Census Inquiries

Timaru Herald, Volume CLVIII, Issue 23260, 23 July 1945, Page 4

Census Inquiries

JHE promised census is to be taken on September 25. This will give the Government ample time Io ■‘adjust” the electoral boundaries before the General Election next year. The Government would lose no caste if it confessed straightforwardly that this is the reason why a census is being taken this year instead of next, for 1916 would complete the decade since the last census and for statistical purposes it is belter to run in five-year periods or decades. However, no announcement is required on this point; anybody with wit enough to distinguish a kitten from an elephant knows why the census is being taken in 1*91.5. The Minister in Charge of Census and Statistics, the Hon. Walter Nash, has announced details of new information being sought in the coming census. While it is true that people are not being asked how they propose to vote in the next election, they are going to be asked a number of interesting questions which are

bound to bring in some fairly diverting answers. A new item, for example, is travelling time between home and place of business. J hat will give some latitude lor the humorist, but perhaps not quite so much as if the compiler were asked to state truthfully his travelling time between place ol business mid home. There are also to be questions on running water, bathroom-, etc. Possibly the Government would like to be able Io establish helot the world that New Zealand’s bathrooms have been increased l>v such-and-such a percentage since the Labour Government came into ollie.■ The truth is that there will be a clutter of questioning designed to provide information described a--“essential to assisl in planning lor successful reconstruction, which must be a vital feature of our postwar economy.’ I here ate tv.o obvious points coining to mind. The first is that it will lake years to collate this information mid its valtm will have largely disappeared In

die lime, it is accessible. Ihe second is ihal there can be no mormons problem of post-war “recon..|riieli'»n“ in V w Zealand. \o’liim_' material in the ronnlry has been dost ro\ cd (hirin’* the war. Ihe I act i< lli.il war eondilioi!-' h.i\c made ||h I himinion mm e pre < i mi- than il has ever been. I here is no need Io magnify problems, or Io create. a< a political pastime, problems whi'h do not exist.