1 C7),
2 many instances the local Officers bear emphatic testimony to the alacrity
3 and good humour with which the measure was received by the people.
4 And after reflection on the extent. of Territory, ‘stretching as it does
5 . from the Jumna, to the Indus, from Kurnal to Peshawur, from Jummoo
6 to the confines of Scinde, through which this operation was conducted
7 simultaneously on a single night ; the diverse nature of the machinery
8 which was set in motion; the still more varied character of the tribes to
9 be enumerated, some being men who had turned from rougher pursuits
10 to agriculture and such like industry ; some being warrior barbarians,
11 who until recently had never conceived the idea of a settled Government,
12 much less of statistical inquiry; some being nomads in deserts or pas-
13 toral wilds, some being denizens not only of hills, but of mountains topped
14 with snow—after reflection on all these points, it is hoped that the
15 efficiency of the result attained may appear not otherwise than creditable
16 to the Administration.
17 _ 7, After completion of the Census, the District Officers and their Es-
18 tablishments tested the returns ; there was no sub-division of any Dis-
19 trict in which the returns remained untested. The work of collation
20 then commenced. In the course of this process errors were not unfre-
21 quently detected. The evolving of averages of persons per square mile,
22 per house, per enclosure, per village—the proportions of males to
23 females, of agricultural to non-agricultural—afford ready means for such
24 detection. The frame-work of the Census however, namely, the register
25 of houses, previously prepared with accuracy and at leisure, constitutes a
26 considerable safeguard against error. Still it is not to be supposed, that
27 notwithstanding the eradication of many mistakes, and the re-casting of
28 the returns in numerous villages where error was suspected, and even in
29 some whole Districts, there does not exist a residue of error. In some
30 instances the local authorities, after all practicable correction, still consider
31 the returns to be not altogether trustworthy. But the great majority
32 express a concurrent opinion as to the general fidelity of the Census,
33 It will be seen presently, that the figures are generally consistent with
34 all known probabilities ;.and on the whole the Chief Commissioner
35 _trusts that. the Census may be presented to the Supreme Government as
36 a not unworthy addition to the statistics of Upper India.
37 8. But it will be observed, that an enumeration of the People, how-
38 ever good in itself, would be comparatively of lesser value, Unless accom-
39 Panied by some reliable statistics of landed area, whereby the relative