LITERATURE AND CRIME. Mr. Justice Cooper's Denunciation.

Free Lance, Volume VIII, Issue 402, 14 March 1908, Page 6

LITERATURE AND CRIME. Mr. Justice Cooper's Denunciation.

AT the Supreme Court sittings at Napier last week Mir. Justice Cooper had occasion to denounce in strong terms the trashy literature which is so eagerly devoured by the youths throughout the Dominion. The occasion arose through the prosecutioin of three youths for breaking and entering and theft. The prisoners having pleaded guilty, it was stated on their behalf that tlheu* mun ds h/ad become polluted through reading "penny hoirnhles." Has Honor said that he knew something of this class of literature, and forthwith he applied himself right royally to hLS theme of denunciation. • • • It will be a great pity if Mr. Justice Cooper's remarks are allowed to pass unnoticed by the authorities. The baneful effects of the class of literature called into rebuke are uaideniable, and it is high time that some steps were taken to prohibit the sale of such trash. The judge is reported to have said : "I should like to have the poweT to call before me the man who sold these books, and I should like to have the power to send that man to gaol." * • The fervour of this expressed wish is fully justified by the effects of pernicious literature which have been made public from time to time. But the situation with regard to' the sale of the rubbish appears to be a peculiarly anomalous one. Provision as made in our legislation to piroihibit the sale of obscene and indecent literature, whilst this class of reading matter, which, as Mr. Justice Cooper said, "is quite as bad," escapes the rigour of the law. •* * • Of course the bookseller is untrammelled by any pangs of conscience or moods of sentiment in the matter. He is out for business, and trifles of sentiment are weak in argument against bread and butter. He sells with greatest pleasure what brings in the greatest profit; and to judge from the universal sale for the "penny dreadful," tiiere must be an enormous traffic and profit in the "blood and thunder" mixture of reading master. * * • The blame of the business undoubtedly lies at the door .of the law which permits the publication and sale of the pernicious stuff. The emulation of Jack Shepherd, Dick Turpi-n, and others is no ideal to place before the youth of this or any other country. Yet that is virtually what our legislation countenances and sanctions. That neglct m coping effectively with the evil is one sure way of developing criminal character in the Dominion has been demonstrated times out of mind. *■ -y- * Iheie has been up to the piesent a tendency to dismiss the subject lightly, ot even to speak of the matte<r with the tongue in the cheek. But such an incident as the Napier prosecution brings the seriousness of the matter home to a thinking community, and the public will be very loth to let the subject drop at this juncture. The suggestion made m a leading daily that a list of such demoralising books should be prepared, and that they should be barred out of New Zealand as quack medicines are barred, is a good one. There is nothing impracticable about it. The way is open for the Government to do a very splendid service to the Dominion in this connection.