NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 10048, 7 February 1896, Page 4

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

The census of New Zealand will bo taken for -ho nighb of Sunday, the 12th April, The colony has been divided into thirty* three enumerators' districts, each consisting of a group of contiguous counties with their interior boroughs. The enumerators have divided their districts into subdistricts, for each of which a sub-enume-rator has been or is to bo selected to distribute and collect the household schedules. There will bo aboub 75(1 sub-enumerators altogether. Each subenumerator will bo provided with a map of his district, coloured to show all existing territorial divisions, such as electoral districts, counties, ridings, road and town districts, besides boroughs; and the populations of all these will be ascertained. The areas of the sub-enumerators' districts will also bo marked off on the maps into small blocks, and the population of these given by the sub-enumerators, for the purpose of defining new electoral districts for the apportionment of the European representation of the people in Parliament. The particulars required by the Act respecting the people include — name, sex, ago, married or single, birthplace, religion, occupation, education, whether British subject or alien, if suffering from sickness, accident, or infirmity, The dwellings are also to be described in respect of rooms and material. The form of tho household schedule was agreed to at the Conference of Australasian statisticians held at Hobart in 1890. Besides tho information as to the population, special returns will be collected relating to all industries, manufactories, or works in tho colony, giving particulars as to hands and power employed, value of materials operated on, produce or manufacture, value of land and buildings, machinery, and plant. Further, returns of places of worship, land and building societies, literary and scientific institutions, etc., will also be collected by enumerators from information supplied by sub-enumerators.

Tlio census is tho only means of ascertaining correctly the distribution of the people throughout tho country, and for this reason is essential to the work of dividing the colony anew into electorates of even population. The internal movement of tha people cannot bo ascertained correctly except by a census, though when a country is insular the natural increase (excess of births' over deaths), added to the excess of arrivals over departures, gives a fairly correct estimate of increase of population for the whole area. For actuarial purposes connected with life assurance, information such as the number of persons married, unmarried, and widowed, arranged in groups of age periods, is needed. The numbers (in sexes) of persons under and over 21 yoars of age are required for multifarious pur. poses outside electoral matters. The num< ber of persons following various occupations are constantly required. The industrial returns test progress in regard to what is made in the colony, and without this knowledge the cause of a rise or fall in the quantity of goods imported cannot) ba properly investigated, or the purchasing-' power of tho people estimated. It is needless to mention the value of tho Census in giving the true population of all tha territorial divisions of the country, such as road district's, localities, etc., or it) general uso for purposes of comparisons. Preliminary statements of tho population in counties, boroughs, and' electorates, stating roughly the results, will be made up by the local enumerators, bub the full compilation will be done in the Registrar* General's Oilico, at Wellington. When the exact number of the people in every division in the colony has been fixed, a certificate of tho same will be given to the commissioners under the Representation Aot, with thi. particulars for each of the vast number of small blocks of territory bofore referred to,' so that the now electorates may bo defined on a population basis. The information al

to ago, whether married or single, religion, birthplace, occupation, etc., will be dealt witb afterwards in the second compilation, which is done by what is known as tho "card system." A printed card is marked to indicate the particulars for each person given in the census. The cards are afterwards sorted according to tho information required and the combinations to be effected^ the results being then brought out otf sheets. / The American Ambassador, Mr. T./■ Bayard, whoso speech at Edinburgh o " wards the close of last year in condenm/on of protection has aroused the violent nation of a largo section of the Au/' can House of Representatives, has boonF two years United States Ambassador in pndon. • He went to England as the first A.nfysai or ( from his country, Lowell, Phelpsi-ineoln, and the others having been Minims. Mr. ■ Bayard is 68 years of age. He if lawyer 1 by profession. During tho Cm War he , adhered to tho Democratic parti although , ho was not a partisan of the auth. He j was twice elected to tho Sena a and while there served on the jujeiary and | other committees, his legal knowledge | proving of great sorviee. leveral times j he was nominated at Doiocratic con- j ventions for tho President but) tho ( claims of stronger men pi vailed, and j be was never adopted by tho party. < When Mr. Cleveland was elected in i 1885, Mr. Bayard was appoited Secretary of State, and ho held that offico throughout tho administratis. During the last Republican admini' ration Mr. j Bayard lived in oomparativ seclusion. j When Mr. Cleveland returnee to office in i 1593 Mr. Bayard received pis present <

appointment, which, in the ophion of those not influenced by party consflerations, be has worthily filled. !

In his Edinburgh address/Mr. Bayard dealt with great frankness will the eagerness of the Protectionist arty in tho United States, which he described as disguised Socialism. This ) the passage which has given so much mirage to that) party:—"ln his own coutry ho had witnessed the insatiable gowth of that form of State Socialism style! ' protection,' which he believed had done Jioro to foster class legislation and croatl inequality of ortune, to corrupt public ife, to banish men of independent mini/ and character from the public councis, (4 lower the tone of national represenfotian, blunt public conscience, create fa?o standards in tho popular mind, to famiiarise it with reliance upon State aid anil g ardianship in private affairs, divorce ethia from politics, and place politics upon tho low level of a mercenary scramble, than any other single cause." All this is m doubt true enough, but it must be admited that Mr. Bayard was guilty of a serious indiscretion in saying it publicly vhilo the accredited imbassador of his courtry.

In his very interesting accounb of tho Smithtield Cattle Show, which we published yesterday, our English agricultural correspondent dwelt upon tho fact that notwithstanding tho severe agricultural depression existing in England the show was the largest ever held. But in one respect at least, these great cattle shows, which have been held annaaliy for close upon acentury, manifest a marked change according to a writer in tho St. James's Budget. In the dear old days, he says, when it took three weeks for news from London to filter down to the lurking places of Cornwall, the cattle show was tho recognised signal for each village Ulysses to pack up his bucolic wraps and trust himself to Providence and a shaky coach for his annual visit to town. And in those days, if we aay trust the comedies of fifty years ago, tha countryman was a strange creature. He wore wideawake hats and resplendent waistcoats; he was the dupe of every innkeeper, the butt of every tavern so corviuced of the general rascality of Jjondmers that he carried his belongings with him wherever bo went, and yet as gimpo and credulous as Sir Roger de Covtrley. But such delightful boings, if the; ever existed, have gone—vanished with the three-deckers and the prim gardens of our forefathers. Or if they have not quite gone, tbey have lost all their more obvious ckaracteristics. EvoKion and free trade aid the railways have played thedeuco with tie British farmer. He has picked up the Jxrodon fashions, and he knows the way to Leicester - square. Of course, in Cattle Show week you always meet a certain number of people who ask you the way to Tra-falgar-square and Madame Tussaud's, and so far one gets a whiff of the country air; but the old farmer of romance, with his gaucheries and solecisms, lives no more—or at the best he is accompanied to the Cattle Show by strong-minded daughters with determined chins, who, having stayed once with an aunt at Clapham, know how to restrain their father's little follies.

Our news from Europe to-day is of a less warlike character. The German Navy Bill has been withdrawn in deference to the wish of the Chancellor. An incident, the significance of which cannot at present be estimated, has led to the French naval attache at Berlin being recalled. The Times believes that the troubles in the Transvaal will be satisfactorily settled if the Uitlanders only trust Mr. Chamberlain. It also hints at the necessity 'A England obtaining possession of Delagoa Bay. Appalling distress prevails in ?omo parts of Armenia. An American proposal for the joint-ion of the Turkish question, is to abolish the Sultan and set up a Republic with a Christian as president. Marshal Campos has arrived in Madrid. The populace hooted him.