THE NON-CONFORMIST CONSCIENCE.

NZ Truth, Issue 60, 18 August 1906, Page 1

THE NON-CONFORMIST CONSCIENCE.

Considered as an Art Critic and Censor of Morals.

The case of one Wilkinson, a bookseller, who wp.z charged by the police with selling indecent post-cards, came to a conclusion oAy: Saturday last," when Dr. McAtftliur ;£otibd 'the c~rds td'be indecent £nd fmM- WilkinsoH- £5 . and costs. Spffle of thi cards produc-r' "edin court, p^rhapi;' were such as ; might reasonably be "termed indecent, although there was nothing very out-' raucous about any of them, and the same class of pictures' have been freely exposed for sale all over Australia for, years past. But, of course New Zealand morality is a very different thing to the Australian brand, and what is allowed m that sin besodden land, the gaols hold i a higher .percentage. of- New Zealanders than of natives, cannot be taken as any criterion-, of.- 1 what is. decent and moral and what is .Ilthy and lewd. .There is a band of purists m New Zealand whose mental vision is so. circumscribed! that anything that does not please, their own, narrow little minds, is stigmatised, as vicious and as having a demoralising and degrading influence. These highly virtuous, but cruelly selfish, , gentry seem to : triost jof .' their time „ sniffiJlE round, for something offensive to their sanctimonious snouts. At election itime it is the accursed "der-rink" •that has most of their attention, but after the licenses have been fixed up for another three years, they give bung and the- midnight drunk a spell, and turn their attention to the "tote," and denounce horse-racing as the very root of all evil. When the "anti-tote" controversy begins to pall , and the advertisement is no longer .worth the trouble of writing to the papers, they switch off on to a side trade and set out to harass the lady .who earns her living at a profession jfchat is ncl generally found on the 'Arbitration and Conciliation Court ■lists. As there is no Sunday press, m ith is. country they, are saved the trouble of worrying about that, "but .the youth who 1 exercises., his limbs .with football, cricket bat\ or golf club on they Sabbath comes m f for complete condemnation r whilst the young man who . shoulders hi s ; Cash-, more and sets but to slay the festive rabbit on the Lord's Day is held up as a fit and proper subject for the Terrace gaol. Even the harmless amusement of dancing grates upon the •non-con, conscience, -and many, a coolly Wesleyari wowser- firmly believes that the gates of heaven will be positively closed to those who have enough vigor m their blood to find life good and enjoy it. • ■ _ ■ • .- • ■ The latest "evil" that this snufflebusting clique of chadbands has unearthed is the indecent post-card. If New Zealand publishers and their agents were given carte blanche to sell, and expose all classes of post-cards, the same as is done m several European countries, there would be undoubtedly ground for complaint ; but ..such is not the case, and no bookseller or stationer m New Zealand would thinic of exposing m his windows any card that was palpably obscene. Some of the ca>rds which were condemned by Dr. McArthur on Saturday may have offended good taste, but others wore purely reproductions from classical pictures, and under the circumstances we think that a caution against selling the objectional cards m the future would have been sufficient to meet the case. Take the "Modern Milo" pictures. Some few - •months ago Miss Montague, under engagement to Messrs Fuller and Sons, -, showed m each of the four principal cities of the colony. The cards m question are merely photographs of the lady as she actually, posed before her audiences. Since" touring New Zealand Miss Montague has shown m Sydney and London, and is at present louring England and showing to .vast mixed audiences nightly. If a photograph of the impersonation is indecent, then what is to be said of the impersonation itself ? It is true that it the time of the "Modern Milo" performances certain busy body clergymen did agitate for her suppression, but for tb,e most part were laughed at. A coterie of these interfering sky-pilots were so shocked at the "Milo" business that they interviewed the editor of one of the leading South Island dailies and prayed his influence to have the show stopped. The editor m question said he would | jsee the performance for himself and

