TAKING THE CENSUS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22832, 17 March 1936, Page 2

TAKING THE CENSUS

NO ONE TO BE OVERLOOKED HUGE TASK INVOLVED RETURNS STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL That the Government should embark upon the huge task that is involved in the taking of a census and be prepared to meet the heavy cost of the organisation which is entailed is an indication of the importance with which the information to be obtained is regarded. The census which is to be taken on Tuesday night next will be the culmination of preparations which have been in progress for many months, and even then there will remain the equally heavy task of collecting the returns and tabulating the particulars contained in the forms. The nature of the schedules shows that the purpose of the census is mainly to secure particulars of population and the circumstances of the people of the Dominion, but, while the law requires that the individual should furnish information which he might not wish to disclose under ordinary circumstances, his identity ceases to be of importance when the Census Office begins the preparation, of statistics. Census officials stress the secrecy of the census, pointing out that the preparations have been made in a manner which ensures that no information which is supplied should become public or should be used for any purpose other than those for which the census is to be taken. CENSUS ORGANISATION The whole object of the census would be defeated were it not organised in a manner which ensured the least possible inaccuracy in the final results. Thus the large staff which has been engaged for the distribution and collection of schedules is charged with the responsibility of seeing that no person is overlooked. For the successful accomplishment of this task the Dominion has been divided Into 82 districts with an enumerator in charge of each, and he has his staff of sub-enumerators. The districts are clearly defined by maps, some hundreds of which have been prepared by the Lands and Survey Department, and within its specified boundaries the staff works, each man being assigned a block in every home in which he must leave a schedule. % Dunedin and the Taieri County comprise one of the census districts in which 39 men, drawn from the ranks of the returned soldiers and the unemployed, form the staff. Each man has a section in which he can deliver his schedules in four or five days. These men will personally leave at residences a total of 37,000 householders’ schedules 1800 householders’ covering schedules for hotels and boarding houses, and 25,000 personal scbcdulcs. All these are numbered according to district and block, and each has its individual number. The sub-enumerator must overlook no habitation in his district, no matter how long or arduous the journey involved may be. If he should be aware of the existence of a mining camp in an isolated spot he must visit it and deliver a schedule to the occupants, even if a day’s journey should be required. Even the “ swagger,” should he be traced by an officer, will receive a schedule. One of the sub-enumerators now in the Dunedin district had an experience on the occasion of a previous census which illustrates the care that is taken to ensure that no person is overlooked. In the course of his rounds he noticed a house which appeared to be unoccupied, but he nevertheless left a schedule in a place where it was not likely to be overlooked by anyone who might enter. On his return on the morning following the census he found a man of unkempt appearance cooking potatoes on the stove. The request for a completed schedule so angered the temporary occupant of the house that he threatened the official with a knife. An offer of half a crown had a calming effect, however, and the sub-enumerator left with the particulars which he required. The sub-enumerators will personally call at homes to collect the completed schedules, and, if the householder should not be present, the official will leave an envelope addressed to a specified post office. All the responsibility, however, does not rest upon the sub-enumerator, for the law provides for a penalty of £SO for failure to furnish a return. One of the measures that will be taken to ensure that everyone fulfils his public duty on census night' will be the distribution of schedules among those who will be on trains or at sea. No opportunity of tracing these people will be lost, and persons who book seats on the express trains for Tuesday next with the intention of crossing to Wellington will be provided at the railway booking office with personal schedules. SECRECY ENSURED Officials are anxious to allay the fears apparently widely entertained that confidential information may be disclosed, and it is emphasised that the answers made to the questions are to be used solely for statistical purposes and that no individual information will be supplied to any other State department. A penalty of £SO is provided for wrongful disclosure of information, and subenumerators are sworn to secrecy. In private families the householders’ schedule is provided, but, should people in boarding houses, hotels, and institutions desire that they should not be included in a householders’ schedule, they may obtain a personal schedule and make certain of its privacy by placing it in an envelope marked according to instructions. The distribution of the schedules is to be completed by noon on Tuesday next, and any householder who has not received a form by that time should communicate with the local Census Office.