2200

THE NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE

No. 78

DECISION OF THE TRIBUNAL

THIS is the summer 1971 issue of the magazine which is published quarterly and sold at approximately $2 per copy. As in the case of Evergreen, No. 66, which was the subject of Tribunal Decision 190, this publication is a significant expression of a school of avant-garde thought and writing in America and should be available to students of contemporary American literature. It has value also for students of sociology. It consists largely of articles of merit and interest in their own right, and displays a serious and informed concern on matters of universal relevance.

Exception on the grounds of indecency might be taken to nudity in photographs; in the case of those illustrating an article on a Manhattan community “Westbeth” the Tribunal judges these necessary to the study of such social phenomena. In the other case, where the photographs come from an Amsterdam gymnasium, they are likely to offend only those whom nudity as such always offends and this attitude is not regarded by the Tribunal as a prevailing one; here there is no prurience or perversion.

The Tribunal classifies the book as not indecent.

R. S. V. SIMPSON, Chairman.

12 October 1971.

No. 359

Decision of the Indecent Publications Tribunal

IN the matter of the Indecent Publications Act 1963, and in the matter of an application by the Comptroller of Customs for a decision in respect of the book The Master Baiter by Troy Conway, published by Paperback Library, New York.

There was no appearance of the applicant nor of the publisher’s representative in New Zealand. Accordingly no submissions were made.

DECISION OF THE TRIBUNAL

ALTHOUGH this book is described on the cover as being an “adult novel”, it would seem from the level of its writing and the sheer impossibility of much of its detail to have been composed by a sex-struck juvenile. The plot is a thin veneer to cover a series of sexual descriptions.

It has no literary pretensions, no social importance, no honest thread or thought; nor is it conceivable that anybody could benefit from reading it.

The Tribunal classifies this book as indecent.

R. S. V. SIMPSON, Chairman.

12 October 1971.

No. 360

Decision of the Indecent Publications Tribunal

IN the matter of the Indecent Publications Act 1963, and in the matter of an application by the Comptroller of Customs for a decision in respect of the book The Graduate Mistress by Kenneth Gunnell, published by Luxor Press Ltd., London.

There was no appearance of the applicant. Mr P. J. Downey, solicitor, appeared on behalf of the publishers and made submissions.

DECISION OF THE TRIBUNAL

THIS is a wildly improbable story of a domineering young teacher and her pupil, told with much sado-masochistic relish. There is no development of character or situation, and on the counts of literary merit, social significance and honesty of purpose this hits rock-bottom.

The Tribunal classifies this book as indecent.

R. S. V. SIMPSON, Chairman.

12 October 1971.

No. 361

Decision of the Indecent Publications Tribunal

IN the matter of the Indecent Publications Act 1963, and in the matter of an application by the Comptroller of Customs for a decision in respect of the book Sin for Breakfast by Mason Hoffenberg, published by Sphere Books Ltd., London.

There was no appearance of the applicant nor of the publisher’s representative in New Zealand. Accordingly no submissions were made.

DECISION OF THE TRIBUNAL

THIS paperback by one of the two authors of Candy is a comic novel which relies on a quickly moving plot and an exploitation of sex. The successful attempt to be funny in an outrageous way constitutes an assault on standards of decency, but it is a lighthearted one.

We are aware that in a more open society this book might pass without much comment but we are unable, in terms of our own statute, to regard it as acceptable for some people. The Tribunal classifies this book as indecent in the hands of persons under 18 years.

R. S. V. SIMPSON, Chairman.

12 October 1971.

No. 362

Decision of the Indecent Publications Tribunal

IN the matter of the Indecent Publications Act 1963, and in the matter of an application by the Comptroller of Customs for a decision in respect of the book I Accuse by Mette Ejlersen, published by Universal Tandem Publishing Co. Ltd., London.

There was no appearance of the applicant nor of the publisher’s representative in New Zealand. Accordingly no submissions were made.

DECISION OF THE TRIBUNAL

THIS is a frank, not to say frantic, exposition of how women achieve sexual satisfaction. The assertion that there is for women only one means to orgasm is open to question, and the claim that there has been no other book on the subject is, in view at least of Dr Helena Wright’s publications of 20 years ago, not allowable.

But the field of inquiry is a legitimate one and the case for clitoral orgasm needs plain treatment. Any exaggeration or inaccuracies in this book are not of a kind to destroy its usefulness which could well be considerable.

The Tribunal classifies this book as not indecent.

R. S. V. SIMPSON, Chairman.

12 October 1971.

Nos. 363, 364, 365

Decision of the Indecent Publications Tribunal

IN the matter of the Indecent Publications Act 1963, and in the matter of an application by the Comptroller of Customs for decisions in respect of the books I am Curious (Yellow) by Vilgot Sjoman, Blue Movie by Andy Warhol, and Events by Fred Baker, published by Grove Press, New York.

There was no appearance of the applicant nor of the publisher’s representative in New Zealand. Accordingly no submissions were made.

DECISION OF THE TRIBUNAL

THESE three titles represent a comparatively new, but growing, genre of publication: the script or scenario of a film, illustrated with numerous stills taken from the film sequence. They are the first of this kind that the Tribunal has had brought before it, and it is therefore important to emphasise that the Tribunal is solely concerned with the books before it, and must judge them as such; what it says about them, and the decisions it has reached, are in no sense a judgment or commentary on the films themselves. This is stressed because the Tribunal has always been concerned to make decisions which are on the book as a whole, not on particular parts of it (as it is required to do under section 11 (1) (a) of the Act); in these cases, a large part of the contents, the illustrations, are being seen by the Tribunal out of context of the whole film from which they come.

I am Curious (Yellow) is a Swedish film made in 1966–67; it explores many aspects of life in Sweden today—political, economic, social, sexual—and clearly has an underlying serious social purpose. Sex, frankly depicted, has its place in the book, but it neither has a predominant place in the whole, nor does it appear out of context with the rest of the production seen as a vehicle of social protest. In other words, the sexual episodes have not been introduced into it gratuitously. Appended to the scenario is a long section giving extracts from the evidence given by a number of witnesses (literary and film critics, sociologists and psychologists) when the film was prosecuted on an obscenity charge in the United States in 1968.

The Tribunal classifies the book as not indecent.