ON OFFICIAL STATISTICS. 427 



respect to the number of persons working at the various trades in 

 connexion witli which articles are manufactured similar to those 

 imported and exported. Another advantage of this grouping is, 

 that similar articles being placed together, all articles of the same 

 character are at once distinguished. For example, under the 

 present system, hides are found under the letter " H," in one 

 pai't of the returns ; skins in another part under the letter " S ;" 

 pelts in another under the letter " P ;" and leather in another 

 under the letter " L." Under the classitied system recommended 

 by the conference, the four articles would appear near each other 

 under the head " Animal Substances," where also would be placed 

 other cognate matters such as bones, glue pieces, grease, hair, 

 horns, hoofs, tallow, etc. Further, under the present alphabetical 

 arrangement, perplexity is experienced in comparing the retvirns 

 of articles in one colony with the same kinds of articles in 

 another, owing to the difficulty of finding the required ai'ticles 

 under the varying names they receive in the respective colonies. 

 Thus, jams in one colony are found under the letter " J ;" in 

 another under the letter " F," as "fruits preserved;" in another 

 under the letter "P" as preserves." Oysters in one colony are 

 found under tlie letter "O;" in another under the letter "8" as 

 " shellrish," and such instances might be multiplied. Of course 

 under the system of classitied arrangement a good alphabetical 

 index of the names of the articles would be necessary, such as is 

 given in the Victorian Year Book, near the beginning of Part 

 Interchange ; following which index, is a list of the articles of 

 import and export classified according to the proposed system. 



I may here remark that in his well known work "Greater 

 Britain,"* Sir Charles W. Dilke humorously condemns the alpha- 

 betical system of arrangement in the following words : — " British 

 Colonial Statistics" says SirCharles Dilke, "are apt to be confusing. 

 I have seen a list of imports, in which one class consisted of ale, 

 aniseed, ai'senic, assafoetida, and astronomical instruments ; boots, 

 bullion, and butter ; capers, cards, and carroway seeds ; gauze, 

 gin, glue and gloves ; maps and manure ; philosophical instru- 

 ments and pork ; sandalwood, sarsaparilla, and smoked sausages. 

 Alphabetical arrangement has chai'ms for the official mind." 



The import and export returns of all the colonies are, as is well 

 known, largely swelled by the inclusion of articles which are 

 simply re-exports of articles previously imported ; and often 

 sufficient care is not taken to distinguish these from articles of 

 home produce. It must be evident that the mere adding together 

 of the total imports or the total exports of all the colonies gives 

 much too large a figure for the impoi'ts or expoi'ts of Australia 

 taken as a whole, as in numerous instances the goods are passed 

 from colony to colony, and so are imported and exported over and 



* Second Edition. Vol. II., p. 125, London, Wacmillan & Co , 1880. 



