Census 2001: Stand up and be counted

By ANGELA GREGORY

Jelena Novakovik-Stavrevska arrived here only four months ago, and has already helped to take the biggest-ever snapshot of NZ life.

The Macedonian is working as an enumerator for the 2001 Census, where her fluency in five East European languages has proven a bonus.

Mrs Novakovik-Stavrevska has been hauling boxes of census forms onto ships and talking foreign crews and passengers through the process.

She is one of 5900 enumerators distributing 5.2 million forms - 3.8 million to individuals and 1.4 million to dwellings.

Every person who will be in New Zealand at midnight tonight has to fill in a census form this evening, whether he or she lives here or not.

It often comes as a surprise to visitors, and that's where linguists such as Mrs Novakovik-Stavrevska come in handy.

"It's my first job in New Zealand and I love it. People are generally very nice, very polite."

She has delivered 250 dwelling forms and 400 individual forms in Auckland around the central city.

Census 2001 Auckland area manager Marilyn Shaw said the most difficult residents to locate were not the homeless but apartment dwellers.

"Access has proven difficult with things like electronic gates and confidential key codes. There have been quite a few obstacles in getting the people at home."

The enumerators yesterday had dropped forms at the Methodist Mission as the homeless came in for meals, and would go out with the community constables tonight.

Marilyn Shaw said forms had also been delivered to backpackers' hostels, hotels and even by dinghy to visiting yachties.

On Sunday, about 800 forms were taken on board the Russian-registered cruise ship Maxim Gorkiy in Auckland. The 300 crew and a new batch of German tourists would face the dreary form-filling exercise in Wellington tonight.

"They say, 'We are not New Zealanders, why do we have to do it?' But we need to get a picture of what's going on throughout the country," Marilyn Shaw said.

Two enumerators would even travel on the overnight trains between Auckland and Wellington tonight, swapping places where the trains met so they could get home again.

Deputy Government Statistician Dianne Macaskill said few people failed to take the census seriously. It was an offence to lie, and false forms attracted a $500 fine.

After the previous census 40 people were prosecuted for deliberately falsifying their forms.

"The judges found in our favour every time ... In half the cases the offenders corrected their forms in the courtroom. The rest were fined."

Dianne Macaskill said genuine mistakes were picked up through elaborate cross-checks, the most common error being people putting the current year as their birth year.

"We ask people their date of birth twice for that very reason."

Dianne Macaskill said the census "paints a statistical snapshot of our place as people and how we are changing, and can then be used for planning services and facilities."

Where people have lived and for how long helps to measure internal migration and determine electoral boundaries.

Dates of birth help to target the delivery of health and education services, living arrangements help in the planning of housing and welfare programmes, and work addresses help to improve transport routes.

This year a new question would reveal who had access to the internet.

You can also choose whether your census form will be released under your name in 100 years or shredded after the data has been collated.