  An analysis of the IRAS 1.2 Jy redshift catalogue with emphasis on the
separate examination of northern and southern parts (in galactic coordinates)
is performed using a complete set of morphological descriptors (Minkowski
functionals), nearest neighbour distributions and the variance of the galaxy
counts. We find large fluctuations in the clustering properties as seen in a
large difference between the northern and southern parts of the catalogue on
scales of 100Mpc/h. These fluctuations remain discernible even on the scale of
200Mpc/h. We also identify sparse sampling as a major source of ``apparent
homogenization''. Tests on observational selection effects concerning
luminosity, colour and redshift-space distortion support the significance of
these large-scale fluctuations.
