By the time you will finish reading this document, at least two people aged 25-years or younger, somewhere in the world, including New Zealand, will have taken their lives; it is equally likely that at this very moment, someone somewhere in the world, deluded and dissatisfied with the state of existence as is, about to train a gun or activate an explosive device, or use a weapon to commit murder \cite{Sinyor2017,Bertolote2015,Reed2015}. Available evidence suggests depression or dissatisfied mental health condition resulting in some form of 'lack of a state of happiness' is a risk factor for suicide \cite{Knorr2016,Reed2015}. It therefore follows that if an 'unhappy' state of mind is a risk factor for suicide and homicide, then increasing the "level of a state of happiness" in individuals or societies may lead to reduction in suicide and homicide risks; it will also let people live 'happier lives'. In turn, this implies that happiness is measurable construct; happiness has a uniform metric, and that, such measurement along a scale will lend itself usable for interventions. 
Suicide is a societal risk and a public health problem, and lack of a happy state of mind is a risk factor \cite{Sinyor2017,Bertolote2015,Reed2015}. Happiness is a desirable state of mind and it is believed that happy people are less likely to commit suicide or engaged in homicidal activities. While it is believed that happy people are less likely to take their own lives, available evidence suggest that measurable happy places on earth also have high suicide rates  \cite{daly2010happiness}.  NZ, for example, is consistently in the top 10 of the World Happiness Report whilst having the highest youth suicide rate of the developed nations \cite{clark2011risk,gallagher2008suicide}. These suggest that a need for unbiased, objective measurement of happiness.