STATISTICAL NICETIES

Evening Post, Issue 37, 12 August 1936, Page 8

STATISTICAL NICETIES

. It seems to be , desirable, but hardly possible, that the"-guaran-teed'prices of butter and cheese should be two different things at the one time—should be both in excess of, and not in excess of, London market prices. If the guaranteed prices are above London market prices, the British farmer will call it a dump; if they are below, the New Zealand farmer will call it a slump. In yesterday's issue, the British National Farmers' Union "points out" that "the New Zealand Government's guaranteed prices for New Zealand cheese and butter exceed the present London market prices"; the New Zealand Primary Producers' Marketing Department "points out" the opposite. Thus the Department registers one point" against dump, but its satisfaction will not be wholly shared by the farmer in New Zealand. Unlike guaranteed prices, the mar-ket-prices do not stand still, so it may not be beyond the resources of statistical agility to find a basis for showing- the New Zealand farmer that the guaranteed prices exceed the market, and for showing the British farmer that they do not. (Which would come back fairly close to our starting point.) The base period being vital to a marketprice calculation, the ' British farmers' vague "average over recent years" invites statistical re-examina-tion, and gives the statisticians one more opportunity to prove that figures, like anli-laxalion pledges, cannot lie. If the statistical evidence can be maintained in a nice state of poise as between dump and slump, the nearest thing to serving both masters will have ' been gracefully attained,