planned the system and the methods of the investigation. The material collec-
ted was dealt with by the Statistical Dept. of the Zionist Executive.
II. SYSTEM OF INVESTIGATION.
It was decided to distribute questionnaires to 60-80 workers’ families in
Jerusalem, Haifa and Tel-Aviv, and to 10 unmarried persons in each of these
three towns.
The investigation was limited to families whose monthly income varied
between five and twelve Egyptian Pounds per month.
It was decided to carry out the investigation between the 18th of July
and the 18th of August, this being the month after removal into new houses
(Arab month “Muharam”).
In order to obtain exact results as far as the subject under consideration
and the limited material at our disposal permitted, “weighted arithmetic avera-
ges" and “medians” were worked out and the margin of error was estimated
on the basis of the accepted “standard deviation”. In reference to rent the
“correlation” system was employed.
The system used was to collect a sufficient number of family budgets to
reduce error to a minimum, to exclude exceptional cases, and to collect the
retail prices paid for the requirements of life.
III. BUDGETS.
The questionnaires in the form of booklets were sent out by the Labour
Dept. They consisted of 16 pages comprising 4 special forms. Form A dealt
with the composition and the income of the family; form B stated the expen-
diture for each day separately during the period under investigation, the
quantities purchased, the unit price and the total price paid for each article;
form C dealt with other expenses incurred monthly, such as rent, amusements,
newspapers, membership, dues, etc.; form D dealt with the expenditure during
the first ten months of 5687 for clothing, shoes, underwear, education, medical
aid, travelling, etc.
The questionnaires were distributed in Jerusalem, Tel-Aviv and Haifa by
paid investigators, whose duty it was to select suitable families, render the
neccesary explanations, supervise the filling in of the forms, but who were in-
structed to abstain from anything in the nature of promting
Altogether 123 questionuaires were filled in, but in the course of tabulation
such forms as appeared to be deficient and those filled in by single persons and
officials were excluded. This left 102 questionnaires (and in same cases only
100 and 99) for actual use:
Table 1. Budgets.
Forms -
distributed Filled in Rejected Used
Jerusalem 60 32 3 29
Tel Aviv 80 50 12 38
Haifa 60 41 6 35
m~ Ann yes ~ od
iota 200 (23 Zi 102
