A GUIDE TO STATISTICS

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 84, 9 April 1938, Page 26

A GUIDE TO STATISTICS

When the political tendency is towards planning and regulation of trade and production, it is important that the planners should have a reliable basis of facts upon which to build. The most important source of facts is the official statistical information. But statistics are full of pitfalls to,the uninitiated. Even persons with some experience may be led astray in drawing conclusions from statistical tables with which they are not familiar. Examples of this can be quoted by anyone who follows political discussions, and politicians have usually a reasonable knowledge of the facts with which they are dealing. This being so it is timely that a "Guide to New Zealand Official Statistics" should be available. Such a guide in handy form has been prepared by Dr. E. P. Neale, M.A., LL.B., D.Sc, M.Com. Dr. Neale's qualifications for the task undertaken are exceptional. Apart from his training as an economist and his experience on the staff of the Census and Statistics Department, he has been for over eleven years secretary to the Auckland Chamber of Commerce. He can, therefore, look at statistics from the business man's viewpoint, and show how to extract from them the information needed to assist in the solution of practical problems in commerce and industry. His book is sufficiently complete to be of great value to the student, and yet avoids the technicalites which would detract from its value for the practical man of commerce. It tells where the statistics required are to be found, as well as how they may be used. It is published as No. 2 of the Auckland University College Texts.