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2 unusual facts about Arthur Rylah


Arthur Rylah

He was also responsible for prohibiting performances of the play The Boys in the Band (which he condemned as obscene) and for the covering of public statues of Michelangelo's David.

He zealously took on the role of public censor, banning everything from James Joyce's Ulysses to Rudyard Kipling's Barrack-Room Ballads ("No, I haven't read it, but with a title like that it must be dirty").


Henry Winneke

This included advising the then Victorian Premier Sir Henry Bolte and Chief Secretary Sir Arthur Rylah that they might be guilty of intentional unlawful homicide, or murder, if the Government hanged a convicted murderer named Robert Peter Tait notwithstanding a temporary stay on his execution granted by the High Court of Australia (see Tait v R (1962) 108 CLR 620).


see also