THE SECRECY OF THE CENSUS.

Hokitika Guardian, 13 April 1921, Page 3

THE SECRECY OF THE CENSUS.

A national census by its very nature required from each person a considerable number of particulars of a more oi less personal character and it follows that most people are interested in knowing the extent to which secrecy is observed. In the first place every census schedule carries a guarantee that all information will be treated as confidential and the utmost precautions are taken to ensure that this promise is respected. In the case of large hotels or hoarding houses, a personal schedule is provided for each individual, the onus for the distribution of which is on the person in charge of the establishment. Where a house has tenants in separate flats or apartments, each flat or he treated as a distinct dwelling, and the person in charge of, or occupying each, must make a return on a separate schedule. A substantial fine may be imposed in any case where those collecting the papers, either persons in charge of large establishments, or sub-enumera-tors, disclose information. When the papers are collected they pass on to the Census Office for the information to be extracted from them. Persons become numbers, and calculating machines aggregate the information they supply. Many thousands of papers are dealt with each day and no one has time to notice any particular schedule, and at the rate at which they are dealt with it is impossible for any brain to retain anything that may have been seen. When the papers have yielded up all i they have to tell to the enumerating machines, they are destroyed by fire under the supervision of a responsible officer whose special duty is to see that they are all actually and completely burned. It'is accuracy in a census that is so necessary for State requirements, and with so much regard for secrecy there is no reason why anyone should he diffident about supplying correct details.