"PURE" POSTCARDS.

NZ Truth, Issue 57, 21 July 1906, Page 5

"PURE " POSTCARDS.

'9 i Parsons and Parson-Pulled Papers.

"Truth" feels compelled to join issue with the parsons of Wellington who, with an entire disregard for the truth, have given it forth that many of the stationers' shop windows m ! Wellington are. lined with postcards that are indecent and obscene. It is not at all necessary to pay any serious heed to the Christian-like utterances of these ranters to the effect that those post-card sellers are persons whom other should regard and shun as social lepers. It is much more to the point, however, to draw the attention of the police to the fact that there is going on m Wellington 'a traffic m alleged ppst--cards, which cannot be regarded as suggestive, because they ' are representations of everything that is vile and filthy and on a par with those Parisian pictures, the importation of which into this colony and the Commonwealth of Australia is strictly prohibited. These cards are certainly to be procured m some establishments m Wellington, but business is done only with those whom the proprietors are acquainted with, and who are known not to have any connection with the police force. . Secret as is this traffic, the demand for these filthy representations, which are of a sexual nature, is greatly increasing. This is only natural. The exhibition of one card is likely to whet the appetite m others. If "Truth" can help the police to nail down one offender it will do so willingly. Tramping Wellington streets daily, armed with a black bap-, is an elderly individual who does not hesitate to button-hole likely customers and exhibit to their view, from the said black bag, the vrilest pictures imaginable. What is still worse, this wretched old trafficker m indecent- cards, stands almost on the door-steps of respectably conducted stationers' shops- in the city and importunes those entering these shops to examine and buy his wares. One shop, m consequence of this door-step traffic, has since been beseiged by customers eagerly demandihf these "pure" pictures, and these customers, when advised to go elsewhere, haVe gone so far as to state that they were assured that cards of the description they demanded had been purchased there. A complaint has been made to the police re this old man and needless to say if he attempts anything of the sort again m front of this particular shop, the nolice will prornptlv nab him. Of late there has been an outcry m a certain section of the press against the indecent nature of the post cards sold m some Wellington shops. This of course is prompted by the parsonical push who poke their noses into everything that, does not concern them. There has been on^prosecution m Wellington which proved abortive, and it ill becomes the parsons and press of Wellington to blame the police for neglect, m view of the decision given by Dr. McArthur m the Wilkinson case. If a suggestion of indecency is sufficient to warrant a prosecution "Truth" would like to know how it comes about that one newspaper, loudest and longest m its parson-rcrompted shriek for stationers' and post-card sellers' blood, not only prints suggestive cards, which even a blind man can see through, but fails, m contravention of the law\ to affix an imprint to these cards. Evidently m this particular newspaper office the editorial and commericial interests are clashiii- It is an unemial fight, The commercial interest always comes 1 out on top.