report accordingly. Next day when .the black Lcctles called they were astonished to hear thte editor say, "I satf Milo last night, and \rr.s very much interested. My family are going' to-night." But clerical jealousy., j although unable' to suppress the. flesh and blood representation of the world's masterpieces, };-.s managed to get even, by stirring up an agitation and procuring a prosecution against her pictures. "•-.: i;"Milo" is not the only classic condemned. The Chief Inspector of • Police inspected Wilkinson's ; shop r.i-,1 pointed out quite a number of statuary photographs and prdc-""* reproductions of well-known paintings .which were not to be exhibited or Sold. But a post-card entitled "The Little Jesus," because, it had a religious tone, although m reality much more suggestive of indecency than any qf the ."Milo" cards, and certainly m>t m the same class as a work of art, was' pass: v "by. Evidently, even m post-cards, anything m the blessed name of religion is to-be '.olerated. Could narrow-minded pruder- go farther? It is aot that the police themselves" have any objections to tltestf cards, but -they are. forced to^ r>ove by a narrow-minded ?nd smril section of the community ; and their prosecutions, possibly much to their surprise, are upheld Ay a magistrate who only a lew weeks ago declared that he. saw no harm m an infinitely worse picture. •• * . The picture m question was one entitled "Adam and Eve." The thing had no particular artistic merit. ,m« only iokc that could possibly .r-: construed out of the letterpress beneath was ar. indecent suggestion. Dr. McArthur considered this to be. merely "fun" and dismissed the information The "Evening Post" . ~axed very . indignant over this decision. It wanted to know m no measured terms what constituted indecency and what did not. It simply lashed itself into a fury over the ' inicuity of a . magistrate who could be guilty of such a finding. It. bewailed the degeneration of the natlion, and prophesied woes untold unless we mended our moral:; and made for '.a purer life Of course this -sort of gush tickled the parsonical push immensely and the Rev. J. J. North, pastor, of the Vivian-street Baptist Church, almost fell into the editor's arms and blessed him for Uis noble work.' He gave the "Post" an excellent advertis^ent amongst the ranters,, and incidentally N he got a huge adivertisemer.'. himself on the cheap. But "what a falling off, was there." It transpired, C/.ring the hearing of Wilkinson's case, that certain cards deemed by the defence to be indecent and the sale of which would certainly give cause for a prosecution had been printed— breath it gently my- friends— at the sanctimonious, highly moral, easily -liocked "Evening Pos'/'- office! Now, the "Post" made no' bones about publishing a long account of this particular prosecution. It named Wilkinson as the guilty vendor and gave every detail, with the one exception of its own guilt. A nice piece of hypocrisy this ! Certainly there was not a column of leading matter devoted to Wilkinson advising him to' mend his ways and , lead a cleaner life, siniilar to what had been published after the preyious case. They hadn't the hide-bound gall to "itblish that. But what faith does this purity professing paper keep with the' public when it will publish what purports to be a true and correct report of a case and omit all mention therein of the damning reference to itself. It is true that the "Times" also omitted any mention of the "Post's" implication, but that was professional generosity, and the fault, if any, "leaned to virtue's side." We can admire honor even amongst thieves, but we have no time for hypocrisy. * * * But, there is more than this. Let us look what the Rev. J. J. Nb'rth thinks of the artistic and elevating productions of his champion of purity 1 A gentleman who had been v£rv much interested m the indecent postcard cases, procured a card that had been printed at the "Evening Post" office, and knowing; that the "Post" was such a strict censor of public morals and that the Rev. North - was such an ardent admirer of the "Post," he sent the card to Mr North with a request that he should j give Jus oDinion upon it,,. ,The re Dlv, '

was characteristic- Here is a copy of it :- • ,■•-..;; .""-' ■=-:\ ;;■ ■■;-/... \1'.,--:W Wellington Baptist Church, , Vivian-street* Wellington, July 11, 1906, My Dear Sir, The card you sent me is m : its whole intention unclean. There is no wit and no" art m it. It ~as devised by a leper and caf-r ries an evil suggestion. I think a case m court would involve a £5 fine. I am, Yours, J. J. NORTH. So -much for. Mr North's opinion of. a post-card printed and publishe by the "Evening Post" proprietary. How easily gulled are the public when j tliey will take their morals from such a source as this, and who will allow an interfering person of the North type to agitate and invoke police prosecution, when he will, publicly praise the action of such a paper when it suits his purpose, but keep as dumb as an oyster when the tables arc reversed? But after all, this sort of thing is only too characteristic of the Chadband brigade and all their adherents. Vh'ec are continually, carping at anything 1 that pleases those who are not of the same reT ligion as themselves. I'hey know, no tolerance, they have no mercy. They live little, shallow, narrow, circumscribed lives, that must shrivel , up their souls, blacken their hearts and tp»rß all the better feelings and ; goodness out of their natures. If these sort of peor' ■>. are to govern us what sort of lives may we be expect-ed-to live ?'lf Mr North and men ci his stamp are' to become judges of art,, art will consist of ''Come to Jesus" Christmas cards; if they are to be masters of our revels our wildest pleasure will consist of a feed of stale buns and cold tea sandwiched between, two- very long graces ; and if they are to be the censors of our morals we will become a nation of hypocrites with secret vices to damn us body and soul.