TAKING OF N.Z. CENSUS

Press, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 26399, 18 April 1951, Page 9

TAKING OF N.Z. CENSUS

SCHEDULES NOW TO BE COLLECTED

TASK TO BEGIN THIS AFTERNOON (Nsw Zealand Pres* Association) WELLINGTON, April 17. The sub-enumerators, whose task Of delivering schedules for to-night's census is now ended, will begin collecting the schedules to-morrow afternoon. They will take up to about Id* days to complete the collection in towns, and longer in country areas. The Department of Census and Statistics expects to have a preliminary population figure for the main islands of New Zealand ready in about six weeks.

The sub-enumerators, according to census officials, include for the first time a large number of Women—nearly 300—compared with a handful on former occasions. They have proved equal to the work, which Calls in some instances for long hours, great tact, and equanimity, and much walking and climbing. Not all deliveries of forms have passed off without incident or tragedy. A sub-enumerator In Nelson dropped dead as he was talking to a householder. Others have caught bad chills, and substitutes have had to be found for them.

One sub-enumerator resigned When he found his task too arduous. Another man had a door slammed so hard behind him that the glass splintered, and he was thun blamed for the breakage by the housewife. All conceivable possibilities have to be covered by the department Maternity wards throughout the Dominion had spare Schedules on hand to-night, and Main Trunk trains carried special census officials.