52— SOME POPULATION FIGURES. 



By J. M. P. MuiRHEAD, F.S.A.A., F.C.I.S., F.S.S., &c. 



For many years a body of men have come together in Great 

 Britain annually to discuss the Advancement of Science, and now in 

 South Africa this particular Association has been formed for the 

 same purpose as the parent one in England, and I sincerely trust 

 that it has a long life in front of it, and that it will be productive 

 of considerable benefit not only i;o its own members but to the 

 whole of this vast Sub-Continent. 



Of all the branches of science which are likely to be discussed 

 at the meetings of this Association, Statistics is probably the one 

 which will arouse the least interest, and yet it is in many ways the 

 most important. 



I think it will be generally admitted that the most important dis- 

 coveries in science have been the reward of careful measurement, and 

 unwearied labour in sifting numerical results. Indeed, I might go 

 so far as to say that Statistics form the foundation on which many 

 other scientists work, and without which they would fail to be 

 eminently successful. As Major Craigie, in his Presidential Address 

 to this Section of the British Association, held at Bradford in 1900, 

 stated : " We are the hewers of wood and the drawers of water for 

 the economic controversialist of the day ' ' ; and Lord Kelvin says that 

 " Measurement and comparison are the essential conditions of any 

 form of significant discovery in the domain of science," and the 

 statesmen who sway the destinies of the country, and are guided by 

 certain accepted theories which have been arrived at by the study of 

 certain facts in life by the Statistician, must recognise that it is 

 essential that the information on which they found their policy be 

 absolutely accurate, and the figures supplied reliable. And, there- 

 fore, the Statistician becomes an important elernent in the Government 

 of a country, and it is of vital import that he approach his work not 

 only in a scientific spirit, but in one recognising the importance of 

 what he is doing, and fully grasping the necessity for the most 

 absolute accuracy in all his work. 



It is hardly necessary to irritate you at this stage with an 

 academic enquiry into the origin of the term " Statistics," and 

 whether it is the duty of Statisticians simply to collect and present 

 facts and figures and hand them over to other scientists to deal with, 

 or whether the Statistician is allowed to go further and frame deduc- 

 tions on the figures he has compiled. Major Craigie, in referring to 

 the previous view in his Presidential Address to the Royal Statistical 

 Society in 1902, stated " he had the authority of the late Dr. Engel 

 for declining this strict definition of our science, as he had himself 

 discovered in the writings of different authors over 180 different 

 definitions." 



There are so many interesting and valuable Statistical questions 

 that might with advantage be placed before this Section that I have 

 found some difficulty in deciding which to take, but there is no 

 question whatever that the study of the numerous interesting details 



