28 JULY
THE NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE
2089

SCHEDULE
DEFINITION OF METROPOLITAN AREAS

Dated at Wellington this 28th day of July 1977.

P. E. DONOVAN,
Director of Prices and Stabilisation Division.
*New Zealand Gazette, 13 January 1977, No. 1, p. 14
(T. and I.)

No. 885

Decision of the Indecent Publications Tribunal

IN the matter of the Indecent Publications Act 1963, and in the matter of an application by Granada Publishing Ltd., of England, for a decision in respect of the publication The Limerick, Volumes 1 and 2, edited by G. Legman, and published by Panther Books Ltd.

BEFORE THE INDECENT PUBLICATIONS TRIBUNAL

Messrs L. M. Greig (Chairman), D. M. Wylie, I. R. Cross, Miss W. M. Rolleston.

Hearing: 3 May 1977.

Appearances: Mr N. Miller for Granada Publishing Ltd.

DECISION

These two volumes contain a lengthy introduction which discusses the history and development of the limerick and some 1700 limericks almost entirely of the bawdy variety. Although the sources of the limericks date back to 1870 nearly all of them are modern and a substantial number are credited to oral collections which may imply that they are newly invented.

While it can be said that the introduction has some merit and value, the limericks, singly or together, have no literary merit or social importance. Many of them are plainly indecent and the overall effect of the volumes is of unending and exaggerated emphasis on sexual matters. In the end the publication is merely a collection of trivial, indecent, and unpleasant verse which is not redeemed by the introduction.

The Tribunal finds these two volumes are indecent.

Dated this 2nd day of June 1977.

LAURENCE M. GREIG, Chairman.

(Reference No.: IND. 3/77.)

No. 883

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 following publications: Penthouse, U.S., Vol. 8, No. 3, 6, and 7 (being the November 1976, and February and March 1977 issues).

BEFORE THE INDECENT PUBLICATIONS TRIBUNAL

Messrs L. M. Greig (Chairman), D. M. Wylie, I. R. Cross, Miss W. M. Rolleston.

Hearing: 3 May 1977.

Appearances: Mr P. E. Leloir for Comptroller of Customs, Mr N. Miller for Gordon and Gotch N.Z. Ltd.

B

DECISION

The Tribunal last considered the American edition of Penthouse later in 1976, and after an extended hearing found the issues then before it to be indecent in the hands of persons under the age of 18 years (Decision No. 881 of 23 December 1976). The Comptroller of Customs has now applied for a restriction order, in terms of section 15A of the Act, and this is not opposed by counsel for the publishers. The three issues now before us have been carefully examined by the Tribunal, which is of the view that their general level is the same as that of the issues dealt with in Decision No. 881: they have neither improved nor deteriorated. The Tribunal reiterates its view, expressed in the earlier decision, that Penthouse is very close to the borderline between the acceptable and the unacceptable.

The Tribunal accordingly classifies these three issues of Penthouse as indecent in the hands of persons under the age of 18 years, and makes a restriction order, under section 15A of the Act, in similar terms for a period of two years.

Dated this 2nd day of June 1977.

LAURENCE M. GREIG, Chairman.

(Reference No.: IND. 1/77.)

No. 884

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 following publications:

BEFORE THE INDECENT PUBLICATIONS TRIBUNAL

Messrs L. M. Greig (Chairman), D. M. Wylie, I. R. Cross, Miss W. M. Rolleston.

Hearing: 3 May 1977.

Appearances: Mr P. E. Leloir for Comptroller of Customs. Written submissions from the importer were received and considered.

DECISION

These publications, which had been privately imported and seized at Wellington in January 1977, fall into several groups. The first (Grunt, No. 12, Dirty, No. 7 and 12, Porno, No. 8, Frenzy, and Frenzy, No. 1) consists of six cheaply-produced, tabloid-style Australian magazines which can only be described as hard-core pornography with no redeeming features whatever. The second group (Tied and Tormented, Vol. 1, Issue 1, Bondage Beavers, No. 1, The Kidnapped Sister, Search, Vol. 1, No. 11, and Special Search, Vol. 2, No. 2) deal with sado-masochistic themes in a generally exaggerated fantasy manner; text and pictures are mostly unrelated, and the general effect is one of unrelieved prurience. This leaves Sex Bizarre, No. 11, a luridly-illustrated Danish publication dealing with lesbianism, and The Young Lust Reader, an American comic-style book concentrating, as the title implies, on sex alone.