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.

In 1917, after church groups objected to D. W. Griffith's film Intolerance being passed without cuts, the Minister of Internal Affairs suggested that Jolliffe adopt and publish a list of prohibited topics.

Jolliffe resisted this suggestion because he believed that it was impossible to formulate guidelines applicable to all films, a view that has become a tradition among New Zealand censors to this day.

Nevertheless, he generally required cuts from films that depicted "the commission of crime in a manner likely to be imitated, especially by the young, or to give information as to methods to persons of a criminal tendency", indecency in dress, irreverent treatment of religious subjects, disloyalty to King and country, and "any matter likely to effect class hatred".

In May 1921 the Minister (probably illegally) directed Jolliffe to ensure that any film in which "thieving, robbery, murder, or suicide is made the feature" was not approved for exhibition.