Session 11, No. 8.

By His Excellency’s command,
For the Colonial Secretary,
J. Coates.

CENSUS ORDINANCE.

(Passed the 15th day of July, 1851.)

IN THE FIFTEENTH YEAR OF THE REIGN OF HER MAJESTY QUEEN VICTORIA.

SESSION XI. No. 8.

ANALYSIS.

Title.
Preamble.

1. Census to be taken at certain periods in each decade of years.
2. Commencement of first decade.
3. Persons to be appointed to leave and collect Schedules, &c. How to be remunerated.
4. Resident Magistrate to warn all Householders to be ready with information by certain days.
5. Collector to leave Schedules at every house. Householder to fill up same.
6. Collector to call for Schedules and complete them in certain cases.
7. Penalties for not filling up Schedule or answering collectors questions.
8. Proviso with respect to the taking of the first Census.
9. Commencement of ordinance.

"An ORDINANCE for taking a Census of the Colony of New Zealand."

Whereas it is expedient that authentic statistical information of the Colony of New Zealand be periodically obtained,

Be it Therefore Enacted, by His Excellency the Governor-in-Chief of New Zealand, with the advice and consent of the Legislative Council thereof, as follows:—

1. That a Census of the number and condition of the population of the Islands of New Zealand, shall be taken in the first, fourth, and seventh years of every decade of years, on the days and in the manner hereinafter declared.

2. That the first decade shall be deemed to commence with the year of the passing hereof.

3. That the Governor-in-Chief shall appoint persons to collect the information required by this Ordinance, and may cause an allowance to be made to any such person at a rate not exceeding ten shillings per day.

4. That in each of the years hereinbefore particularized, the Senior Resident Magistrate in every Settlement in the said Islands, or where there is no Resident Magistrate, some fit person to be appointed by His Excellency the Governor-in-Chief, shall, on or before the 1st day of March, cause notices to be affixed on the several Churches, Chapels, Court Houses, and Police Stations, and in such other conspicuous places as he shall deem proper within such district as shall be to him assigned for that purpose by His Excellency the Governor-in-Chief, requiring every householder to be prepared on the 31st day of March, or as soon thereafter as he may be called upon so to do by a collector appointed as aforesaid, to give all such information as is required by the schedule hereunto annexed.

5. That the said Collectors shall, on or before the 25th day of March in each of the years hereinbefore particularized, leave at every house within the Districts assigned to them respectively, a Schedule, being a blank copy of the Schedule to this Ordinance annexed; and every Householder able to write, shall, on the 31st day of March, furnish in writing the information required by the said Schedule, by filling up the same and subscribing his name at the foot thereof, and shall deliver the same when called for to one of the said collectors.

6. That each collector shall, as soon after the 31st of March as practicable, call at every house in his district to collect the Schedules, and is hereby authorized to put such questions as may be indispensable to the complete filling up thereof, to any householder who, from inability to write, shall not have duly filled up the same; and the collector shall thereupon fill it up himself with the information so supplied.

7. That every householder who shall wilfully refuse or without lawful excuse neglect to fill up the said Schedule to the best of his knowledge and belief, or to sign and deliver the same, or shall make, sign, or deliver or cause to be made, signed, or delivered, any false return of any of the matters specified in the said Schedule, or who shall refuse to answer, or wilfully give a false answer to such questions as aforesaid, shall for every such refusal or wilfully false answer forfeit a sum not exceeding £5, nor less than 20 shillings.

8. Provided always, that with respect to the present year the Census shall be taken on the 1st day of November—the notices given on or before the 1st day of October, the Schedules left on or before the 25th day of October, and filled up by the householder on the 1st day of November, and called for and filled up when requisite by the collector, as soon after that day as practicable—all in manner aforesaid.

9. This Ordinance shall come into operation on the 1st day of August, 1851.

G. GREY,
Governor-in-Chief.

Passed the Legislative Council, this fifteenth day of July, in the Year of our Lord, One thousand eight hundred and fifty-one.

H. S. Harrison,
Clerk of Council.