Officials prepare for big task of March 4 census

Press, 18 February 1986, Page 2

Officials prepare for big task of March 4 census

If you see people with blue, plastic satchels lurking near Christchurch letterboxes from Saturday onwards, do not worry. They will be census officials delivering this year’s census forms. Lurking round letterboxes is one way officials can tell how many flats old houses have been divided into. This is essential, as census forms must be hand-delivered to a person in every dwelling in New Zealand. The census is taken every five years, and forms to account for every. man, woman and child must be filled out on March 4. Another form about housing must be filled out by one person in each dwelling at the same time.

The forms ask questions about people’s race, marital status, offspring, religion, qualifications, work, Income, housing, and the number of vehicles each household has. This information is used by the Statistics Department to plan for the future. Census figures help indicate things such as the number of schools and hospitals needed and how many carpenters and doctors need training to meet each community’s requirements. This year’s census will be taken by the Statistics Department, rather than the Post Office, which no longer has the resources to manage it, says the department’s regional controller for Christchurch, Mr Doug Smith. The department has hired about 5000 extra staff to take the census. Most of these people are enumerators, who will distribute and collect the census questionnaires. All have attended training courses.

Census forms for each person in every household should be delivered before March 4, Mr Smith said. A census official would knock at the door and introduce himself or herself and ask how many people would be in the

house overnight on March 4 and give the person enough forms. The official would also arrange a time to collect the forms again. "Officials may have to make several visits to a house before they can catch someone at home to give them the forms, and several more to collect them,” Mr Smith said. If people had not got forms by March 4 they could get them from post offices.

“If the officials just can’t catch up with you to pick the forms up they will leave an envelope you can post them back in,” he said. “The point is, this is confidential information and we don’t want it lying around for anyone to pick up and read.” ’ ; Officials . would have badges identifying them as census enumerators, which they were required to wear.

People who might have problems during the census were those on holiday in camper vans, Mr Smith said. “There are thousands of camper vans travelling all round the place, and catching up with all of them might be awkward.”

Census officials would call at camping grounds for several weeks after census night to make sure camper-van holidaymakers had access to forms.

Interpreters would also be available for foreign tourists who did not speak English and who needed help.

A census booth would be an unusual addition to the Dire Straits concert at Athletic Park, Wellington. About 40,000 people were expected to be at the concert on census night. Other census forms would be collected by boat and by officials using horses to get to remote areas.

This year’s census was simpler than the one used in 1981, Mr Smith said. Most questions could be answered by ticking a box.

“Last time people had

terrible problems with the ethnic- origin question, trying to work out what percentage of them was which race. This year there is a list of races and you tick which ones apply to you, or write in your origin if it is not on the list. There won’t be any fractions.”

If all else failed, people should follow the instructions given with the questionnaires.

The department began working out the form that census questionnaires would take about two years before the census. It called for submissions on the type of questions people want asked and then decided the best wording to use. “Often people make some unusual requests tor questions to be included,” Mr Smith said. “One this year wanted to know how many people wore dentures.”

That question had not been included.

Questions about the amount people smoked had also been dropped. “When we included these, there was always a discrepancy of about 28 per cent between the number of cigarettes people admitted smoking and the number actually sold. People have a tendency to undercut in questions like that.”

People were required under the Statistics Act to fill out the forms. People who refused could be prosecuted. Schoolchildren could fill out their own questionnaires if they wished, although parents or guardians could do this for children aged under 15.

“In the past we have found that children fill out the forms anyway, especially if they have immigrant parents whose written English is not so good,” Mr Smith said. The departipent had provided schools with project material to teach children about the census so that they could fill out their own forms’with confidence.