18 THE CENSUS OF 1861. 



might be desirable to distinguisli males from females, and to have 

 some general classification as to ages, as under 5, 5-15, 15-40, above 

 40, but it would not be wise to enter into too much detail. This 

 portion of his roll should be made out separately, and should be 

 handed over by the clerk to the county registrar, 



I would throw upon the registrar the duty of compiling from these 

 materials the returns to be made annually to government, on forms to 

 be furnished to him, which should not enter into too much detail, and 

 I would pay him out of provincial funds for the work. The remuner- 

 ation need not be very high, and the total cost would be quite an 

 insignificant item ; but I hold it as a most essential part of any such 

 scheme, that everybody should be paid for the work imposed upon 

 them. It is the only way in which correct and punctual returns can 

 be expected. However conscientiously even the best men may per- 

 form any act required of them as a duty, they will do it more readily 

 and more certainly, if besides discharging the duty, they make $20 or 

 $30 by the transaction. 



With such an organization, we should have a certain set of men all 

 through the country, the assessors, the township clerks, and the 

 registrars, who had already some experience in the kind of work, and 

 they would form a useful material, out of whom to select the enumer- 

 ators and commissioners, when the more formal Census came to be 

 taken. There would remain the organization of the department of 

 government, on which would fall the duty of classifying and tabula- 

 ting the returns received from the whole country. The returns of 

 vital statistics would form only one portion of this work. The 

 statistics of trade and navigation, of railways, of banks, savings banks, 

 building societies, insurance companies, hospitals and charities, and 

 schools, criminal and other judicial statistics, militia and municipal 

 statistics, should all be ultimately combined into one annual volume-. 

 The preparation of these, and still more, the devising of the best- 

 forms in which the information should be collected, and presented to 

 the public, would require much miscellaneous knowledge -and expe- 

 rience, which could hardly be expected to be found in any one depart- 

 ment. There should be a board of statistics, presided over by one of 

 the Executive, and of which some others of the ministry, the minister 

 of finance especially, might be members. But the real work would 

 fall upon the deputy heads of those branches, which are especially 

 concerned with the subjects embraced in the general plan, and who 



