Manawatu Evening Standard. MONDAY, APRIL 12, 1926. THE CENSUS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLVI, Issue 112, 12 April 1926, Page 6

Manawatu Evening Standard. MONDAY, APRIL 12, 1926. THE CENSUS.

This year’s census papers partake largely of the nature of a wealth census in that information is demanded concerning- the income and financial standing of every member of the community. The questions the householder is required to answer are of a more inquisitorial character than usual, and objection may possibly be taken by a good many people to the demands made upon them in that direction. The Census Office is, however, binding itself to regard the information supplied as strictly confidential, and the promise is made that it will only be made use of for the purpose for which it is being obtained—that is to enable the Government, in pursuance of its avowed policy of helping- the family man of limited income, to estimate the probable cost of the family benefit scheme which Mr Coates, in his election manifesto, promised to introduce for the relief of family men whose incomes were insufficient to enable.them to live under decent housing conditions, the Prime Minister’s object being to extend the influence of that home life which, in some places, is fast disappearing- under the demoralising conditions of life in tenement houses, where the only playgrounds open to the children are the streets and they are subject to all sorts of pernicious influences, this being especially time of crowded areas in which some family men are compelled to live. Mr Coates’s idea is that every family man who wants to live under decent conditions should be enqbled to do so. The Government has done much with its housing policy in improving the condition of things, but it is felt that something further is required and the facts, which will be gathered from the answers to the additional questions finding a place on the census paper, will enable the Government to ascertain, first the needs of the situation and next the extent of the liability any scheme of relief would entail. The object is not to help the improvident and unthrifty class, but to help the man who endeavours to help himself and is a peaceful, law-abiding and otherwise well disposed citizen, but whose restricted means compel him to live in a fiat of two or three rooms, or in some undesirable neighbourhood where it is possible to rent rooms or a cottage under unwholesome and insanitary conditions. So far as the smaller wage-earning classes are concerned, we do not imagine there will be any reluctance in answering the questions, but we are decidedly of the opinion that the information required might have been obtained in another way by limiting the necessity for answering questions to those in receipt of less than say £3OO per annum. AP ar t from this aspect of the census, important changes

are likely to occur in the political representation of the country as the result of the redistribution of the electoral boundaries, which is almost certain to add to the number of the North Island seats, with a consequent reduction of those in the South Island. additional data the census provides will also prove very helpful as a national stocktaking.