The Census.

Press, Volume LVII, Issue 17121, 16 April 1921, Page 8

The Census.

The taking of the census in a country like Now Zealand is a matter of considerable interest, and no little importance, since it is, as lately, described, an analysis of the vital conditions of a young community under conditions, of . progress. . Tho fact that the enumeration of the people of the Doxnraioh takes place' every five years,

instead of every ten years, as in Britain "and America, enables us to measure cur growth at comparatively short intervals. This year it has an added interest, in that within a period of some two months between April and Jnne the whole population of the British Empire will bo numbered for the first time on lines, which will make possible an easy comparison in many respects between conditions in New Zealand and in, 'say, South Africa or Canada. Census-taking, of some kind or another, is nearly, possibly as old as history. It was practised in Egypt and Ckina and Babylon thousands of years before the' Christian era, Moses and David caused censuses to be carried out, and in ancient Rome a quinquennial census was in operation, to some extent in the form in which we now know it. In some of these instances the object was to'ascertain the fighting strength of the in others their wealth and property, for the purpose of taxation. But in spite of the antiquity of the process, it was not until tho latter half of the 17th century that something like a numbering of the people was instituted in one or. two European countries, what is considered to be the earliest of modern censuses I>eing the enumeration of families and' individuals: in France's possessions in what is' now British Canada. This was done every five years from 1665 to 1751. In 1753 an unsuccessful attempt was made to introduce the census into England, a private member introducing in the House of Commons a Bill which provided for an annual count being taken of the people and of all in receipt of parochial relief, or, as we should now say, of charitable aid. The measure provoked a storm of dissent, its opponents declaring that it was "subversive of the last remains "of British liberty," describing it a» "an engine of rapacity and oppres"sion," and declaring that if the pro-, ■posals* were carried into effect they would probably pro,voice "some public " misfortune, or an epidemical distem"per," this last objection being based, no doubt, on, the Biblical' account of the- experiences of David's fighting men, after their enumeration by Joab. Possibly) in spite of-the incomprehensibly superstitious dislike of a census displayed by numerous opponents of the proposal, the Bill might have been carried, but the House of Lords raised a more valid objection to it, that it would show "the increasing inability "of the country to support an ade."quate army." On this ground the Bill was thrown out. It was not until 1801 that tho first census of Great Britain was taken, it being , then thpught desirable, largely owing to the publication of Malthus's theories on population and the food simply, "to "possess the means! of judging from " time to time the relations between an " increasing population and the means ."of subsistence." The attempts to take a Census in Ireland in -1811 and were not Biiccessful, and though better results were obtained in 1831 y the figures were regarded with' some suspicion, "owing to the system of paying " enumerators, according to the numbers " they returned.'* The census of 1801'' 'showed the population ;of tho United' Kingdom 'to bo 16,345,640, ■while' at the last census, in 1911, it was 45,305,599. In view of tile earlier number, it would be deeply interesting to know what, the population of England was in still earlier times. As an Australian writer remarked lately, "tho "historical "libraries which exalt the " Crusades and Crusaders and the Wars "of tho deal with,-the perform- " ances of- a nation that could not have "had hardly more people than, say, " New South Wales. Richard «pf the "Lion Heart, and the immortal Henry " V. reigned over a number milch fewer "than that represented by the inhabiI "tants of either one' of the world's " great cities. It is generally believed " that at the time of the Revolution, "tho English people numbered-.only "from 4,000,000 to 5,000,000."^' Some interesting' details are to he found in the census statistics of New Zea<land. The present census is spolcen of in a leaflet circulated by tho Minister in charge of tho census as the seventeenth in our history} but the "Year Book" makes no mention of tho one said to have been taken in 1851, though one historian, whose figures were stated' by Sir George Grey .to have been taken from official sources, put tho European population of tlhe colony in tliat year, excluding the military olid their fami- •" lies," at 26,707. The first census of which the "Yepr Book" makes mention is that of 1808, When tho European I population was given as 59,413, of whom only 25,234 resided in tho South Island. In 1916 tho population was 1,099,449. In 1861 it wjw less than a thousand short of 100,000, and it took fifty-years before, in 1911, it passed the million mark. In the earliest years of the colony the bulk of the population was in the North Island, but by 18*31 tho trend of settlement had tuined south.ward, and 57.90 per cent, of the population lived on this sido of Cook Strait-. For forty years the South Island held more people than the North,, but . its supremacy in this respect began to decrease in the late seventies, and in 1901 the proportions were: North "Island 50.57 per cent., South Island 49.43 per cent. Since then the North has continued'to increase' its advantage. Reference is' made elsewhere to tho innovations in this year's census paper. The task-of supplying nil the information 'sought for by the Government Statistician" is not so formidable as a :first glance a£ the paper might suggest.' The instructions on the back of the paper are very full, and our* advice to householders is to read them very carefully, and then follow them literally. At the most, there are only about thirty separate questions to be answered, and the householder to whom these may appear rather a- large number, should find profound reason for satisfaction in the fact that he. is not an American confronted with.a census paper bearing : no fewer than 561 questions!