ENGLAND’S NEXT CENSUS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 832, 28 November 1929, Page 11

ENGLAND’S NEXT CENSUS

OFFICIALS WILL USE HUGE MAPS

VITAL INFORMATION Giant maps are now being prepared for the use of the people who will take the next census of England and Wales in 1931, says the London “Daily Express.” These maps show every street and alley and court in the land. The whole country is split up into fifty enumeration areas. A census chief is appointed to each section, and on him rests the heavy responsibility of seeing that no one escapes the great court. Even the gipsies and the vagrants on the road are “trapped” on census night by policemen specially detailed for this difficult task. The exact date of this great count, when forty million persons will pass through the census turnstile, is not yet fixed. The census is like a mighty beacon it sheds its light into every human habitation. The census form goes into every home, every workhouse, every hospital, every prison, and every casual ward and lodging-house. No one is allowed to slip through the net which the Registrar-General and his staff are weaving in the solitude of an upper chamber of Somerset House. Census-taking is not done for reasons of curiosity. The information which is extracted from the tell-tale figures sheds a most illuminating light on the constantly changing conditions of the lives and habits of the nation. For instance, the experts are able to tell whether ample educational facilities are provided for children by the answers set out in the forms, and the housing conditions in any particular area are revealed by the searching analyses which are made when the great count is over. The site of “Census House,” where the mountainous stocks of forms are tabulated and dissected, has yet to be selected. At the last count a London workhouse was taken. Machines which do the work of human fingers, but with less risk of error, are installed to deal with the forms.