Conclusion

Previous Selection

CONCLUSION.


Before concluding this Report, we consider it desirable to compare our system of publication of the results of the Census of 1901 with that adopted in 1891 and in most of the earlier Censuses.

In 1891, the tabular matter was published in three volumes, each volume relating to a certain series of facts for all the Counties of England and Wales complete, and each containing its own Summary Tables. Thus, in Volume I. were given particulars of area, houses and population in Ancient and Administrative Counties, Parliamentary areas, County and Municipal Boroughs, Petty Sessional Divisions and Civil and Ecclesiastical Parishes.

Volume II. contained similar information for Registration Counties, Districts and Sub-districts and their constituent Civil Parishes, and for Urban and Rural Sanitary Districts—arranged in the Eleven Registration Divisions. It also contained Tables of Tenements, Institutions, Persons on board Vessels, &c. Volume III. related to the Ages, Condition as to Marriage, Occupations, Birthplaces and Infirmities of the Population, and these facts were given for Registration Counties and Districts and for large Urban Sanitary Districts. Subsequently the particulars from all these three volumes for each of the Eleven Registration Divisions were embodied and published in Eleven Divisional Parts, each part thus containing the whole of the Census results for the Registration Division and its Counties to which the Part related.

Full consideration was given to the question whether this arrangement should be followed in the publication of the Census results for 1901, and the conclusion was arrived at that it would be more generally convenient if the tabular matter were published in a complete form County by County, so that each County Part should contain the whole series of Census facts for the County and its various sub-divisions. Accordingly, County Parts were published as soon as they could be prepared, in the order determined by their population; thus, the Part for the County of London, in which the particulars were given for more than four and a half millions of people or for about one-seventh of the entire population of England and Wales, was obtainable by the public early in January, 1902, the Parts for Lancashire and Yorkshire early in the following months of April and May respectively, and so on until the publication of the entire series of County Parts had been completed by the issue of the Part relating to the County of Radnor in February, 1903.

The settlement of this new method of publication and of the elaborate details in connection with the preliminary arrangements for this Census was effected under the .auspices of the late Registrar-General, Mr. Reginald McLeod, C.B., and the Preliminary Report, as well as a number of the County Volumes, were issued by his authority, before he was transferred to the Under Secretaryship of the Scottish Office, Whitehall.

The publication of complete information for each County in the way described necessarily involved very careful arrangement in order that the many different processes of tabulation might go on, at first successively and then concurrently, without waste of time or danger of inaccuracy. We are disposed to think that the trouble has been well repaid by the greater convenience thus insured and, as regards many of the most important Counties, by their more expeditious publication.

The County parts were followed in April, 1903, by a Volume of Summary Tables, which are of a comprehensive character and are, with few exceptions, summaries of the series of Tables in the County Parts.

An Alphabetical Index of the names of Counties, Boroughs, Parishes, and all other .areas which figured in the Tables, with their populations and references to the pages in the County Parts in which they may be found, was published in October, 1903.

With reference to the Tables themselves, it was recognised that the Administrative areas of recent creation, viz., Administrative Counties, County Boroughs, and Urban and Rural Districts are now, and are still more likely to be in future, the areas for which Census information is most urgently required by Imperial and Local Authorities, by Statisticians and by the public at large, and consequently greater prominence is given in the present series of Tables to these divisions of the Country than in the Tables for 1891. For some purposes, however, Census statistics for Ancient Counties and Registration Counties, Districts and Sub-districts are necessarily included. Other changes in the Tables have been made which it is believed, will turn out to have been improvements. The classification of Occupations has been considerably altered, partly to meet the views of the Home Office and of the Board of Trade, and these changes are more particularly referred to in the section of the Report dealing with Occupations.

Although not required to do so by the Census Act, we followed our predecessors in furnishing Schedules and other necessary documents to the Authorities of the several Islands in the British Seas, viz., the Isle of Man, Jersey, and Guernsey with the Adjacent Islands, to enable them to take a Census of those Islands concurrently with that of England and Wales and the other parts of the United Kingdom. The results were subsequently analysed and tabulated at the English Census Office, and were eventually published and issued in a separate Volume in April, 1903.

