The publisher of the left-wing newspaper the Maoriland Worker was accused of blasphemous libel over a poem in which a soldier appealed to Jesus over "bloody old sins". Source: National Library
The publisher of the left-wing newspaper the Maoriland Worker was accused of blasphemous libel over a poem in which a soldier appealed to Jesus over "bloody old sins". Source: National Library
A poet's Good Friday appeal to Jesus over some "bloody old sins" was once enough for a conservative government to put a left-wing publisher on trial under the Crimes Act.
But no more – at least not if the Labour coalition succeeds in its plan to banish "blasphemous libel" fromthe statute books.
Justice Minister Andrew Little's amendments to the Crimes Act, which passed their first reading in the House this week, include the repeal of blasphemous libel.
"[It] has not been prosecuted in New Zealand since 1922 and raises potential Bill of Rights Act concerns," Little said.
"This provision is seen by many as an archaic and obsolete provision that has no place in a modern society that protects freedom of expression."
Maoriland Worker publisher John Glover was acquitted of blasphemous libel. Photo / Fairfax Media
In 1922, however, the diligent surveillance - or rather newspaper purchasing - of Constable Edward Tongue led to a charge, of publishing a blasphemous libel, being laid against John Glover, the manager and publisher of the Maoriland Worker. Glover had been secretary of the "Red" Federation of Labour, secretary-treasurer of the Labour Party and a Wellington City councillor.
It didn't seem to matter that the poem had been published elsewhere and reviewed positively.
The charge, which could put a convicted blasphemer in jail for a year, could only be laid with the approval of the Reform Party Government's Attorney-General, Sir Francis Bell.
Sir Francis Bell was the Reform Party Government's Attorney-General in 1922. Photo / Alexander Turnbull Library
It remains New Zealand's only prosecution for blasphemous libel since the law against it was introduced in 1893.
The indictment arose from the paper's publication of the poem Stand To: Good Friday Morn, by British soldier and war poet Siegfried Sassoon.
It was the last three lines that were judged offensive by Tongue and Bell: "O Jesus, send me a wound to-day, And I'll believe in Your bread and wine, And get my bloody old sins washed white!"
The act didn't define blasphemy, but according to a Truth report of the lower court hearing, the Crown prosecutor relied on a London law text which described it as: "Any contemptuous reviling or ludicrous matter relating to God, Jesus Christ, or the Bible, or the fomularies of the Church of England … "
English law on blasphemy, however, was said at the Supreme Court trial in Wellington not to apply in New Zealand.
The Crown argued in the higher court the poem's offending lines reviled Christ in regard to holy communion.
Defence lawyer Sir John Findlay said blasphemy might be defined as a wilful intent to injure the feelings of the community, whereas the poem was reverent although realistic in tone, a picture of a soldier's sufferings.
He noted the imprisonment for blasphemy, under the Indecent Publications Act, of a man who in Carterton had declared loudly: "Who is Jesus Christ? He is only a [censored]!"
Findlay argued for tolerance and said the case was a test of New Zealand's internationally high degree of individual liberty.
Justice Hosking said: "The question is whether the poem passes the bounds of decency. Because it is the language used in the trenches it does not follow that it can be printed. The most filthy and abominable language may have been used in the trenches. Certain decencies of expression must be observed."
He said the jury needn't worry about the exact meaning of "bloody", the word Truth later described as "the great Australian adjective". Nor, said the judge, was it necessary to know whether it came from the words "By Our Lady" or from the young bloods of the reign of George I.
The jury found Glover not guilty. But they added that publication of such books as Sassoon's should be discouraged.
Victoria University lecturer Dr Geoff Troughton wrote in the Australian Journal of Labour History that the case "should be viewed in the light of post-war efforts to protect social order and suppress dissent.
"In essence, the charge was a pragmatic alternative to that of sedition."
British war poet Siegfried Sassoon's poem was judged blasphemous libel by a New Zealand policeman and then Attorney-General Francis Bell.
Stand to: Good Friday Morn, by Siegfried Sassoon
I'd been on duty from two till four. I went and stared at the dug-out door. Down in the frowst I heard them snore. "Stand to!" Somebody grunted and swore. Dawn was misty; the skies were still; Larks were singing, discordant, shrill; They seemed happy; but I felt ill. Deep in water I splashed my way Up the trench to our bogged front line. Rain had fallen the whole damned night. O Jesus, send me a wound to-day, And I'll believe in Your bread and wine, And get my bloody old sins washed white!
