PROHIBITED LITERATURE

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIII, Issue 10085, 26 September 1918, Page 6

PROHIBITED LITERATURE

(To the Editor "N.Z. Times.") Sir,—Walking idly along Georgo street, Syuney, a few days ago, my attention"was drawn to a number* of persons : gazing into the winoow of a booksellers shop. With the inquisitiveness of tho qttkinunc, 1 investigated, and to my surprise, and may I say disappointment, found that wliat was attracting the et hoo genus onine was an extravagantly tlecoiaied window of dozens of copies of the much-discussed book, "The Biack Prophet." In the foreground there was also a, large placard drawing attention to "The book uf tho hour'; "Everyone should read it"; 'Buy now beiom 100 mto'; ' u'hy is' this book prohibited in New Zealand"? and many other alluring devices to tickle the palate of tn© purient-minded or the neurone searcner tor sensation. Now, sir, I propose to venture an opinion why this book is prohibited in .New Zealand. Knowing that this was so, notwithstanding the strenuous efforts of the Protectant Political League co the contrary, 1, with the sole object of satisfying myself as to the justification for the embargo, purchased a copy. I have read tho book ,the book that 'everyone should reau," una am strongly convinced that Sir James Allen (ActingPrime Minister), Sir Francis Bell (At-torney-General;, and their colleagues deserve the warmest thanks of every respectable man and woman in Maoriland for protecting the thoughts of tne community from tho pollution of such vile literature. The wretched novel, it does no", purport to be anything else, is a fair sample of the vicious and immoral writings so prolific in the slums of .New York and San Francisco, for, of course, the putrid thing was conceived and saw the light of day in the States of America. The plot of tho story is einipk* and perhaps unobjectionable, but it is used as an excuse to introduce extraneous matter of the, most degrading and luidly suggestive character. Briefly, a young priest becomes enamoured of one of his congregation, the affection being warmly reciprocated. Brokenhearted, she is about to take the veil, when the torrent of true love breaks down all vows and barriers, and the priest, dissatisfied with the tenets of his church, casts gown and pledges to the wind and loyally marries the girl. Ethically, this may have been wrong, but to make the episode, this fantasy of fiction, the skeleton upon which to hang a sweeping, brutal and unwholesome attack upon the Catholic Church is deplorbale and makes one aahamed of being a Protestant. If tho publication had any literary or historical merit within its covers, one might find excuse for its circulation, but it stands condemned as a cruel attempt to besmirch the name of a sister church whose followers clainy, in history and to-day, some of the greatest minds and glorious intellects that have added lustre to the British race. And, incidentally, can it be claimed that all the followers or leaders of the Protestant faith have been or are the embodiment of what Caesar's wife should bo? Are we to destroy, to anathematise the whole tree because a few of the branches are unsound? Again, because this book is bfing boomed and sold by the Methodist Book Depot, 381, Georgo street, Sydney, it wouid be ungenerous to suggest that all membors of that church aro in sympathy with or would condone the indiscriminate dissemination of such objectionable literature. No, I believe tho majority would be with Sir James Allen and all other lovers of decency in fighting against the demoralisation of our young and. impressionable by such means, and the importation into our peaceful isles of tho spectre of intolerance and sectarian bitterness and bigotry. Speaking as a parent, I assert that any man who would introduce a copy of "The Black Prophet" into a homo where there were young people of either sex is an unmitigated blackguard.—l urn, etc., „~ ' , A. L. D. FRASER. Sydney, September 2nd, 1918.