It may now be of advantage to give a brief account of the composition and number of the staff employed at headquarters, in connection with the preparation for the Census. The Census Branch was opened in the General Register Office in May, 1900, by the appointment of Mr. Alfred Mundy, as Secretary, and of Mr. Archer Bellingham, as Assistant Secretary, with a Staff of 10 Second Division Clerks. The number of Second Division Clerks was increased, from time to time, up to the establishment of the Census Office at Millbank, S.W., in February, 1901, when the staff consisted of 25 Second Division Clerks and eight Assistant Clerks. The maximum Male Staff allowed for in the Estimates and sanctioned by the Treasury, was 70 Second Division Clerks and 45 Assistant Clerks. The highest number was reached in September, 1901, namely 110, composed of 10 Supervisors, 55 Second Division Clerks and 45 Assistant Clerks. These Clerks were gradually reduced as the Census operations progressed, until the remainder of the temporary Staff was discharged in April, 1904.

In addition to the Male Staff, the Treasury sanctioned the employment of a Female Staff up to the maximum number of 75. In April, 1901, this portion of our Staff was placed under the supervision of Miss Haynes, an Assistant Superintendent, Miss Spencely a Principal Clerk, and three First Class Clerks belonging to the General Post Office— who were courteously lent to us by the Secretary, Sir George Murray, K.C.B.—and who, in their respective capacities of Supervisor, and Assistant Supervisors, organized and controlled it. This division of our Staff reached its maximum of 75 in September, 1901, and was gradually reduced to 26 in October, 1902. These were all discharged in April 1903.

We cannot speak too highly of the tact, zeal and ability with which Miss Haynes and her four Assistant Supervisors discharged their important and responsible duties, whilst the general intelligence and expertness shown by the Women Clerks in the work assigned to them was conspicuous. In fact we are glad to report that the experiment inaugurated by the late Registrar-General, of enlisting Women Clerks into the Census Service has proved a complete success.

AS regards the Male Staff, we desire to express our sense of the efficient service rendered by all the Clerks engaged, and, whilst we cannot name them all individually, we think special mention should be made of the two Clerks selected as Heads of Rooms at the Census Office, namely Mr. Saunders and Mr. Evans, the latter of whom has not only shown commendable zeal and untiring energy in his work but has given us valuable assistance in the revision of the classification of Occupations and in the preparation of most useful Tables and material in connection with the Occupational portion of all our Reports. Both Mr. Mundy and Mr. Bellingham, in their capacities of Secretary and Assistant Secretary respectively, have rendered excellent and laborious service throughout the inquiry; and our acknowledgments are specially due to Mr. Waters, late Assistant Superintendent in the Statistical Branch and now Superintendent of the Record Branch of the General Register Office who has, from his special training and expert knowledge, been able to give us valuable' aid throughout, and has, in conjunction with our Secretaries, materially assisted us in the collaboration of this work. The Superintendent Registrars and the Registrars of Births and Deaths discharged their duties under the Census Act, and also the Enumerators (about 40,000 in number), speaking generally, to our entire satisfaction. We desire also to tender our best acknowledgments to the Director General, Colonel D. A. Johnston, C.B., R.E., and to the other Officers of the Ordnance Survey Department for the excellent maps with which they provided us for the County Volumes, and for the computation and revision of the acreage of the areas published in the Census Tables.

Finally, it only remains for us to allude briefly to the fact that, in addition to the magnitude of the work itself, a number of unforeseen obstacles have, from time to time, arisen to prevent the completion of our Final Report and Appendices as soon as we anticipated. The view so aptly expressed by a late eminent Statesman sums up the situation, "I recognise the desirability of early progress, but I always recognise the unwisdom of sacrificing any substantial aim to the mere rapidity of conclusion."

The "substantial aim" we have kept in view throughout has been to insure eventually the accuracy of the arrangement and of the classification and tabulation of the voluminous masses of figures bearing on the various subjects dealt with in this Census— greater and more varied than in any previous Census—and subsequently in comparing these figures with those of former Censuses, to arrive, as far as possible, at sound and accurate conclusions that will bear the test of reasonable criticism.

We trust that our efforts may be considered as having attained their purpose, and that they will receive your approval.

We have the honour to be,

Sir,

Your most obedient Servants,

  WILLIAM COSPATRICK DUNBAR, Registrar General.

NOEL A. HUMPHREYS.

JOHN TATHAM, M.D., F.R.C.P.

ALFRED J. MUNDY, Secretary.

ARCHER BELLINGHAM, Assistant Secretary.

1st July 1904.

Previous Selection