BRITISH FARM PRODUCTION

Press, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 26119, 23 May 1950, Page 5

BRITISH FARM PRODUCTION

FARMERS REPLY TO M.P.’S CRITICISM MR EVANS ACCUSED OF INACCURACIES (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 8 p.m.) LONDON. May 22. The National Farmers’ Union, replying to criticisms made in the House of Commons by Mr Stanley Evans, a former Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Food, has aebused Mr Evans of “startling inaccuracies." Mr Evans alleged in the House of Commons that farm profits had risen by 411 per cent. “Mr Evans has either been misinformed or otherwise misled over the economy of food production.” said the Farmers' Union, in a statement. “To say that some of his statements were fantastic is not to imply that Mr Evans himself did not believe them, but the privilege afforded by the House of Commons surely demands that members should exercise greater care that their facts and figures are indeed accurate. “Mr Evans quoted a correspondent as saying that the total cost of growing 100 acres of potatoes worked out at £lO an acre. The cost quoted is less than the price of the seed alone. The established average cost of potato production is more than five times greater. “Mr Evans also said he knew where milk was produced last year at 91d a gallon. The independently established average co't of milk production in England and Wales over a full year is between two and three times as much.” Figures Challenged The statement said that Mr Evans’s figure for the annual increase in food output was £38.000.000. “It should be £50.000.000.” continued the statement. "His figure for the annual value of agricultural production was £591.000.000: it should be £B5O 000 000. He said the nation gets a third of its food from home sources: the proportion is more than 40 per cent. “Mr Evans said he wanted an answer to the question. ‘What was the average wage cost for every £ of sales in 1938' and what was the wage cost of every £ of sales in 1940?’ Here it is. “Tn 1938. out of every £. 4s 7d was paid in wages and salaries. In 1949. the comparable figure was 5s 9d. “Mr Evans has created something, of a sensation with the help of startling inaccuracies, and thinking neoole must be appalled by the grotesque and largelv imaginative conception of a subject about which he apparently knows so little.”