FACTS IN FIGURES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19608, 9 April 1927, Page 8

FACTS IN FIGURES.

LIABLE TO BE MISLEADING.

OTHER DATA NECESSARY.

"There is a big field for statistics, but unless they are used intelligently and in conjunction with other data the conclusions drawn from them are liable to be most misleading," said Mr. E. P. Iseale, in the course of a lecture on "The Use of Statistics in Business," delivered to the Auckland University College Commerce Students' Society.

Mr. Neale said statistics in -which monetary units were used were liable to be particularly misleading. For example, the announcement that New Zealand s exports had grown in value from £13,000,000 in 1900 to £45,000,000 in 1920 had given the impression that there had been a large increase in production. As a matter of fact, however, when the change in the value of money and the increase in population were taken into account, it was found that the actual volume of exports per head of population had fallen 2 per cent, in the 20 years mentioned. Statisticians should not claim too much for their figures, for, whatever their aspirations, absolute accuracy was an ideal which would never be realised, said Mr. Isleale. Moreover, the labour necessary to secure 96 per cent, instead of 95 per cent, of accuracy was out of all proportion to the practical value of the result.

Mr. Neale gave many interesting instances of the use of statistics by commercial firms. In one case a large New York restaurant, by using the calculations of a meteorologist and studying the day of the week in preparing its menus, had effected a large saving, in perishable foodstuffs.