REFORM OF CENSORSHIP

Taranaki Daily News, 16 January 1935, Page 6

REFORM OF CENSORSHIP

DOMINION’S URGENT NEED OFFICERS WITHOUT QUALIFICATION PROFESSOR SEWELL SUPPORTED. WELLINGTON BOOKSELLER’S VIEW. Once upon a time “Alice in Wonderland” was held up by a Custom House officer because, presumably, he suspected it might contain matter unsuited to the morals of New Zealand. Similarly a completely harmless child’s book entitled “Through the Hollow Oak” was held up by the customs for unspecified reasons. Mr. A. G. Smith, manager of the bookselling department of Messrs. Whitcombe and Tombs, well known Dominion publishing house, quoted the above cases to a Daily News representative yesterday in support of his statement that the greatest objection to the present censorship system in New Zealand were the censors themselves—Custom House officials without bookselling, literary or even defined educational qualifications. The bookseller’s attitude to the vexed question of censorship was difficult, he said, to define. Reputable booksellers had no desire whatsoever to handle in-, decent works and would, censorship or not, most certainly refuse to do so. But it was certain that £he right of defining decency in literature should be vested in an expert. Personally he was entirely in agreement with a statement made in the Press by Professor W. E. Sewell to the effect that complete abolition of the censorship would throw a light into the murky corners of pornography that would eventually destroy it. Still, to demand so drastic a reform at the moment was a shade too “advanced.” He suggested instead that the American system of attaching an expert to the customs to advise officers whether or not a book should be prohibited would be a reform acceptable to most reasonable people—and a considerable reform.