ECONOMY AND THE YEAR BOOK

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 88, 8 January 1935, Page 8

ECONOMY AND THE YEAR BOOK

Though the forty-third issue of the New Zealand Official Year Book contains some evidence of the better trend of primary affair , the is rather discouraging. It conveys ani,—n. -t i d l; mp - n ersist The Government Statistician, Mr. J. W. butciiei, again has found it necessary to explain that preparation of the book hfd to be carried out under the same financial restrictions opera e for its immediate predecessors. For this reason, confesses h not been practicable to incorporate special suiveys or to accoid tne Se ired M ne s of treatment to features of current .mportance and Sinterest” This is to be regretted. Statistics at their be! hold very little attraction for the people as a whole, and are of mat service only to afew; this being so, there is all the more reason for soecial treatment of the difficulties, so that the least interested of the public might learn why the latest collection of national statistics is however, that the Statistician has realised the need of taking paiHs to add some up-to.date data on vita topics and, though shackled by economy, has done the work well in hope tha. the latest Year Book “will maintain its usefulness at a time of.fa reaching changes when a considered examination of present conditions has perhaps, never been more necessary.” In a commendable eftoit to counter-balance the book’s lag in time and up-to-dateness, two pages in the forefront have been devoted to the latest statistical infoimati . , which means tup to the end of la§t October. But no comparative totals have been included so that, in effect, the a breathless record of more or less impressive sums. It probab y would have been better in the changing circumstances to have devotedto ’J and latest.information space to a concise survey of conditions and | the special efforts that are being made to regain better times.