STATISTICS.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 18456, 10 August 1925, Page 8

STATISTICS.

A VALUABLE AID. ADDRESS BY MR M. FRASER. The Government Statistician, Mr Malcolm Eraser,' delivered an instructive address on the value of statistics at tho annual meeting of the Wellington Employers' Association on Thursday evening. "The business man," said Mr Eraser, "is learning mare and more the value of statistics in his (business, and has come to realise that accountancy is only a part, important, but not necessarily the most vital part, of the statistics which guide his organisation and undertakings. The gigantic apparatus of tho modern and complex ytate must be controlled by something more than mere guesswork and blind groping. Stress is £ow coming to be placed upon the efficiency of its system of accounting. The facts . relating to its territory, its population, its social and economio conditions, its government machinery, its resources, ita production, its transport and tion, its commerce and its finance, must be known as exactly and as fully as its balance-sheet of revenue and expenditure. Statistics are, if anything, more essential in times of difficulty and depiession than in days of easier conditions. Prosperity may come by good luck, but prosperity can more certainly lw attained by wise administration in the light of sure and accurate information. Statistics, moreover, provide not only a standard by which to measure present attainment, but sign-posta indicating the danger points and the roads to safety and advance.

• " . ' :Big t ßu£fleSsl, ~- . , ' To-day no big business was- successfully run without its statistics: of a more or less complete or incomplete character. The operations of the big business enterprises of to-day had increased enormously in complexity and detail. The modern executive head of a large business was a man freed from detail, concentrating on the formulation of plans and policies based on adequate d:)ta, and he could keep in touch with his business satisfactorily only through tho maintenance of an adequate system of statistical records. The more-exist-ence of statistical recoids was in itself however, inadequate for the getting of good results. Many people, including; highly successful business men, had a tireta of figures, and there were very few who could from columns of figures comprehend more than ono or two directly relating factors at an examination. The great general attention paid to the matter in recent years had, however, brought to our aid the graphical presentation of statistics.

Value of- Graphs. In tabulation of figures, he proceeded, the power of visualisation was only partly irealised. Relations did not stand out. Diagrams nd graphs rendered a mass of figures clear and comprehensible at a glance. Graphs made a quick and lasting impression on the reader To most pensons figures were vety uninteresting reading, and the graphic method, iby an instantaneous visual impression of the salient facts and relations, relieved the tediousness of numerical discussion, made comparisons self-evident, and enabled relations between facts to be recognised which otherwise would not be perceived. Broadly speaking, remarked Mr Fraser, it is true that the prophepy which is based on a statistical study of the past is in perhaps 99 per cent, of cases nearer the mark tihan the more or less blind hazard. The successful business man is the one whose estimate of the future most closely approaches accuracy." Mr Fraser concluded by showing a number of graphs, including the Harvard Economics Service graph, showing the rise and fall in prices due to various causes. A vote of thanks to Mr Fraser for his address was carried by acclamation.