580 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION F. 
the officer charged with the conduct of the work to find himself 
armed with insufficient powers, or cramped and hampered by 
annoying and unnecessary restrictions. 
Much inconvenience has been found to result where the house- 
holder’s schedule has been attached to the Census Act. _I 
therefore recommend that only the heads of inquiry be embodied 
in the Act, on which a schedule should be based which might be 
afterwards approved by the Governor-in-Council and gazetted. 
There are matters of detail in this schedule which it is sometimes 
desirable to alter even at the last moment, and this could be done 
readily if the schedule were, within certain limits, merely a 
matter of regulation; whereas, the Act once passed with the 
schedule attached, however desirable it may be to effect changes, it 
is impossible to vary the form of the schedule in the slightest degree. 
Attempts are sometimes made to collect agricultural statistics 
and statistics of mining, manufactures, school attendance, &c., by 
means of the census enumerators, but this should not be per- 
mitted. The collecting officers have quite enough to do to attend 
to their own duties, and any extra work imposed upon them 
causes loss of time and tends to make the census inaccurate. It 
may perhaps be allowable for the census collectors to take an 
account of the live stock, as that can only be done accurately 
when a census is taken, and is not likely to cause much delay, 
but with this exception, they should not be required to do any- 
thing unconnected with their own legitimate work, viz., that 
connected with the enumeration of the population. 
In one of the colonies a return of the religious belief of the 
people has hitherto not been asked for, and in more than one of 
the others no attempt has been made to obtain a statement of the 
numbers sick, blind, deaf and dumb, lunatic and idiotic. The 
information embodied under these heads is interesting and 
valuable, and as it can be got without extra expense or trouble, 
there seems no good reason why it should not be obtained in 
every one of the colonies. 
The preparation of the instructions to the persons employed to 
collect the census will require much intelligent consideration, 
especially as most of such persons, particularly in colonies which 
take the census only once in ten years, will be new to the work, 
and some, especially in country districts—though perhaps hardy 
bushmen—will in all probability be of defective education. The 
systems of census-taking no doubt vary in the different colonies ; 
but the fact remains that in every colony it is necessary that a 
staff should be so organised as to act over its entire length and 
breadth, and to extends even to its most remote limits; also 
that each member of this staff should be made to thoroughly 
understand his duties. It is therefore essential that his instruc- 
tions should be precise and definite, as well as simple and easy to 
be understood. 
