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APPENDIX I
REPORT ON BLUE BOOKS
OF THE
Sub-Committee appointed to examine in detail the Blue Books, Blue. Book Reports, and other Colonial Statistical Publications, and to
of Report as to the modifications, additions, re-arrangement contents, etc., which may appear necessary or desirable.
PART I.
We have held eighteen meetings, and have now completed the detailed examination of the Blue Books.
PRELIMINARY REMARKS.
It became clear at an early stage in the deliberations of the Committee on Colonial Blue Books and Blue Book Reports, that the contents of the Blue Books and Blue Book Reports We wish to need improvement in order to make them of value for commercial purposes. emphasize this point at the outset.
The question of the improvement and unification of the import and export statistics of the various Colonies and of the Dominions has been repeatedly discussed. Memoranda dealing, with the Crown Colonies as well as the self-governing Dominions were prepared by the Board of Trade for the Imperial Conferences of 1907 and 1911.
The Dominions Royal Commission in its Final Report* (paragraph 673) has suggested a Conference of Statisticians of the Empire, which apparently would include representatives of the Crown Colonies as well as of the Dominious. Pending further progress on these lines any improvement in the form and contents of the Blue Book statistics must be provisional and tentative.
We invite attention to the International Brussels Convention of 1913 on Customs Statistics. It was the intention that adherents to that Convention should forward their trade statistics to a Bureau at Brussels which would convert them into a "nomenclature commune," values being shown in francs and weights according to the metric system. No Crown Colonies have adhered to the Convention at present, and of the self-governing Dominions, Australia only lae adhered.
We submit the following recommendations in regard to Blue Books:
A.
General.
(1) Having regard to the importance of prompt publication of the sections of the Blue Book dealing with (i) Imports and Exports, (ii) Shipping, and (iii) Production and Natural Resources (the latter a new section which will be referred to later in this report) arrangements should be made for the preparation and printing of these sections as soon as possible after the close of the calendar year. The first two sections mentioned above should be issued in a combined form in a paper cover, and should be despatched to the Colonial Office not later than the second week in February, and should be followed as soon as possible by the section dealing with Production and Natural Resources. Officers responsible for the preparation of these sections of the Blue Book should be made clearly to understand that the statistics which they contain are of little value unless they are published with all possible promptitude, and should be warned that serious notice will be taken of any delay in their publication. The complete Blue Book (which should include the above sections) should be issued in due course, and all officers concerned in its preparation should be held responsible for avoiding any unnecessary delay.
We suggest the preliminary publication of certain sections of the Blue Books with some diffidence, as the matter is outside our terms of reference, and one for the decision of the Committee. We submit it, however, as it appears to us essential that the three sections referred
* [Cd. 8462.]
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to above should be made available to those by whom they are required at a much earlier date than at present. We recognise that this question depends largely upon the extent to which it is intended to widen the present circulation of Blue Books. This point is, however, one for the decision of the Committee.
(2) The utility of Blue Books might be enhanced by reducing them from folio to octavo size. The reduction in size would, also enable the actual printing to be done more cheaply and more expeditiously.
The printing should be closer, and thinner paper should be used. The Canadian form of It might be Parliamentary publications, published in octavo size, affords a useful model. followed generally in all Colonies and Protectorates. Closer printing should be effected inter alia by the concentration of nil returns, and by more economical spacing. Title pages and blank pages should be omitted at the beginning and ending of sections.
It is possible, however, that there might be technical difficulties in the way of a general adoption of the reduced size, and we suggest, therefore, that Governors of Colonies should be asked for their views as to the feasibility of the proposed change.
(3) The calendar year should be adopted for all trade statistical returns throughout the Colonies.
(4) CURRENCY.--Where local currencies are in operation sterling value should be given in addition to the value in local currency in the totals of the finance and trade tables.
(5) WEIGHTS AND MEASURES.-The standard to be used should, so far as the custom of the local trade permits, be the weight or measure adopted in the trade as laid down in the ' United Kingdom Trade Returns.
Attention is called to the difficulty in comparing the statistics of the various Colonies, which arises from the fact that in the present Blue Books quantities of exports and imports are not infrequently expressed in different units in different Colonies. Thus, cotton statistics are given in different Colonies in rotoli, cwts., lbs., pikule, kilos.; coco-nuts in number, cwts.. packages, sacks, bags; grain in rotoli, kilos. cwts., pikuls, barrels, lbs., bushels; hides in number, bales, lbs., packages, pikuls, cwts., leaves, rotoli, &c.
In all cases where units other than those adopted for the United Kingdom Trade Returns are used in statistical returns, the equivalent in Imperial standards should be clearly stated.
(6) The term "United Kingdom" should be substituted for "Great Britain "--thus in. cluding Ireland-wherever the latter term is used in the Tables of Imports and Exports or elsewhere in the Blue Books. Similarly "other parts of the British Empire" should be substituted for "Colonies."
B.
The Sections of the Blue Books.
(These sections, the model forms for which are prepared in, and sent out from, the Colonial Office, are dealt with in the order in which they are given in the present index.)
The index should in future be alphabetical, and more detailed than at present.
L
TAXES, DUTIES AND OTHER SOURCES OF REVENUE.
This Section should in future he combined with the subsequent section "Fees, B," and There is much should be headed " Taxes, Duties, Fees and other Sources of Revenue." uncertainty at present as to what classes of taxes, duties and fees should be included under A, and what classes under B; and there is great divergence of practice in the various groups of colonies. In some colonies virtually all fees are set out in Section A, only those fees (often not more than half a dozen) which are retained by individual officers, and do not therefore form a part of the Government Revenue, being enumerated in Section B. In other Colonies many classes of fees, including legal and municipal fees, are set out in Section B.
The new and combined section should be preceded by a separate index, such as is already included in the Nyasaland Blue Book. A copy of this index is appended hereto as an indication of what is required (Schedule A).
There would be no objection to subdividing the new section to the extent of elassifying Legal Fees and Municipal Fees (in so far as the latter need be included in the Blue Books) under separate sub-heads. Asterisks or other similar signs should be inserted to show whether the various fees are payable (a) into the Public Treasury or (b) for the personal use of indi- vidual officers, or (c) out of the Public Treasury. An explanatory note on this point should appear at the beginning of the new and combined section, thus-
"Fees marked thus (*) are paid into the Treasury for the public use.
(†) are received and retained by the Officer.
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"
"
(+) are received by the Treasury but paid to the officer or
officers concerned."
Details of postal rates, telephone rates, Government Gazette subscription rates, and other similar sources of revenue are at present included in many Blue Books under sections A or B. These should be transferred to the section of the Blue Book dealing generally with the subject to which they relate. The section combining sections A and B should merely contain the heading of the rates in question and indicate where the details are to be found, thus:
"Postal Rates (see POSTS AND TELEGRAPHS).”
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