New Zealand: The Little Red School-book Reconsidered

Abstract

As Allan Healy points out in his article on ‘Censorship in Australia’ (see p. 185) the debate over the Australian edition of The Little Red School-book has hinged on its political as well as its alleged ‘pornographic’ contents. A similar debate has been conducted in New Zealand and there the matter was taken up by the Indecent Publications Tribunal which is specially charged with such matters. The judgement of the Tribunal has already been described as a model of its kind; and the level of its argument and its serious treatment of the issues raised convince us that it is worth reproducing for a wider readership.