44 International Statistical Uniformity. 



supplying countries in calculating values under a variety of 

 standards. Of course, the same trouble would be entailed 

 on receiving countries, with this difference, that they would 

 have to turn foreign values into their own equivalents, and 

 that if they did not want the comparison they need not 

 make it. Great trouble in printing would also be occasioned 

 to the supplying countries if the type set up for this column 

 had to be constantly altered as impressions of the sheet 

 were being struck off. 



Clause 6. — Returns containing ages display the greatest 

 lack of uniformity. They- are introduced into almost 

 all statistics, and on every subject, (even in the same 

 country), their enumeration is different. For instance, in 

 the Industrial and Reformatory Schools' Returns of Great 

 Britain, there are at least four schemes in force for sub- 

 dividing the ten years of life between the ages of 6 and 16 ! 

 A close examination of the tables issued by various coun- 

 tries, shows that it is most usual to subdivide this informa- 

 tion into quinquennial periods up to the age of 30, and into 

 decennial ones afterwards. These are therefore adopted. 

 But as local authorities, where a different classification is 

 made use of, do not want to be hampered with this infor- 

 mation, and as international explorers do not require any 

 other, it is advisable that where such columns are intro- 

 duced the} 7 should be distinctly separated from the rest, 

 and arranged so that they could be recognised and picked 

 out at a glance. They could be enclosed between red lines, 

 which would signify that the columns so distinguished 

 contained international amongst merely local information. 

 Wherever most of the collected statistics fit in with the 

 proposed summaries, but occasional matter of only local 

 interest has to be introduced, the column containing it 

 may be distinguished by blue lines, which will therefore 

 signify that they enclose local figures amongst others that 

 were of international interest. Under these suggestions, 

 the compilation of International Statistics might proceed 

 simultaneously with, or even as part of, the usual statistics 

 of a country. Local arrangements might also be easily 

 made to have them published, (with a view to easy extrac- 

 tion afterwards), as an additional appendix or addendum to 

 the ordinary statistics of the nation. 



The extension of these ideas to other local returns, and 

 the formulation of other statistical signals, would be easily 

 accomplished as the occasion arose for them. Valuable ideas 



