Tonight is Census night in New Zealand.
The gathering of census statistics first started in 1851,
initially every 3 years, now every 5 years.
The census officially occurs at midnight on a Tuesday in March...
And today, Tuesday night, is census night.
I was having drinks with my current neighbours
enjoying the late afternoon at Tokerau Beach...
The conversation turned to the census.
I had forgotten all about it...
Some of my neighbours had tried to get forms
and were told the nearest camping ground had them.
On asking the camping ground they were told they
needed to book in and stay the night at $40...
So they decided not to.
Another neighbour had previously experienced
census night in his housebus parked at the beach...
So his opinion was "Somebody will come to the beach
and bring the forms."
We were rather sceptical...
But in the middle of this conversation
who should walk over the sandhills but...
Yes... You guessed... Jean Jurlina... The census form lady.
With her bag of forms... One for each person...
And one per dwelling.
The census deliverers attempt to cover all people
in hospitals, camp grounds, workplaces and transport systems...
Wherever people might be at midnight.
And here we were on this remote beach in the Far North.
I was totally astonished... Can't escape the system after all!
Jean got all her forms organised.
She didn't have many left... But there were only four of us.
She took our names and vehicle registration numbers
for identification... What an interesting job...
Jean must have wondered who she was going to
meet as she walked along the beach to the
vehicles she could see in the distance.
With Sue and Jack... Forms delivered...
Mission accomplished.
She will come back and get them in a few days...
Or we can be techno Kiwis and fill them in online...
Now we have an official census number.
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