§ 11. Mr. Haireasked the President of the Board of Trade whether he is satisfied with the progress being made with the pilot census being taken in High Wycombe; and is he will make a statement.
§ Mr. H. WilsonThe progress so far made with the Pilot Census at High Wycombe is reasonably satisfactory. I should explain that High Wycombe is the subject of a very special experiment; whereas in the other areas where the pilot census is being conducted the forms are being issued to traders and returned by them through the post, in High Wycombe we are trying out the efficacy of the alternative method of personal canvass—that80W is to say, interviewers are going round visiting traders and taking forms with them; they are inviting traders to complete these and answering queries raised about the questions; where the trader cannot fill in the form on the spot the interviewers call back and collect it. If traders prefer, they can, of course, post the form back to the Census Office. The postal method is that used by the Canadian Census Office, while in the United States forms are collected by personnal canvass.
This interviewing is being carried out by members of the Social Survey organisation, who have already collected about 20 per cent. of the forms issued. The object of the experiment is to obtain practical evidence on which a comparison can be made of the relative efficiency and cost of the postal and personal canvass methods of collecting the returns. A further modification was put forward at a recent meeting of traders in High Wycombe which would involve the active co-operation of the local Chamber of Commerce. We are waiting to hear their views on this point and shall be prepared to discuss with them details of any scheme they put forward.