H.—l2

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the statistician should be required to see that the statistics of each branch was properly and accurately compiled, and the whole co-ordinated and arranged so as to give complete and comprehensive information as to all social and economic activities and a general view of the national drift. In this field the statistician is held responsible not only for the mere collection and compilation of figures, but for the critical analysis of the results in such a way as to indicate most clearly their value and significance. This movement is evidenced by the creation in the several countries of separate statistical offices to which is transferred all purely statistical work, or, where that is not practicable, the administrative department is required to co-operate with the statistician for the production of the statistics he requires. In Canada, as already stated, the Government Bureau of Statistics at Ottawa was only recently created as a separate Department. A departmental Commission appointed to investigate the unsatisfactory condition of the Canadian statistics recommended centralization as the remedy, and the creation of the Bureau, under a Dominion Statistician, in which the control of all Dominion statistics is centralized, followed. The following quotations from the Bureau's first report sets out the position : — " The establishment of the Dominion Bureau of Statistics under the Statistics Act, assented to on the 24th May, 1918 (8-9 George V, c. 43), marks a fundamental departure in statistical policy and organization, and the beginning of a new era in Canadian official statistics. Briefly, the Statistics Act, which it is the function of the Bureau to administer, calls for the centralization and consolidation of all the purely statistical work of the Government, with provision for its organization on a scale commensurate with the national needs." In the preface to the same report national statistics are referred to as follows : — " The statistics of a nation are, in point of fact, the quantitative expression of the character and activities of the people, and hence arc of the most profound significance. Once mere by-products of departmental accounting, they have long since passed the stage of being ancillary to administration in the narrow sense, and are a scheme or organization in themselves, framed with the broadest purposes in view. Their application is now, in fact, so general that a review like the following may have an interest if only as a correlated statement of the features in modern life which are of importance from a sociological and economic standpoint, the ceaseless interplay of which forms that bewildering composite usually described as the progress of the nation." The report of the departmental Commission above referred to is instructive, and I think the following extracts will be of interest and pertinent to the present discussion : — " Each department or branch charged either directly or indirectly with statistical investigation has concerned itself primarily with the immediate purpose only in view. This is, from the usual standpoint, quite as it should be: a department is not to be expected to regard points of view beyond the scope of the administration assigned to it. Nevertheless, the effect, statistically has been to inculcate routine and the neglect of opportunities for furnishing wider information and service. "The statistics are unequal in quality and value. There arc instances, both Dominion and provincial, of imperfect statistical method resulting from (a) lack of expert knowledge of the subject under investigation, and (/>) lack of appreciation of the nature and conofitions of statistical measurement. The absence of leadership is nowhere more apparent than in the varying extent, to which statistical methods have been developed in different branches. The whole question of reliability is involved in this. Without careful adjustment of method accuracy is impossible." The Commission recommended " That there be created a central Statistical Office to organize, in co-operation with the several departments concerned, the strictly statistical work undertaken by the Dominion Government. The object of this organization should be to co-ordinate the statistics of Canada under a single comprehensive scheme, and so to extend them that they may meet the present needs of the country and follow the probable course of its development." Following the report of the Commission the Dominion Government, in June, 1915, appointed a Dominion Statistician, and in 1918 created the Dominion Bureau of Statistics with complete jurisdiction in statistics, defining subsequently by Order in Council the interdepartmental relations of the Bureau as follows :— " (1.) That all purely statistical investigations relative to the commercial, industrial, social, economic, and general activities of the people shall be carried out in the Dominion Bureau of Statistics. " (2.) That with respect to such- records of any department or branch of the Public Service as are of a statistical character the Dominion Statistician shall confer with the head of such department or branch, with a view to arranging that such records be collected and compiled in so far as possible in conformity with the methods and organization established in the Bureau, the object of such arrangement being the prevention of overlapping, the increase of camparability, and the utilization of departmental organizations in the best manner for statistical ends. " (3.) That after such conference the Dominion Statistician shall, at as early a date as practicable, prepare a report on the statistical work of each department or branch of the Public Service, with a view to carrying out the above requirements, such report to be submitted to Your Excellency in Council for approval, with a view to effecting a permanent arrangement for dealing with the statistics collected by the Government; and " (4.) That to further promote efficiency and economy all statistical compilations for the Government be carried out, in so far as practicable, by mechanical appliances, and that for this purpose use be made of the machines installed in the Bureau of Statistics." In South Africa a central Statistical Office for the Union Government was established on the Ist April, 191.7, under the charge of a Director of Census, assisted by a Statistical Council. The Council is to consist of not less than four and not more than eight members: at, present there are four official and four non-official members, the Director of the Census being chairman. The function of the Council is to advise the Minister in regard to matters connected with the Act. Among the early general recommendations of the Council were the following which are apropos to the present discussion : —•