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Governor Lord Lamington, for the Queensland Colonial Government, passed the Statistical Returns Act in 16 December 1896, giving the Colonial Government and later the State Government the power to compulsorily collect certain statistics from government department heads for official collections. The Act created the Government Statisticians' Office.
Weedon wrote:
'as a rule there is very little difficulty with them, but now and then we meet with a stubborn individual who will not supply the information, and then we write polite letters to them pointing out the advantage of having such information as they are asked to supply. There are not more than half-a dozen gentlemen throughout the colony who habitually refuse to supply the returns asked for.'
The Commonwealth and State Statistical Agreement Act 1958 (Qld) merged the Queensland Government Statistician's Office into the Queensland office of the Commonwealth Bureau of Census and Statistics. A separate Government Statistician's Office was established in 1984 to meet the perceived needs of Queenslanders for more information.
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Queensland's first Government Statistician (1904 to 1914) was Thornhill Weedon.
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1. "Queensland Past and Present, 100 Years of Statistics, 1896-1996", Queensland Government Statistician's Office, 1998, ISBN 0 7242 7951 2. Copyright statement: 'Material may be reproduced, provided due acknowledgment is made.'
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