tions", the second dealing with child
welfare, and the third with police offences.

In our order of reference we were directed to study these pieces of
legislation and to report as to their efficacy and as to whether there
were any specific amendments that were necessary or desirable.

In the preparation of this part of our report we have had the advice
and much valued assistance of the Department of Justice. We deal here
with the question of "publications". Our comments as to the Child
Welfare Act appear elsewhere in this report. No comment is needed
regarding the amendment to the Police Offences Act. First as to
_publications of a more or less objectionable character circulating
in New Zealand_.

We set out at some length some portions of the report submitted for our
consideration by the Minister of Justice, the Hon. Mr Marshall.
_Inter alia_, it is said:

I. _Objectionable Publications in General_

"Our survey of the book trade disclosed that there were three types
of publication to which particular attention should be
given--comics, certain crime stories, and nudist and other
suggestive magazines.

(_a_) _Comics_: "These are the publications which have attracted
most public attention, both here and overseas, and in particular
the type of comic known as the 'crime' or 'horror' comic has come
in for a great deal of severe criticism. It is true that reading of
a mildly bloodthirsty nature directed at the juvenile market is no
new thing. The comic books of today, however, are not those of a
generation ago, nor are they at all similar to the comic strips now
appearing in the newspapers. Many of them are full of matter which
is brutal, horrifying, and sadistic, and although to a certain
extent they are published for and read by adults of feeble
mentality they are also available to children.

"The origin of this type of comic is the United States, but other
countries have not been slow to follow suit. Large numbers of
comics are reprinted in England and Australia from American plates.
The interim report of the Kefauver Committee strongly indicts crime
and horror comics and gives some revolting illustrations of their
contents. Reports indicate that comics almost as bad were
circulating in England before the introduction of legislation
there. The nature of crime comics circulating in Canada was
responsible for an Act pa