STATISTICS

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 34, 8 August 1925, Page 13

STATISTICS

A VALUABLE AID

ADDRESS BY MB. M. FRASER.

The Government Statistician, Mr. Malcolm Fraser, delivered an* instructive address on the value of statistic* at the annual meeting of the Wellington Employers' Association on Thursday evening. ■ • "The business man," laid Mr. Fraser, "is learning more 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 gigantio apparatus of the modern and complex. State must be controlled by somethjng more than mere guesswork and blind groping. Stress is now coming to be placed upon the efficiency of its system of accounting. The- facts relating to its territory, its population, its waal and economics conditions, its government machinery,'its resources, its production, jits transport and communication, it* commerce and it* finance, must be known aa exactly and as fully as ft* bal-ance-sheet of revenue and expenditure. Statistics are, if anything, more essential in times of difficulty and depression than in days of easier conditions. Prosperity may come by good luck, but prosperity, can more certainly be 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-posts indicating the danger points and the roads to safety and advance. Bid BUSINESS. To-day no big, business was successfully run without its statistics of a more or less complete or incomplete characterThe 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 data, and he could keep in touch with" his business satisfactorily only through the maintenance of an adequate system of statistical' records. The mere existence of statistical records was in itself, .however, inadequ^e for the getting of good results. Many people, including' highly successful business men, had a dread of figures, and there were very few who could from columns of figures comprehend more than one 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 GKAPHS. In tabulation of figures, he proceeded, the power of visualisation was only partty realised. Relations did not stand <out. Diagrams and graphs rendered a mass of figures clear and comprehensible at a glance. Graphs made a quick and lasting impression on the reader. _ To most persons figures were very uninteresting. reading, and th« graphic method, by 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 prophecy which is based on a statistical study of the past is in perhaps 99 per cent, of cases nearer the mark than 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. Eraser for his address was carried by acclamation.