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carried out for the night of Tuesday, 20th April, 1926. This is the first occasion since 1871 on which the census has been taken other than on a Sunday night. Other important innovations on this occasion were —(1) the enumeration of the Maori population of the North Island by the same organization as the European population and, wherever possible, on the European schedule ; (2) the division of the Householder's Schedule into two forms—the Dwelling Schedule and the Family Schedule ; (3) the enumeration of all persons other than actual members of the family on Personal Schedules ; and (4) the inclusion of questions relating to income categories and to working-days lost during the last twelve months from sickness, accident, and lack of employment. Of the seventeen volumes of census statistics which it is intended to publish, four have so far appeared. These four, however, are distinct from the remainder in that they are capable of direct compilation from schedules and returns without resource to machine operations, in preparation for which a huge amount of coding-work requires to be done. The work of coding is now nearing completion, and the machine-work will soon be commenced. It will, however, be some considerable time before the remaining volumes are available. Building Statistics. —In spite of the volume of work occasioned by the census, it has been found possible to extend the activities of the Office in various directions. An important addition to the list of statistical investigations is represented by the inauguration during the year of an annual collection of returns from builders giving particulars of buildings constructed and of capital and labour employed, and wages paid, in the building industry. The tabulation of the statistics for the initial year of collection is fairly well advanced. Accident Insurance. —For many years past a table has annually been published by the Census and Statistics Office giving certain principal items of revenue and expenditure of companies engaged in the business of accident insurance. These figures have been taken from the annual returns of the various companies, which are required to be furnished under the Accident Insurance Act. They were, however, deficient in that they were not accompanied by statistics of assets and liabilities, nor did they distinguish between workers' compensation insurance and other forms of accident insurance. These deficiencies have at last been remedied, returns giving the necessary particulars being now obtained under regulations made under the Census and Statistics Act in 1926. Rabbit and Fire Boards.—Hitherto the statistics of local bodies collected and tabulated by the Census and Statistics Office have not covered two classes of local authorities —viz., Fire Boards and Rabbit Boards. By regulations made during the year the statistics of local bodies have now been extended to include these two classes. Hospital Statistics. —The statistics of patients treated in the public hospitals of the Dominion have been substantially improved during the year by the tabulation of information as to operations performed, in conjunction with the disease, &c., from which the patient was suffering. This branch of work was undertaken at the suggestion of the Department of Health, and the figures will throw useful light on a matter which is frequently a subject of much discussion and concern. Divorce Statistics. —Through the co-operation of the Justice Department, the Census and Statistics Office has been enabled to add to its statistics of divorce a useful series of tables relating to the age of the wife, and the relative ages of husband and wife at marriage and at time of filing petition in divorce. The statistics for the year 1926, which were recently published, plainly showed the influence which youthful marriages have on the divorce rate. Butter and Cheese Exports. —The Dairy-produce Export Control Amendment Act, 1926, places on the Government Statistician the duty of certifying as to the quantity of butter and cheese, the manufacture of each dairy company in the ward or wards in which an election is being held, that has been exported during the twelve months ended the 31st March preceding the date of the election. To enable the certificate to be given in conformity with these requirements, arrangements have been made for the necessary particulars to be supplied to and recorded in the Census and Statistics Office. Advantage has been taken of the opportunity to compile and publish monthly statements of exports of butter and cheese according to district of production, and the material collected thus serves a useful double purpose. Wholesale Prices.—During the year the list of commodities the prices of which were utilized in the computation of the index number of wholesale prices was overhauled and revised to bring it into line with present-day standards of consumption. At the same time the number of groups for which separate index numbers are compiled was considerably extended, an entirely new set of groups and subgroups being devised, classified according to the nature and source of the commodities. A second and separate classification was also made according to whether the commodities were consumers' goods (divided into foodstuffs and non-foodstuffs) or producers' materials (for the farming industry, for building and construction, or for other purposes). In addition a separate index of wholesale price of imported items included in the general index number was instituted. Wages. —A defect of the system of compiling wages index numbers in the past has been that, while the various industrial groups have been weighted according to the numbers comprising the respective groups, no weighting has been employed as between the individual occupations taken count of within the groups. This defect is being remedied in the compilation of a new series of index numbers of wages, now in hand. In the new scheme separate general index numbers are being prepared for male and for female workers. This is very desirable, partly to enable the relative movement in wages as between the two sexes to be seen, and partly because the index number of male workers' wage-rates gives for some purposes a better indication of the movement in wage-rates than does one covering the two sexes in conjunction.

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