THE CENSORSHIP

Southland Times, Issue 19770, 19 February 1923, Page 6

THE CENSORSHIP

SOME CHANGES PROPOSED. STATEMENT BY MINISTER. (Special to the Times.) WELLINGTON, February 17. The Minister of Customs said to-day that he was having a statement about the censorship of literature prepared in reply to a question which had been asked hy a member. In the meantime, however, there were one or two observations he would make to the House. He realised that tlie present system was causing some irritation. He was submitting to Cabinet proposals which he hoped would make it more acceptable to the people. There was a good deal of misapprehension about the reason for which certain books were banned. Sometimes under the existing law the Censor had no discretion. Certain books were banned under statute law. It was not the censors fault if these were kept out. So long as these books contravened the previous law of the Indecent Publications Act, they had to be prohibited. A member: Who reads them? Another member: Who is the censor? The Minister: They are not banned by an irresponsible junior clerk in the Customs Department as is freely supposed. Mr Howard (Christchurch South) : Is it a blind man that reads them? The Minister: He is not blind; he is very alert. Mr Fraser (Wellington Central) : Mentally blind ? The Minister said the whole question was verj' intricate. He had been trying to put the censorship on a proper footing, but the idea that the censor or the Minister wa., an arbitrary bureaucrat trying to prevent the public from reading what it was entitled' to read, was far from correct. If Cabinet approved of his proposals there might be legislation next session to give effect to them.