HOUSEHOLD BUDGETS

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 36, 12 February 1930, Page 10

HOUSEHOLD BUDGETS

PUBLIC AND STATISTICIAN i "*"""" The Government ia undertaking a collection of "household budgets," covering a period o£ threa months,, commeneipg in March, and is offering cash prizes totalling £100 for the best returns sent in. As the complexity of the State increases, co will plso the need to extend the scope and searching character of statistical inquiries. It is more than ever necessary to tale note, to arrange, to classify and stidy all these features in modern life ji'hich are of importanca from a sociological and economic standpoint. I The aim of tie Census and Statistics Office is to be o; service to the community, and to achikve this end it must, in the first place, bbtain the assistance of the individual njembers of the community. The collection of household budgets is but one manifestation of the activities of the office. It; asks for details of individual household! income and expenditure in order to compje a household budget for the Dominion, njid ascertain the proportions and character of the average domestic expenditure. Thise details are known to the individual householder and to no one else. In accurately recording and completing the houicholders' diary account liook now being isued by the Government Statistician, he is co-operating with the Statistical Office; in the performance of a public service ■nhicli is of national value. Without such eVopcration this service cannot be porfo»ncd.