BIG TASK

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20259, 29 May 1940, Page 9

BIG TASK

SECURITY REGISTER CODING THE DETAILS Nearly one million social security registration forms should be received by May 31 and, as may be imagined, dealing with this mass of material is a task of considerable magnitude. Each form requires to be examined, indexed, “coded” and the particulars from it recorded by means of holes punched in a machine card. The “coding” consists of transforming all information —other than that which is already of a numerical nature —into figures by means of “codes” which have been prepared for the purpose. The necessity for such a procedure will be realised when it is seated that the industry code provides for over 500, and the occupations code for nearly 1000 separate and distinct possibilities, and will thus together occupy six columns of the 45-column card. To print or write the name of each industry and occupation obviously would take up too much space on the card, besides being useless for machine sorting. These machine cards will constitute the social security register and in this form they will have entirely lost their identity. A skilled operator could read from a card that it represented, say, a British-born married tinsmith, aged 38, working for wages in a meat preserving works, residing in the Wellington registration district and having three children under 16 years of age and one other relative dependent on him, but it would be impossible to discover his name or more precise address. The necessary forms are obtainable on request from ,any post office.