Statistics NZ Unlocks the Past

Statistics Minister Maurice Williamson says making 119 years of New Zealand history available online is a big leap into the digital age.

Digitised versions of New Zealand’s historic yearbooks are now available on Statistics New Zealand’s website.

Since 1893, New Zealand’s Official Yearbooks have captured the stories of New Zealand in words and in numbers.

“These volumes have a wealth of information in them but in today’s digital age, people don’t want to have to sift through dusty old tomes to find what they want. They want the information now, and they want it wherever they are,” says Mr Williamson.

He says digitising the Yearbooks will unlock a treasure trove of information for researchers, from fisheries to friendly societies and from prices to poetry.

“This will give easy access to information that tells New Zealand’s stories.

“The smart technology allows users to search on keywords and simply copy and paste tables of data into software like Excel where they can work with it.

“This is infinitely better than keying in data by hand, which is what researchers have had to do until now.”

Statistics New Zealand’s overarching goal is to ensure that New Zealand gets the information it needs.

The digitised yearbooks can be found at www.stats.govt.nz/yearbooks