Administrative structure and government controls
The book trade was given an official structure with the formation in 1921
of the Booksellers' Association (later Associated Booksellers of New
Zealand; later still Booksellers New Zealand) to deal with commonly
recognised issues: trading terms with publishers, price cutting,
censorship, submissions to government and new bookselling ideas. The
background to the 1920s and 1930s were the world recession's effect on
export earnings followed by the Great Depression, and hard times were
experienced (wage reductions resulted from the Finance Act 1931).
However, membership drives had built up the numbers and a stronger voice
was available for dealings with the government on matters such as the
imposition of sales tax (1933), the customs charge of primage (1935) and
censorship. Official bookselling concern was expressed about the
competition for entertainment expenditure—cars, wireless,
movies and cabarets—and the need to advertise effectively to
counter this trend.
Censorship has always
been a fact of life for booksellers and the evolution of this form of
restriction is one barometer of a society's changing values. The
Offensive Publications Act 1892 specified what was regarded as indecent
at that time (VD, sexual aids, abortion or contraception). The Indecent
Publications Act 1910, which did not actually define indecency but dealt
with the seizure of indecent documents 'set the scene for censorship in
New Zealand for the next 40 years' (Gordon Tait, The
Bartlett Syndrome: Censorship in New Zealand , 1979, p.3). The
banning and seizure of books had become part of the bookseller's
experience in the early years of the century, but with the arrival of
World War I seditious literature came under government spotlight, and
restrictions, especially on political literature, were imposed more
stringently. Restrictions were relaxed somewhat during the late 1920s
and early 1930s, subsequent to the strict requirements of the War
Regulations Continuance Act 1920, and an Order in Council of May 1921
which had prohibited the importation of 'any document which incites,
encourages, advises, or advocates violence, lawlessness or disorder, or
expresses any seditious intention' (quoted Barrowman, 1991, p.43). The
advent of World War II brought into being the Censorship and Publicity
Emergency Regulations which included a wide definition of subversive
material aimed at any literature regarded officially as being against
the war effort. The obvious example was Communist literature. This
challenge for booksellers was encapsulated by Harold White, director of
the Association, who said in 1973: 'is it not interesting that with
honourable exceptions . . . it is a trade group that has been so active
in a long-fought battle in this country to defend—or rather
extend—the right of people to read books freely?' (quoted
Rogers, 1993, p.15).
In 1954, the Indecent
Publications Amendment Act was passed to deal with 'anything which
unduly emphasises matters of sex, horror, crime, cruelty or violence'
(Rogers, 1993, p.261). The Association negotiated strenuously with the
Justice Department to define the responsibility of its booksellers. The
actions of the Customs Department were arbitrary and stories abound of
the seizure of books in ignorance of titles and authors. The Indecent
Publications Act 1963 took decisions out of the hands of politicians and
customs officers and gave this function to an Indecent Publications
Tribunal. This resolved much censorship confusion.
The Indecent
Publications Tribunal ceased to exist in October 1994 when new
legislation (the Films, Videos and Publications Classification Act 1993)
came into force. The legislation provides for all media under a single
consistent regime and reflects developing technology, growing public
interest and changing attitudes—possession of 'objectionable'
material is now a criminal offence. Three new independent bodies were
created: the Industry Labelling Body, the Office of Film and Literature
Classifications and the Film and Literature Board of Review. This new
structure is intended to provide a more flexible scheme, and a
censorship environment where issues can be debated and decided with
community involvement.
Another major issue
which arose about this time was that of uniform retail prices. The
government believed that such price agreement was not in the public
interest as defined by the Trade Practices Act. In spite of both
considerable evidence to the contrary and the help of an expert witness
from England, the enquiry in 1962 found against the continuation of
price schedules. On appeal, however, the finding was reversed.
The 1970s saw the
arrival of Harold White as secretary, later director of the Association,
and the development of the organisation into a more professional body.
The collection of retailers 'Christian, educational, provincial, urban,
each [with] their own needs and idiosyncrasies' (Rogers, 1993, p.271)
was drawn together more effectively than before. Censorship continued to
be a significant issue. Patricia Bartlett founded her Society for the
Promotion of Community Standards in 1970, and throughout the decade
there were confrontations with booksellers wishing to sell books of
which she did not approve. The Association was kept busy. Gordon Tait, a
Christchurch bookseller, was also very active in opposition to her
strictures, witness his book The Bartlett Syndrome
(1979).
During 1980 Harold
White and Roy Parsons resigned. These two had contributed in a major way
to the effective functioning of the Association. So the decade began
with new personnel and some new issues, the main one being the
introduction of the Goods and Services Tax (GST). The imposition of this
tax had been long and vigorously opposed, but calls for exemption were
not acknowledged by the government, and by 1985 booksellers prepared
themselves to take on this new tax. Book promotion, in the light of the
growth of competing leisure activities, was given greater emphasis. In
1991 Booksellers New Zealand came into being. Its significance was that
it represented both booksellers and publishers, and thereby provided a
more concerted thrust in marketing the book trade.