Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1911-03-27
CHECKING OFF ITS PEOPLE.
Census of Great Britain and Ireland
to Be Taken April 2, Sunday.

Once more the fiat has gone forth
for the numbering of the kings sub
jects. on Sunday. April >. The neces-
sary census acts--one for Great Brit
ain. the other for lreland-have been
published: and after resting from its
labors for nearly ten years the great
census taking machinery has begun
TO work again. and will know no rest
from it's lahors for considerably more
than n wear.
More than century ago it was no
easy work to count the kings sub
jeCtS. when there We're fewer than
nine million persons in England. Now
that the population has grown four
foid. and today is, as nearly as pos
sible thirtysix million, it's vastness
requires no pointing out.
Already the whole country is flood
ed with tens of thousands of circulars
and 'etters--to the local authorities.
onioining them to see that the namine
ana numbering of every street is IL
apple pie order" before the fateful
date of the census, so that the work
of the enumerators may be made as
simple as possible: and to the thou
sands of superintendent registrars, re-
| yum NIX tiltitl IT, Soph 'iiif7
Cor tn" services OF q vast army of emu
merators. whose number for Great
Britain alone will exceed forty thou
sand. All this naturally leads To 4
delugc of rrespondence--letters by
tens of thousands. each of which must
be carefully considered and answered.
\ mora intricate and difficult work Is
the division of the country into the
enumeration districts, so that no parc
of il. however minute, may be exclude
ed from the survey, and so that each
district shall be within the compass
of ono mans labor for a day. 1t Is
found in practice that in towns dis
trict comprising about two hundred
houses is large enough for one cnu-
mcrator to tackle; while in the coun-
try district involving Il fifteen-mile
walk IS the measure of his powers.
and into tens Of thousands of such
sections the whole area Of the coun-
try must he mapped out.
orders have already been given for
the preparation of the almost count
less schedules which in a few weeks
time will be scattered broadcast over
the land.
Later these millions of schedules will
b, SEPT To every point Of the compass
to the superintendent registrars. "n
in turn will distribute them among
tic heads of their subdistricts, 10 he
kept until the week before the census
day. Then they will be handed 10 the
forty thousand or more cnumerators,
each of whom will distribute them in
his special district. noting the delivery
Of eacn schedule in Il book provided
for the purpose.
On April 5 all the schedules viii Dc
collected With their many questions
duly answered: if any assistance Is
required in filling up the form the
enumerator's duty is to give IL. but
his work hN no means ends here, al
though he will probably have well
earned his money by this time. lie
must further copy the entries IN the
schedules into his enumeration book
and make an abstract of them IN II
form showing the total number OF per
sons, males and females, the NUMBER
of houses. and so on
This task completed. the superin-
| tendent registrars dispatch their thou
sands of bundles of material to the
Pimlico headquarters. where a large
| ,y augmented staff of clerks wrestles
with them, gradually evolving from
seeming chaos those wonderful tables
| Of statistics which proclaim to the
world all it wants to know about
| King Georges subjects al home.--
| Londcn Tit-Bits.