William Jolliffe

Who was William Jolliffe?

William Jolliffe the son of William Peter Jolliffe and Harriett Penny. He qualified as a barrister and practised in London, Newcastle upon Tyne and North Shields. On his father's death in 1887, he moved to Australia, and then to New Zealand in 1896. He married 20 year old Nellie Young in Lower Hutt on 6 November 1902. They had two daughters and a son.

After drafting the Cinematograph-film Censorship Act 1916, Jolliffe was appointed Censor of Cinematograph Films on 16 September 1916, at the age of 65. The Act provided that no film could by exhibited to the public until it had been passed by the censor. The Act also provided that no film could be approved which "in the opinion of the censor, depicts any matter that is against public order and decency, or the exhibition of which for any other reason is, in the opinion of the censor, undesirable in the public interest". Distributors were given the right to appeal the censor's rejection of a film, but no one could appeal the approval of a film until 1934.

In Jolliffe's first full year he reviewed 2,825 films totalling over 1,400 hours, refused to approve 43 and required cuts to 279. There was only one appeal against his decision, and it was dismissed. The revenue generated by the examination fees for this number of films meant that Jolliffe could afford to hire an assistant, James McDonald, in August 1918.