NATIONAL REGISTER

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2623, 19 November 1915, Page 6

NATIONAL REGISTER

SUCCESS ASSURED, tow PERCENTACE OF BAD SCHEDULES.

AVorfc on tho National Rcrister is in StatS?nT a<!ayS C The Government statistician has a huge staf wnrlrimr w'th!? al i d e— tioi E i„ tL, SCl,CdllleS f. thr> ® every " a r and evening, but S ft!* big ono,. and it will will f 1 . fo \ ,r weeks before ho 1 ' 631 s s , tat,K tics compiled. There ther thTth P i ks ago ' JS t0 wll °- p nLI k"»F llad bo6n done carefully ?"l , = h ' wl >ether enough caro bad been lull!,-1° f° H iat , ove!- y ma » squired Tt, + -Ir SD lla(1 returned a schedule. ■ *™ scr estimates that he has received 280,000 cards, which is not far mi tha maxi mutn number expected. . government was faced with this question: Was the register worth an expenditure of from £20,000 to £30,000 i--I'or tins expenditure the Government could have taken a complete census, with absolute safeguards against evasion, but some of the sohcdules would iiavo cost several pounds eacli. The Government decided that theregister was >iot worth this large sum, and entrusted the task of collection by a cheaper Jf less thorough, method to the Post Office. The success attained by the Post Office is as meritorious as it may bo surprising. The Government Statistician estimates that less than 2 per cent, of the schedules are deficient iji essential particulars. ■ Some of these will be corrected' by reference to the sender, and oven the 2 per cent, aro not quite valueless. Most of the mistakes are the mistakes of careless, stupid, or illiterate jwople. The. person who filled in his schedule with tho name Von Hindenburg, or filled in descriptions of appallingly large families of dependent invalids, or wrote on it "An open letter to Square Deal Baton Bill" in carefully disguised misspelled writing, is so rare that he is inconsiderable in the big total. And he may yet be discovered' and called to account for his "joke." Tho steps taken to trace schedules are by no means ineffective. .