Sheepfarmers’ Incomes

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30235, 13 September 1963, Page 12

Sheepfarmers’ Incomes

In our leading article yesterday, in which we pointed out that the “ average net “ income ” of sheepfarmers comprises a return on capital invested as well as “ wages of management ”, the Government Statistician (Mr J. V. T. Baker) Was criticised on the ground that he had failed to make this ' explicit either in the department’s latest set of statistical tables or in his explanation of the survey. Mr Baker has drawn our attention to the following paragraph in the explanation of the survey: “ The " net income of sheep- “ farmers . . . includes an “ element of interest return “on capital investment as “ well as a reward for the " farjper’s personal efforts'

“ on the farm ”, We owe Mr Baker an apology, and are glad to acknowledge that this very necessary distinction has been made in the latest survey, thus remedying a serious defect of some years’ standing. Nothing in Mr Baker’s latest tables, nor in his accompanying explanation, however, suggests that this “ element of interest re- “ turn ” is of the order of £ 1000. The items, “ rent ” (£118), “rates” (£134), “ land tax ”(£ 12), and “ interest” (£218), suggest a very much smaller figure than this. Until the two important components of “average net income” can be indicated with similar precision, the survey must remain open to serious objection.