THE CENSUS

Evening Post, Volume CI, Issue 91, 18 April 1921, Page 8

THE CENSUS

A PROMPT FIRST COUNT

The British system of Census taking is different from that of America, which offers a reasonable basis of comparison because the United States Census is of a very high standard. In America, the registering of the personal details is all done by officials who go from house to house. This method reduces the probability of mistakes in a population which includes a very large foreign element and many illiterates; but it adds greatly the expense. The British system requires each householder to fill the schedules. Everyone who last night wrote in the details of his household was a member of an army of about a quarter of a million unpaid officials vested temporarily with some authority and a real responsibility; and each such service represented several pence saved to the State as compared with the alternative method. * -

The collection of the schedules is in progress to-day, and simultaneously has begun the first oount of the population. It has already ; been explained in The Post that the extraction of the exact census statistics is to be done by maohine; but no return by this means is possible till the formidable task of punching all the record cards has been, completed. There is no need to wait for that to obtain a count of the population. Each sub-enumerator is responsible for the schedules of a certain area, and as he collects them he will make a return of the number of people registered. These returns will be collected, and the necessary, additions made to obtain the population of towns, boroughs, districts, and so on, and in a few weeks the population of the Dominion will be known. This system has usually been followed, and it is found to be quite reliable. The result will be used for official purposes till the machine count is available.

Contrary to a very general impression which illustrates the commonness of bad memory, t?ie war did not prevent the taking of the Census in 1916. They population then revealed, as on 15th October, was 1,099,044, made up of North Island 639,768, South Island 447,173, ships and trains, etc. 12,103. In 1911 the figures were: Total population 1,008,463 (North I Island 560,540, South Island 442,930, ships and trains, 5008. In 1916 there were 551,913 males and 547,131 females. The report of the 1916 Census was issued in 1920,, having been delayed by the exigencies of the wax.

The estimated population at the end of last year, derived from the previous Census, the registered births anideaths, and the statistics of migration, wi's 1,194,832. comprising 604,753 males and 590,079 females.