MOKGORO J the depravement of the morals of others”,2 may consist in the publication of an “indecent” sketch. 3 In 1905, a Natal court convicted an editor responsible for an “obscene” newspaper report of public indecency. 4 Statutory provisions in each of the colonies prohibited the importation of indecent or obscene publications.5 Measures were also enacted to penalise the transmission of such matter through the mails.6 [7] After Union, the various colonial statutes relating to the importation and posting of indecent or obscene matter were replaced by the Customs Management Act, 9 of 1913. The consolidating and amending Customs Act of 1944 prohibited the importation of any goods “indecent or obscene or on any other ground whatsoever objectionable”; such goods were subject to forfeiture, and any person who knowingly possessed such goods was guilty of an offense.7 Domestically produced “indecent” materials remained subject to various pre-Union statutes, including the Cape Obscene Publications Act, 8 provisions of the Transvaal Criminal Law Amendment Act,9 and the Orange 2 Q v Marais 1886 SC 367, 370 (per De Villiers, C.J.) 3 R v Bungaroo 1904 NLR 28, 29-30 (per Finnemore, A.C.J.) (dicta). 4 R v Hardy 1905 NLR 165. The newspaper published an article describing “immoral practices” between “native” men and “European” women. The court applied a test derived from R v Hicklin [1868] L.R. 3 Q.B. 360, 371 (“whether the tendency of the matter . . . is to deprave and corrupt those whose minds are open to such immoral influences, and into whose hands a publication of this sort may fall.”). The court noted that “[i]t would be impossible to deny that in the works of many writers of ancient times, as well as in those of standard authors of a later period, passages of an extremely indecent and obscene character are to be found, the publication of which in the newspaper press of the present day would be an offense against good morals amounting to public indecency”. Id. 171. 5 E.g., § 14 of the Customs Act 10 of 1872 (C); § 38 of the Customs Consolidation and Shipping Act, 13 of 1899 (N); § 3 of the Customs Management Ordinance, 23 of 1902 (T). 6 E.g., Obscene Publications Act, 31 of 1892 (C) § 7. 7 Act 35 of 1944, §§ 21, 124. 8 Act 31 of 1892 (C). 9 Act 38 of 1909 (T). 4