424 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION F. 



of sex, acre, and conjugal condition, ai'e disturbed by the presence 

 of a number of unmarried Chinese adult males ; the returns of 

 education by a number unable to read and write, as the Chinese 

 are set down to be, unless they can do so in English ; the returns 

 of occupations by a numher of wandering aborigines of no occu- 

 pation. At the same time, as jmrticulars respecting the Chinese 

 and aborigines, respectively, are impoi-tant and interesting, they 

 should be carefully taken out from the schedules and arranged in 

 tables, so that the figures might be used either conjointly with, or 

 apart from, those of the general population as might be required. 



However carefully the census forms may be prepared, there 

 must be under almost all the heads of enquiry certain indefinite 

 groups, the component parts of which ought to be — but very 

 seldom are— separately shown. Thus, under the head of Religions, 

 there are groups styled other Presbyterians, other Methodists, 

 other Protestants, other Religions ; under that of Birthplaces 

 there are — other Australasian Colonies, other British Countries, 

 other Foreign Countries, other Countries ; and under that of 

 Occupations there are over sixty such groups, as, for instance, 

 " Other's connected with Government, Defence, Religion, Law, 

 Medicine, &c. ;" and in one colony, the callings of 20,000 persons 

 were merely classified as " Miscellaneous Occupations," no clue 

 whatever being given as to what individual occupations were so 

 placed. The absence of the necessity for accounting for tlie 

 entries placed under these indefinite groupings, is no doubt very 

 convenient to the tabulator, as, if his returns under the different 

 heads of enquiry do not balance, he is able to make them appa- 

 rently do so by adding some numbers to, or taking some numbers 

 from these groups as occasion may require ; but it should be placed 

 out of his power to do this by requiring him to account strictly 

 for every entry he makes in these groups. If this is not done, 

 not only is the door opened to dishonesty for the purpose of hiding 

 careless work, but all trace is lost of small but perhaps rising sects, of 

 occupations in which perhaps only a few persons may now be 

 employed, but which may be destined to be of great importance 

 hereafter, and of particulars respecting the nationalities of which 

 the population is composed, which miglit be of especial interest to 

 the ethnologist of the future. 



In the census returns, as well as in tables devoted to other 

 branches of statistics, there are frequently to be found imme- 

 diately above the total line, a line for items which have not been 

 specified ; and in working out proportions to show the value of 

 the numbers in each line relatively to the total, it is a very 

 common but erroneous practice to assign a propoi'tion to this 

 line, just as if the figures in it represented items of a similar 

 character to those in the other lines in the table, instead of items 

 of no value whatever except as contributing to make up the 

 total, thei'eby giving less than its true value to each of the other 



