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Press, 14 May 1981, Page 24

Random reminder

QUESTION TIME

The recent census caused its usual mild controversy, mainly through disputes' between husbands and wives as . to who is the occupier and who the occupier's spouse, and because of marine evasion exercised by the self-styled Wizard'of Christchurch and colleagues, who spent, census night outside territorial waters. .There is always less public but widespread resistance to ■ handing over information even if it is . harmless, a sort of Alf Garnett reluctance to co-operate. Not all census papers were filled in correctly or in the solemn spirit of the exercise. The purpose behind some of the , questions was hard to fathom, other than : an urge among statisticians to assemble : healthy statistics. Somebody will eventually know the number of'outboards in "■ the nation’s garages, but it will still be ;

difficult to work out why. Does any member of the household not more than a quarter Caucasian pick his or her ears with a hairclip? How many domestic pets have chewed a toupee in the previous five years? How many paperback books have been lent to neighbours and never seen again? Some of the questions were scarcely more understandable than those, and, consequently, a small, anarchistic proportion of the fillers-in did not take the survey as seriously as they might have. Even more straightforward questions were sometimes answered with bureau-crat-rattling levity. It has come to the notice of the . Reminder insight probe team that a certain Roman Catholic priest filled in the space marked Sex 'with the information: “Yes, once, in Samoa.' 1 — - -—<