OBSCENE PUBLICATIONS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13497, 25 May 1907, Page 5

OBSCENE PUBLICATIONS.

% DR. FINDLAY EXPLAINS THE . ' . LAW.

[BY TELEGRAPH. —OWN CORRESPONDENT.]

- { Wellington, Friday. ; The law relating to obscene publications was explained by the Attorney-General to a i deputation organised by \ the Citizens' Anti-Gambling Committee, which had taken, alarm at the failure of a recent prosecution of the manager of a; certain newspaper on the ground that as the manager was absent at the. time of the publication of what was alleged to be an obscene article it could not be* brought home to him that he understood or realised what was being published.- If the law was really as it appeared from that judgment, it was contended that for a man to escape judgment it was only necessary for himi to be absent from the town for a few hours while an obscene article was being published. The Attorney-General (the Hon. Dr. Findlay) said that the Offensive Publications Act, 1905, was one of the most drastic statutory provisions which had been placed on the. Statute Book of any British colony. It provided that ignorance of the contents of a periodical or a newspaper was not in. itself a defence. Before a man could' escape from such a charge as was referred to, he must show'.that he did not in fact know the contents, that there were no reasonable grounds for his knowing, and that his ignorance was reasonable. In his judgment there was upon the Statute Book as complete a check to that kind of thing as they were likely to get. ; " *