president's address. — SECTION G. 199 



members of the Council, and the chairman of the Imperial 

 Resources Bureau. The function of the Advisory Committee 

 should be : — 



(a) To' assist the Direetor by affording him the benefit of 



informed outside opinion as to the value of statistical 

 work already undertaken, or recommended to be 

 undertaken in the interests of the Empire; 



(b) To keep him in touch with the various official, commer- 



cial, and financial interests of all parts of the 

 Empire ; 



(c) Generally to advise him in connexion with the discharge 



of his duties. 



The Directing Staff should consist of a Director (whom it was 

 proposed should be both an expert statistician, and of approved 

 administrative and official experience and ability) ; an adequate 

 number of chief professional assistants, and such technical and 

 clerical assistance as might be neceeeary; and it was thought that, 

 in order to secure an actual and effective liaison with India and the 

 Dominions, there should be a systematic interchange of staff 

 operating as follows: — 



"The Director of the Bureau should endeavour to secure some 

 meanbers of his staff for determinate period from the statistical 

 staffs of India and Dominion Statistical Offices, by ai-rangement 

 between himself and the chief statistician of each country, with 

 the consent oi the Government concerned ; and, similarly, officers 

 of the Bureau may by arrangement be seconded for work in the 

 Indian or a Dominion Statistical Office, subject in all cases to 

 the payment by the employing office of such suitable allowances, 

 in addition to salary, as may be agreed vipcn as being equitable 

 in the circumstances." 



The suggestion as to the necessary money provision was the 

 following: — United Kingdom, £16,000; India, £4,000; Canada, 

 £3,250; Australia, £2,000; New Zealand, £1,000; South Africa, 

 £1,750; Colonies and Protectorates, £2,000. 



An important declaration regarding the function of a statistical 

 office was the following : — 



"... thf functions of no statistical office can be exercised 

 properly when limited to the initial work of collecting and 

 co)npiling figures. . . . The prescription of so narrow a 

 function has resulted in the past, on the one hand, in a 

 tendency to an unintelligent massing of undigested statistical 

 material, compiled at a considerable and often wasteful ex- 

 penditure of labour and money, and, on the other hand, in 

 a failure toi render information which is of value readily avail- 

 able for public use.' 



