence said that, defendant had been established as a bookseller for over 20 years. He submitted that the Indecent Publications Act did not apply to the works of a famous author like Balzac, whose work had a definite effect on the literature of his country. Cross-examining, Senior Detective Hall read a passage from one story and defendant said he would net let his own children of 12 or 13 road it.