32 4 LAW AND JUSTICE 



Public Morals. Quid leges sine moribus? New Zealand, impressed with this truth, 

 has recently passed an Act to repress effectually the publication, sale and distribution 

 of indecent and offensive literature. " Indecent document '." in the Act has a very wide 

 meaning, and includes any "book, newspaper, picture, photograph, print or writing or 

 anything having imprinted, written or otherwise exhibited thereon; any indecent word, 

 statement, picture, illustration Or representation." In Holland an Act has been passed 

 to combat immorality. Immoral pamphlets and pictures are not to be disseminated. 

 Drugs or instruments for preventing conception are not to be sold or advertised. There 

 are rigorous measures for suppressing the " white slave " traffic, and houses of ill-fame 

 are absolutely prohibited. A drastic act against the "white slave" traffic has just 

 been passed too in England. 



In New Brunswick an Act has been passed providing that no cinematograph, moving- 

 picture machine, or other similar apparatus, is to exhibit any films which have not been 

 stamped by the board of censors. Manitoba has also been providing for the licensing 

 and regulation of moving pictures. Grenada now requires the licence of the governor 

 for cinematograph performances. In Austria the whole subject of cinematographs is 

 being reported upon by a Government commission. Meanwhile in England the 

 manufacturers have agreed on a censor^entirely unofficial for their films, and have 

 secured Mr. Redford (formerly official censor of plays) in this capacity. 



Gambling is one of the most deeply rooted instincts of human nature. It is pre- 

 eminently the vice of this age, and against it, in all its Protean forms, Legislatures seem 

 to strive in vain. A number of the states of the American Union have passed laws to 

 stop betting on horse-races, and some have gone great lengths, notably California. An 

 Act of that state provides that any person who engages in pool selling or book-making, 

 or keeps or occupies a building or place or stand upon any public or private grounds 

 within the state for that purpose, or for the recording or registering of bets or wagers 

 upon the result of any trial or contest of skill, speed or power of endurance of man or 

 beast, or between man or beast or upon the result of any lot, chance, casualty or unknown 

 or consequent event whatsoever, shall be punishable by imprisonment for thirty days 

 without the option of a fine. This is drastic indeed. 



In Holland not only have all gambling houses been prohibited, but the prohibition 

 extends to " the offering to the public the opportunity of participating in gambling." 



Western Australia, like the Transvaal, has been sanctioning the use of the totalisator 

 as, presumably, the least objectionable form of betting. 



The state of Virginia has made it a misdemeanour to swear over the telephone or to 

 abuse a person or his female relations in such a way as to lead to a breach of the peace. 



Marriage and Divorce. The so-called feminist movement has exercised and is 

 exercising a very unsettling effect on marriage, divorce and the matrimonial relations 

 generally. In particular equality is claimed for wives in regard to the grounds of di- 

 vorce. In England, as things stand, a husband can be grossly unfaithful to his wife, but 

 so long as he does not add cruelty or desertion to adultery she is without any redress. 

 This is a grievance against which women may fairly protest. But there is another of 

 equally long standing, the denial of the remedy of divorce to those wives or husbands who 

 are too poor to pay the costs of a suit in the divorce court: a state of things which Mr. 

 Justice Maule years ago satirised in a strain of exquisite irony. And there is yet a third, 

 that the grounds of divorce as they stand in England to-day are too narrow and need 

 enlargement. All these grievances or alleged grievances have been the subject of very 

 careful consideration in England by a strong Royal Commission on Divorce under the 

 chairmanship of Lord Gorell. Some 386 witnesses were examined, and never were more 

 varied or conflicting ideas expressed on any subject. 



The report of the commission appeared on November n, 191 2, and it fully recognised, 

 by a majority of 9 commissioners to 3, that the above grievances were well founded. 

 Its recommendations were briefly as follows: the placing of men and women on an 

 equal footing as regards divorce; the decentralization of sittings for hearing divorce 

 cases so as to enable persons of limited means to obtain redress; the addition of five new 



