The difficulty to-day is not that the societies do not publish statistics, but that the statistics which they publish are not related to any aim or purpose, and do not include factors or standards which enable us to measure progress.
(ii) It may also cause surprise that we ask for estimates in some cases where exact information is not immediately accessible.

It may be said that statistics are misleading, but estimates are hopelessly misleading: let us have correct figures or none.

That attitude is easily understood, but under the circumstances it is vain.

"Correct figures," that is, meticulously exact figures, are unattainable.

An estimate is in nearly all matters of daily life and business the basis, and rightly the basis, of our action.