1910: Indecent Publications

October 24, 2019

By AHNZ

Today in New Zealand history, 25 October, 1910, the Indecent Publications Act became law. A Statist’s answer to what is to be ‘indecent’ and what has literary merit. The Government had been trying to do this within Customs regulations since 1858 and specifically with the Offensive Publications Act (1892.)

The alternative to telling people what they can read and write, of course, is to vest that individual responsibility in themselves. What? Treat people as individuals with good judgement of their own or responsible for acquiring some…like some anarchist? The Liberals certainly didn’t come to power to let people govern themselves! Thus, at the height of the Kate Shepherd Victimhood Culture era and the start of the Liberal Government Era the 1892 Act was passed. The planets were aligned for such paternalistic control by The State.

Some 20 years later and the Liberals were still in power. Premier Joseph Ward had to pull out all the stops to keep it that way though and he was certainly equal to that task or gave it a damn good go. The way to rule New Zealand when it’s switched to Victimhood Mode is to amp up the paternalistic state activity as much as possible. In the end, of course, this is futile but the Liberals were hungry for power and prolonged their demise..

“General Election defeat in 1911 loomed for Ward too and he too was pulling out all the jingoistic stops. Many of them, under the cover of Kitchener’s presence and approval which made them hard to oppose in public. These included nationalising our voluntary militia, compulsory military training, deficit-financing a battleship to give away to Britain, persecuting the Chinese, banning barmaids. A desperate, fascist, populist, power-starved nob at the end of his line.”- 1910: Election Campaign Disguised as Lord Kitchener’s Military Inspection; AHNZ

Thus, within Anarchist historiography it’s pretty clear to see a context for an ‘indecent publications’ reboot in 1910. Yet another measure by Statists to try to hold back the changing tide, to stay in power no matter what.

When a regime loses its moral initiative and popular support they’re only left with the power to criminalise things. We may fully expect this old historic script to play out again in the early 2020s as the present Victimhood Culture, and Labour 6.0, like Ward, refuse to be uprooted. 

The only real indecent publications are the Statutes of New Zealand.

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Ref. Indecent Publications Act (1910); NZILL

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