THE COMING CENSUS.

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 9 March 1926, Page 9

THE COMING CENSUS.

UNEMPLOYMENT DETAILS, NATURE OF WORK DAYS LOST. In tie 1926 census form the income grade inquiry is not the only new feature that is inspired evidently by a desire to secure data on which to base social and industrial legislation of a beneficial character. There is also an important alteration in the form of the census question relating to unemployment. This alteration aims at differentiating between working days lost through sickness or accident sustained otherwise than in the course of employment. Another section of the question asks for “working days lost through lack of employment not due to 1 strikes or lock-outs in your industry.” The explanatory note accompanying the census papers contains the statement that “The New Zealand Government is investigating the practicability of providing assistance for householders with families.” It is not necessary for anybody to attempt to penetrate any farther the mind of the Government, but it is no doubt a fair deduction to say that the new information asked for concerning incomes and concerning lost working days, as outlined above, is the sort of information that would be useful and, probably, indispensable in formulating a scheme of insurance, whether unemployment insurance or something on an even broader social scale.