"INDECENT" POSTCARDS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVI, Issue 17110, 15 March 1919, Page 10

"INDECENT" POSTCARDS.

PROSECUTION FOR SALE.

BOOKSELLER FINED £5. An allegation that they sold indecent documents was preferred against Catherine M. Dann and Ernest R. Dann (Mr.

Inder), before Mr. J. E. Wilson, S.M., at the Police Court yesterday. The charges arose out of the sale, on February 12, to a plain-clothes constable, of picture postcard copies of " The Three j Graces," by Regnaull; "Venus," by M. J. A. Mercie; " Sleeping Venus," by Giorgionet and " Satyw Jouant aveo uno Bacchante,' 1 by H. Oervex. Counsel for tbo defendants admitted the sale, and said the point for consideration was the indecency or otherwise of the documents in the circumstances of the sale. Senior-Sergeant McNarawa said tho postcards bad been exposed in the window of the defendant shop in Queen Street. He considered they would havo a tendency to corrupt the morals of young people, both male and female. Mr, Inner said that all the pictures were reproductions of very famous I artists. Mr. Dann had sold about i 40,000 postcards last year, and in the j course of his business he received from ! people who loved art many requests for 'pictures such as those which formed the I subject of the charge. Accordingly, he | indented the artistic series through a , well-known Auckland firm, and upon their arrival several of them were censored by the Customs and returned to England. Defendant thought that the others were quite all right for sale. Counsel admitted that the Supreme Court had ruled that a reproduction of "Sleeping Venus " was indecent, but I only in certain circumstances. Th&; pictures were sold to people of mature years only. Tho magistrate said he could not see that any eood purpose was served by the sale of the reproductions in question, and a fact to bo taken into consideration was that the defendant evidently considered it necessary to expoao the pictures in tho window to effect a sale. There was no doubt in his mind that in the present cir-' cumstances the pictures were indecent, i The indiscriminate sale of such documents ; should be stopped. It was significant that , the Customs authorities considered some' of them so gross ns to forbid their admis-' sion to the country. Ha did not think the offence was wilfully committed, and that was a mit'gatiiiß circumstance. A fine of £5 in each case was imposed. In reply to Mr. Inder, His Worship said it was difficult to lav down a rule as to the indecency or otherwise of a picture. i So much depended on the conditions. If good reproductions were sold or exposed In the right environment, such as a small art gallery attached to a shop, then, in his opinion, no offenco would be committed. Where reproductions were sold at • si ,small firare there was a tendency to sell • ■ indiscriminately.