Belated census help for Westland

Extra census staff have been put into Westland belatedly to try to reach entire pockets of people who were missed out in the lead-up to Census Day yesterday.

The Greymouth Star revealed that as of yesterday morning, no one at Haast had received their census forms, and neither had Westland's Mayor.

There had also been complaints from Waitaha, Franz Josef Glacier and Okarito, and rural addresses throughout the West Coast.

One Haast resident who finally received her forms yesterday said the enumerator was "flown down from Blenheim via Queenstown to come to Haast to deliver the census forms to the locals".

Statistics NZ census field operations manager Alan Bailey said last evening that in some regions of New Zealand, including the West Coast, there had been some delays in delivering census materials because of the flooding and slips caused by Cyclone Gita, "and the challenges of reaching remote parts of New Zealand".

In fact, Cyclone Gita had little effect on the West Coast.

Mr Bailey said field staff were unable to start because of the cyclone and the challenging terrain, which slowed down the distribution of census materials and hampered their ability to catch-up.

"We're working hard to make sure that the remaining households across Westland receive their access codes; the majority of these dwellings are in the Haast area.

"We are doing everything we can, and we have sent additional staff into the area to help.

"We expect to have delivered census access codes to everyone, by Thursday, March 8," he said.

"It is absolutely fine to take part after Census Day."

Westland Mayor Bruce Smith yesterday criticised the muck-up and said he had no confidence that the census would be reliable, and as a result could cost the West Coast in future services.

Grey District Mayor Tony Kokshoorn today urged people to fill out their forms, regardless.

Change was hard but online returns were "the way of the future".

"They have to make an effort," he said.

Mr Kokshoorn - whose wife did his return on-line - said young people could help anyone who was stuck.

However, he accepted that the change this year to on-line was probably difficult to administer on the West Coast.

"But we live in a world of change."

By midnight on Tuesday, 2.98 million people had taken part in the census online.

"This is a great result so far, and we're delighted that so many people have done this," 2018 census general manager Denise McGregor said.

"We aimed for 60% of those in New Zealand to complete it by midnight and we are very happy to have achieved this."

Anyone who wanted to complete a paper return, but got their access code later than other parts of New Zealand, would still be able to respond, he said.

• If you have not received your census material by Thursday, phone 0800 CENSUS 0800 236 787.

- By Laura Mills