TAKING THE CENSUS.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 2051, 20 September 1880, Page 3

TAKING THE CENSUS.

The London “Times ” says:—“The time has come to prepare for the new census. Next year it must be taken, and it is not too soon to make ready the machinery necessary for the work. The undertaking is no light one. It involves the employment of an army of some 32,000 collectors or ‘ enumerators,’ and 2000 registrars. It requires not merely the services of the registrar.general’a department, but also of a host of overseers, constables, and relieving officers. The mere operation of taking the census will occupy only a day or two. It is proposed next year to follow the course taken in 1871 ; that is, to leave the papers with householders on the night of Saturday, April 2nd, and to collect them on Monday, April 4th. When, however, the “enumerators” have copied the schedules and handed In their returns, the work has but begun. The task of digesting and classifying the materials remains, and it is arduous, _ The Eegistrar-Genera) will publish a preliminary report by Juno of 1882. But the entire work may not be completed until more than two years have elapsed. In fact, the time spent in preparing the Scotch and Irish final reports of 1871 was much longer, the former not having been published until May of 1874, and the latter having appeared in September of 1875. Some notion of the vaetness of the work is to be derived from the cost, which was about £IOO,OOO in 1861, and which has grown by about £20,000 on each occasion.