That a Census of the number and condition of the population of the Islands of New Zealand shall be taken in the first fourth and seventh years of every decade of years, on the days and in the manner hereinafter declared.

That the first decade shall be deemed to commence with the year of the passing hereof.

That the Governor-in-Chief shall appoint persons to collect the information required by this Ordinance, and may cause an allowance to be made to any such person at a rate not exceeding ten shillings per day.

That in each of the years hereinbefore particularized the Senior Resident Magistrate in every settlement in the said Islands, or, where there is no Resident Magistrate, some fit person to be appointed by His Excellency the Governor-in-Chief, shall, on or before the first day of March, cause notices to be affixed on the several Churches, Chapels, Court Houses, and Police Stations, and in such other conspicuous places as he shall deem proper, within such district as shall be to him assigned for that purpose by His Excellency the Governor-in-Chief, requiring every householder to be prepared, on the thirty-first day of March, or as soon thereafter as he may be called upon so to do by a Collector appointed as aforesaid, to give all such information as is required by the Schedule hereunto annexed.

That the said Collectors shall, on or before the twenty-fifth day of March in each of the years hereinbefore particularized, leave at every house within the districts assigned to them respectively a Schedule, being a blank copy of the Schedule to this Ordinance annexed; and every householder able to write shall, on the thirty-first day of March, furnish in writing the information required by the said Schedule, by filling up the same and subscribing his name at the foot thereof, and shall deliver the same when called for to one of the said Collectors.

That each Collector shall, as soon after the thirty-first day of March as practicable, call at every house in his district to collect the Schedules, and is hereby authorized to put such questions as may be indispensable to the complete filling up thereof, to any householder who, from inability to write, shall not have duly filled up the same, and the Collector shall thereupon fill it up himself with the information so supplied.

That every householder who shall wilfully refuse or without lawful excuse neglect to fill up the said Schedule to the best of his knowledge and belief, or to sign and deliver the same, or shall make sign or deliver, or cause to be made signed or delivered, any false return of any of the matters specified in the said Schedule, or who shall refuse to answer, or wilfully give a false answer to such questions as aforesaid, shall for every such refusal or wilfully false answer, forfeit a sum not exceeding five pounds nor less than twenty shillings.

Provided always that with respect to the present year the Census shall be taken on the first day of November, the notices given on or before the first day of October, the Schedules left on or before the twenty-fifth day of October, and filled up by the householder on the first day of November, and called for and filled up, when requisite, by the Collector, as soon after that day as practicable, all in manner aforesaid.

This Ordinance shall come into operation on the first day of August, one thousand eight hundred and fifty-one.