2430

2. Title: Modern Sunbathing Magazine.
   Author: Anonymous.
   Publisher: Seven Seas Publishing Pty. Ltd., P.O. Box 1431, Wellington.

3. Title: Step by Step Instruction in Sexual Technique.
   Author: Miss Tuppy Owens.
   Publisher: Sexual Rapsody Records.

Indecent Publications Tribunal

I, Jack Alexander McLeod Kean, Comptroller of Customs, give notice that I have applied to the Indecent Publications Tribunal for decisions as to whether the books described below are indecent or not, or for decisions as to their classification.

1. Title: The Art of Sensual Massage.
   Author: Gordon Inkeles and Murray Todris.
   Publisher: Straight Arrow Books, San Francisco.

2. Title: Lieutenant L.S.D.
   Author: Lan Creston.
   Publisher: Lan Creston, care of I.P.C.O. Products, California.

No. 572

Decision of the Indecent Publications Tribunal

IN the matter of the Indecent Publications Act 1963, and in the matter of an application by Seven Seas Publishing Pty. Limited for a decision in respect of the book, Maid in Sweden by Maude Poiret, published by Award Books, New York.

Mr Henderson, solicitor, appeared on behalf of the applicant. No submissions were made.

DECISION OF THE TRIBUNAL

ACCORDING to the cover, this novel is based upon a Swedish film of the same name. Its plot, characters, and treatment are superficial and trite. The effect of its recital of the sexual adventures of a young girl on a brief visit to Stockholm is similar to that of another book by this author, Juliette de Sade, which the Tribunal recently classified as indecent in decision No. 504.

Of that book the Tribunal remarked, "Although the sexual incidents...are neither as detailed nor as numerous as those in many novels rejected as indecent by the Tribunal, the tone is just as objectionable. The novel seeks to glamorise what it presents and what it alludes to." Maid in Sweden has the same emphasis but to a lesser degree. Complete rejection is not called for but an age restriction is justified.

The Tribunal classifies this book as indecent in the hands of persons under the age of 18 years.

R. S. V. SIMPSON, Chairman.

17 October 1972.

No. 573

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, Blue Movie by Terry Southern, published by World Publishing Co., New York.

There was no appearance of the applicant. Mr Henderson, solicitor, appeared on behalf of the publisher's representative in New Zealand. No submissions were made.

DECISION OF THE TRIBUNAL

SEVERAL features of this novel by Terry Southern the co-author of Candy which was considered by the Tribunal in decision No. 133 and declared indecent, again invite the Tribunal to make a like declaration in respect of this book.

The story is about the production of a movie—a blue movie. The director, named Boris, is ambitious to make a movie that is genuinely erotic and beautiful. The producer, a "past master at hustling cash for any opus to promise a profit" is more down to earth and talks about "the three million-dollar dirty picture". And that aptly describes the movie in the book. Sexual perversion and crudity pervade this story—a story which is thin and contrived and purely a vehicle for sexual activities natural and perverted.

The Tribunal classifies this book as indecent.

R. S. V. SIMPSON, Chairman.

17 October 1972.

No. 92

No. 574–575

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 magazines, Mayfair Magazine, Vol. 7. No. 5 and 6, published by Fisk Publishing Co. Ltd., London.

There was no appearance of the applicant. Mr Henderson, solicitor, appeared on behalf of the publisher's representative in New Zealand. No submissions were made.

DECISION OF THE TRIBUNAL

THIS magazine bears some resemblance to Penthouse, which has been the subject of several Tribunal decisions, the most recent being No. 560-563 covering Issues Vol. 7, No. 1–4, which we found to be indecent except in the hands of persons over the age of 18 years. Penthouse has somewhat radicalized the Playboy formula (not without some effect on the latter) by a reduction in the proportion of material of literary merit and social concern and by more revealing photography.

In the case of Mayfair, the material of serious interest is still further reduced in proportion to the barely minimal, and the standard of photography has degenerated still further to the artificially posed and provocative. The line of demarcation between the acceptable and the unacceptable in a plural society is frequently a narrow one in the case of publications of a periodical nature, but the Tribunal has come to the conclusion in this case that taking all the criteria laid down in the Act into account, Mayfair falls on the other side of the line from Penthouse.

The Tribunal classifies these issues of Mayfair as indecent.

R. S. V. SIMPSON, Chairman.

17 October 1972.

No. 576

Decision of the Indecent Publications Tribunal

IN the matter of the Indecent Publications Act 1963, and in the matter of an application by Marketing Services for a decision in respect of the magazine, Witchcraft, No. 1, published by T.N.T., London.

Mr Downey, solicitor, appeared on behalf of the applicant but did not make submissions. Miss Bryson, solicitor, appeared on behalf of the Secretary for Justice and made submissions.

DECISION OF THE TRIBUNAL

THE principal contents of this first issue of a new magazine are four allegedly factual accounts of modern witchcraft practices with a variety of illustrations—some drawn from old witchcraft manuals, others obviously 'staged' photographs. The 'factual' accounts read like cheap novelettes and seem to delight in the cruder detail of their stories.

Submissions were made concerning this magazine by the Secretary for Justice in which he stated that in his view it "is a meretricious publication devoid of the honesty of purpose required by section 11 (i) (f) of the Act, that its appeal is to the prurient and the potential sadist, and in short that it describes and depicts matters of sex, horror, and cruelty in a manner injurious to the public good". With this submission we agree.

The Tribunal classifies Witchcraft No. 1 as indecent.

R. S. V. SIMPSON, Chairman.

17 October 1972.

No. 577

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 Aphrodites by Andrea de Nerciat, published by Holloway House Publishing Co., California.

There was no appearance of the applicant. Mr Downey, solicitor, appeared on behalf of the publisher's representative in New Zealand and made submissions.

DECISION OF THE TRIBUNAL

THIS is an English translation of an 18th century French novel by Andrea de Nerciat. Although the Paris of the French Revolution is the location of the story (if the book can be accepted as having one), the book is of no value as a social document of those times. It is an account, mostly in