CENSUS COLLECTION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22831, 16 March 1936, Page 7

CENSUS COLLECTION

ROLE OF THE POST OFFICE i « A BIG TASK New Zealand’s large postal staff, with its intimate knowledge of the streets and the dwelling places of the Dominion, will play an importnat part in the census to be taken on the night of March 24. It is the task of the Post Office to distribute the census schedules to every householder by means of a carefully devised system ■which provides for entry in a field-book of the destination of every form, and (he final writing in of the fact that the completed form has been handed to the subenumerator for despatch to the Government Statistician, Wellingtori, It is anticipated that six days will be needed for delivery of the census schedules to householders. Some of them may not get the form until the "afternoon of census night. The Dominion has been divided into 82 census districts, each with a postmaster as enumerator, with the duty of dividing his district into workable areas, each of which can be covered by one sub-enumer-ator who will deliver and ultimately collect the census schedules. Every part of the Dominion where people live is to be subject to simultaneous enumeration on the night of March 24. Points will arise rega’ding the method of answering the 17 questions in the schedule, and subenumerators will be found ready to assist householders in that respect. They are, in fact, responsible to their directing officer for complete and accurate answers. As there are some questions which many individuals would like to regard as purely their own affair, the importance of securing this class of information in the national interest should be pointed out. What is needed by the Government Statistician is information regarding groups and classes, not particular individuals, although individuals have to be approached to make possible the collection of statistics which in their public use become absolutely impersonal. The handling of schedules by employees under the control of the Post Office should give reassurance on :hie point, for secrecy in respect to (heir work is so much ingrained into the minds of postal employees that reticence becomes instinctive, and there is the further assurance of the Government Statistician to be found on the census schedule: “All answers given will be treated as strictly confidential. Thcyjwill be used solely for statistical purposes, and no individual information will be given to any other State department or to any person or body.”