Monday, March 20, 2006

Don't believe everything you read

Callers to NewstalkZB today were aghast that Nelson, coined the stress capital of New Zealand by Judith Collins, has 15.6 percent of its working-age people receiving a sickness benefit because of stress. Host Tim Dower said he didn't believe it.

He's right. The NZPA had somewhat mangled Judith Collin's press release which actually said, "15.6% of working age people receiving a sickness benefit in Nelson are on that benefit because of stress."

In fact the Nelson region has a lower beneficiary to working-age population ratio than the national average. ONLY one in ten of their working-age population (15-64) is on some sort of benefit.

2 comments:

Oswald Bastable said...

Everytime I read an article about an event I was personally involved in, there is something incorrect.

This time, my 1858 revolver has been refered to as from Daniel Boone's time. 1858!!!

I told them 'American Civil War'- Dan'l was born on November 2, 1734!

Back to the title of your post...

Anonymous said...

Lies, damn lies and statistics eh?

I can confirm the stress for most Nelsonians fall into the following categories right now...

- not enough (any) rain
- not enoough seasonal workers to bring in/pack seasonal crops
- house and section prices
- road works existing and those we can't get approved
- proposed rates increases of 10-15%