Canada (Province). Bureau of Agriculture and Statistics

Corporate body

Canada (Province). Bureau of Agriculture and Statistics

n.d.

A wide range of statistical reports were supplied by the Lieutenant Governor to the Colonial Office and to the Legislature. These reports were based on data collected by the Civil Secretary and by the Provincial Secretary and Registrar. By 1821, reporting practices had formalized; the Blue Books of Statistics were produced annually thereafter. The Civil Secretary was responsible for preparing reports enclosed in despatches to the Colonial Office. From 1832 onward, however, the Provincial Secretary was responsible for preparing the Blue Books. After the union of Upper and Lower Canada, the Board of Registration and Statistics, composed of the Provincial Secretary, the Receiver General and the Inspector General, took over the task.
As a result of the prominence of agricultural statistics, the Minister of Agriculture was appointed chairman of the Board of Registration and Statistics, created in 1847. Among its other responsibiliti es, the Board conducted decennial censuses (Hodgetts, pp. 238-239). In 1852, the Bureau of Agriculture and Statistics was created. It exercised loose supervision of voluntary agricultural societies, and extended grants to these societies, by means of Boards of Agriculture for both Canada West and Canada East (16 Vic., Chap. 11). As formally constituted by statute in 1868, the post-Confederation Department of Agriculture was responsible for statistics and the census. (31 Vic., Chap. 53). In 1912, responsibility for the census and statistics was transferred to the Department of Trade and Commerce (Annual Report, 1911-1912, p. 60).

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