DOMINION STATISTICS.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1980, 10 February 1914, Page 11

DOMINION STATISTICS.

■ • -^—. — AN IMPROVED SYSTEM. SOME LESSONS PROM AUSTRALIA. Some months ago tJie Government Statistician (Mr. Ji. Fraser) paid a Visit to Australia'm order to investigato Upon tho s£>ot tlie nietii<3i'ls of eanipiliHg-6t;i-■ tietics followed in that country, and a number of changes have sinco been made in tho arrangement and preseutaticm of the. Now Zealand statistics, 11k meet important-change effected so far relates to trade figures. lii ■colli! boration with; the. head .of tho Cnstoms Department, Mr. I'raser has intredaced a new system ■ which will make tho trade statistics much more useful and informative fhait formerly. Hitherto imports and exports | have been detailed in long and unwieldy tables, itnd imports were.credited to the port from which they were shipped to the Dominion. Uii3w tho jie?v system, imports. and .exports will he classified under convenient. heads (twerity-threo "heads in the case of • imports), and the country of origin <jf the goods will be shown as well as the port of. shipment. The. trade statistics for 1914, which in great part will not be published until 1915, will be arranged on tho no.v plan. The advantages to be gained are obvious. At present goods may come to the Dominion from Australia, and alfchmi-gh they originated in China or some other country, under the methods hitherto in. vog-ue they would ha credited tb Australia. ! It is of .iro groat importance to know.the Jw-rt from which goods w ; ere last sTiipned: tlio ■essential thing is .to know tfioir country of origin. Tho imports will bo classified and totalled uiider twenty-three eon r venient heads, suei as "foodstuffs of animal origin " "foodstuffs of other origin," "macliinery and machines," "metal manufactures other th.au firaeti' inery and machines." • . • • Purchasing Power. Another iiew departure oil the part of the Statistical Department is an inquiry relative to the cost of living. The principal object arrived at is to show the rise or fall in price of commodities in common use, rents, etc,, over a- period. An officer of the Departfneftt has collected tho necessary data in Wellington, and is now in (Siristchurch on asimilar quest. Later he will proceed to Dunedin. Tho statistical rc-cord which will ultimately be produced is to go brick if ppssiblo as far as 189:U _ Tlio aim i 3 not so much to provide deta.ili?.ci information regarding the "fluctuations |ii price of indiyidual commodities frea time to .time as to show the variations in ;tfes purchasing power of the soyereign. Neco'ssarily the task of compiling a record of this character is onti of considerjible complexity, and difficulty. Everything (depends upon reliable data, being obtain" ,ed. The method folj.owevl is to select those commodities wliieit are most necessary to tho •community, and aro ,in common use. From details regarding the rise and fall hi prico of theso articles and of groups of such ■. articles, "iiidepinimbers" aro worked out which indicate the variations in the purchasing power of money from time to time, tlriat difficulties are encountered in regard tq. those things wliieh vary in quality, «Sd on this. account sonic lilies of drapery and other goods are useless for the purposes of the inquiry. Whore an article like tea is in question, tho method adqptod is to take the price of the br-ind which sells iu largest "quantity, and compare it with the price of the best-selling brand at another period. Rents present a difficulty on account of rho tact that they vary in the same town for houses of. the same- size, in -accortace with locality and the quality, of flro dwelling. The plan adopted in tljis case is to select typical houses i f h the different grades, aiid so arrive -at in • average-rent at a givep period. ...While, this system has its limitations where de'tails aro concerned, it is hoped to show approximately and witli toti3idor* nblo accuracy the direction in which prices, rents, etc.. have moved from period to period. i " 'j Statistics of Production. The great weakness in the statistics of this country is. in the statistics of production. The agricultural statistics in particular aro jii a transition stato, and are being looked into, with a- view to putting them on a uievo satisfactory footing. Until rtcently tho figures relating to agricultural production, were collected for an annual return by temporary enumerators. This cost tlio country something liko £5000 a year f and was finally dropped as being too expensive. There is at present a temporary system of partial cbllcctiofi of returns through the post which is rot proving satisfactory. On his return froto Australia, the Government Statistician reported to his Minister (the Hon. H. D. Bell) ujan various details ©f statistical ronvpilation. Natiiraliy, tho Commonwaalth Statistical Office is arranged a much more ambitious scale tliaa is pps- ! siblo in this country, but as will be seen,, some valuable improvements have already been effected, and it iii possible that others may follow as time ■ goes on. '