NATIONAL REGISTER

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22630, 23 July 1935, Page 13

NATIONAL REGISTER

AN AFRICAN PROPOSAL THE LIGHTER SIDE. A humble suggestion is presented , by a correspondent for the establishment of a National Register, says the Cape Times. There is no doubt that a register is desirable —Inland Revenue says so. ijThe only objections are the costs of collecting the information and the fear that the particulars obtained may be used by those insolent with office to blackmail the unfortunate. The last is an unworthy fear, and in any event we should learn to live dangerously for preference lest we be forced to live so by the pressure of events and the ignorance of our rulers. The scheme for the financing of a register will turn what lias been thought to be a luxury only fit for the State where exery citizen is a capitalist to a necessity for the poorest. It will pay for itself in the first year and produce dividends sufficient to nurse at least one constituency in perpetuity. A Department of Records should be established forthwith and the forms prepared calling upon each one of us to furnish all such information with regard to ourselves as may be required at any future time by each and every denartment, our creditors or friends. The first essential would be the allotment of a number. This could be fixed by taking the date and the hour of birth —for example, the person born on May 11, 1935, at five hours would automatically receive the number of 19355115. This system of numbering would give a sufficient range, and it would be easy for the individual to remember bis own numbers. The further particulars required could be obtained by each department setting a series of questions to suit its particular idiosyncrasies provided that not

more than one page be used by each, save that the finger-print experts be allowed special license so as to have finger, palm and foot prints recorded.,. On completion of. the form the pages would be divided out amongst the departments concerned, and filed away. The financing of the Department of Records is simple and will please everyone. Each person who chooses to do so would be permitted, upon satisfying the recorder that he had paid his income tax. personal tax, poll tax, municipal rates and private creditors, to conv tribute one pound. One-quarter of this ) would go towards the cost of the Department of Records. One-half towards prizes to be won by lot or otherwise, and the balance to the Society for Providing Our Members with Safe Seats. There may be some who have scruples against entei’ing for a lottery, and several competitions may have to be arranged; one for the gamblers, whereby prizes be

awarded to the first hundred numbers drawn from a barrel, one competition for the scrupulous, and prizes for the hundred forms best filled in (and the decision of the recorder shall be final). If any citizen should not wish to contribute, or perchance be for financial reasons unable to do so, he will be permitted to enter without contribution and shall be eligible for a smaller range of prizes in both competitions. If any person should fall into neither class and merely fail to complete and hand in a form through laziness or incompetence, he would be. ignored and. while retaining his liabilities, be deprived of his civil rights. If, having no civil rights, he still be obdurate he might bo confined, deported or otherwise dealt with as expediency may suggest. The scheme now proposed would save the country many millions, and if sufficient ingenuity be used in framing the questions, would give work to thousands at present unemployed. If Utopia can finance an army by lottery, why should we not finance a Department of Records? No difficulty need arise once the Department of Re-

cords is established and the first return* sent in. When more money be required a lottery could be instituted. Each citizen would be entered in the records upon the registration of his birth, the next entry would be a statement of the success of his vaccination or the failure thereof, and so on through all his days until at death a copy of his record would be supplied to the family and a suitable extract made for the embellishment of his tomb.