Still waiting for census codes

It was the day of the census and some Otago residents were still searching for their forms.

This year, Statistics New Zealand moved most of the census online. Access codes were meant to have been mailed to every home in the country.

But by yesterday, census day, when everyone in New Zealand was legally required to complete the census, a considerable number of people in lesser populated parts of the region appeared to still not have received forms.

Cape Saunders resident Wilma McKay (61) said she never had any issues with the old paper-based system, when individual forms were manually distributed to households.

''That's the way a census needs to be done,'' she said.

Mrs McKay was not the only Cape Saunders resident yet to receive an access code.

Alby Benson's letterbox was also absent a code yesterday.

The retiree knew several other Otago Peninsula residents who were still missing paperwork, he said.

''I was at a meeting of nine people last night and five still hadn't got their forms.''

Mr Benson said he phoned Statistics New Zealand to get a replacement form on Monday and was told it would arrive in about five days.

The Dunedin residents were not alone in failing to receive their paperwork.

Tapanui woman Lenore Whyte (77) said she had not seen a form.

On the West Coast also, residents of several small towns had not received their forms and no-one in Haast received their paperwork, while Westland Mayor Bruce Smith had yet to receive his forms as of yesterday, and was questioning the accuracy of the count.

Back in Otago, Liz Moir, owner of the Dunback Inn, feared her small town would be missed out too, after being told it was ''out of scope'' by Statistics New Zealand.

She had inquired and was told the town was uninhabited and effectively not part of the census.

In an unattributed, emailed response to questions from the Otago Daily Times, Statistics New Zealand said Dunback would be included in the census and advised residents to contact the helpline for any assistance.

The statement said census forms would be accepted until ''mid-April''.

''After census day you can still complete you census forms. We are working hard to make sure we get codes to everyone for census day. But don't worry, if you don't have a code or your paper forms by census day, there's still time to take part once your code or paper forms arrive.''

After census day, any household that had not completed census forms would be contacted by letter, then be visited by ''field teams'' if required.

Most households in the country had received access codes, but some codes and paper forms were still being delivered.