THE CENSUS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1248, 30 January 1896, Page 35

THE CENSUS.

HOW IT IS TO BE TAKEN. ITS PURPOSE AND USE. The following article from the pen of the Registrar-General (Mr E. J. Von Dadelszen), with reference to the approaching census, has just heen printed, and is to be issued in the form of a leaflet for public information : PRELIMINARY REMARKS. The census of New Zealand will be taken for the night of Sunday, the 12th April. The Colony has been divided into 33 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-enumerator has been or is to be selected to distribute and collect the household schedules. There will be about 750 sub-enumerators altogether. Each subenumerator will be 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 be marked off on the maps into small blocks, and the population of these given by the subenumerators, for the purpose of defining newelectoral 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, age, 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 the household schedule was ' agreed to at the Conference of Australasian > statisticians held at Hobart in 1890. Besides the information as to the population, special returns will be collected relating to all industries, manufactories, or works in the 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, &c, will also bo collected by enumerators from information supplied by sub-enumerators. FORMER PREJUDICES AGAINST CENSUS - TAKING : CO-OPE RATION OF THE PEOPLE EARNESTLY INVITED. POWERS OF SUBENUMERATORS, &C. The proposal to take a census of England in 1753 was opposed as one " subversive of liberty," and having in view " an engine of rapacity and oppression." The chief opponent stated in the House of Commons that " he had not believed any men would have been so presumptuous and abandoned as to make such a proposal." It was said that an account of the number of the people would acquaint our enemies with the weakness- of England. In another quarter it was represented that " the people looked on the proposal as ominous, and feared lest some public misfortune or epidemic disorders should follow the numbering." Now that prejudice is almost entirely removed, the intelligent co-operation of every occupier or person in charge of a dwellinghouse is earnestly desired to help in bringing to a success the census work by carefully filling up the schedule. There is, indeed, a penalty of <£2o for " wilfully refusing or neglecting to fill up, sign and deliver the form, or to answer the necessary inquiries which the enumerators and sub-enumerators are authorised and required to make, or for furnishing false returns or answers, or for obstructing any person in the performance of any duty imposed on him by the Census Act." But it is hoped that proceedings at law will be found unnecessary, or, at any rate, only needed in most exceptional cases. It must, however, be remembered that sub-enumerators have defined powers of demanding the schedules, and of asking questions of occupiers of houses to obtain complete returns. The information given in the schedules will only be used for the compilation of statistical returns. Any person divulging it, or making use of it for another purpose, is liable to a heavy penalty. USES OF THE CENSUS. The census has been called the great • measuring-rod of a country's progress, guiding us in determining growing tendencies, and enabling us to make intelligent provision for checking the evil and fostering the good. "The vital, material and social well-being of a nation depends in a larger degree than is ordinarily realised upon the accuracy of its knowledge concerning the number, character and condition of its people. . . . It is the great object of a census to gather such information as will be of service in throwing light upon the more important social and economic questions of the day." The census is the only means of ascertaining correctly the distribution of the people throughout the country, and for this reason is essential to the work of dividing the Colony anew into electorates of even population. The internal movement of the people cannot be 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 insurance, 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 years of age are required for multifarious purposes outside electoral matters. Tl}e numbers of persons following various occupations are constantly required. 1 he 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 tip quantity of gpods imported cannot be properly investigated, or the purchasing power ot the people estimated. It is needless to mention the value of the census in giving the true population of all the territorial divisionicf the country, such as road districts, localii ties, &c, or its general use for purposes ot j OF THE CENSUS. . \ Preliminary statements of the population in nnunties boroughs and electorates, stating IroShiytheßesults, will be made up by the Plocal enumerators, but the full 1 ™ £ili be dpne in the Eegistrar-General s Ofilce, I number of t*» people j» every division of the Colony has been fixed a of the same will be given to the ££££&»underThe Kepresentagon Act vuxuui particulars for eaoh vasu lumber of S b ooks of territory before re* bo that new electorates may be

or single, religion, birthplace, occupation, &c, will be dealt with afterwards in the second compilation, which is done by what is known as the " 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 the information required and the combinations to be effected, the results being then brought out on sheets.

A card system is now used for all statistics where many and elaborate combinations are wanted. It is the best, because infinite combinations can be made of results ; but the Hollerith electrical machine for punching, sorting and counting the cards, used in the United States of America, has been tested for countries having smaller populations, and reported on as unsuitable. For this reason the cards will be sorted by hand at the coming census of New Zealand.

The Survey Department has been busy for some time past preparing and despatching to the various census sub enumerators throughout the Colony the maps of their allotted districts. The greater proportion of these maps have already been sent out, and the balance will be finished by the end of this week. The districts are made small so as to facilitate the speedy completion of the returns .