ESTIMATES AND GUESSES. [To TUE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—Your
habitual readers who have become trained to expect precision in the use of terms in your columns feel a shock when they observe a falling-off in this respect. In your news columns you refer to the " Chancellor's estimates or guesses." You have also on more than one occasion referred to the valuers under the Land Valuation Act as the Chancellor's " guessers." Is it really it fact that the Chancellor has given any estimates that are so absolutely without any basis of calculation that they are mere " guesses," and that the valuers referred to have absolutely no knowledge to guide them in their calculations that they are as much " guessers " as any man in the street would be P An estimate presupposes some knowledge, a guess absolutely none.—I am, [As to estimates the Chancellor of the Exchequer guessed that Old Age Pensions would cost £6,000,000 a year. We guessed (we admit it was a pure guess) double. The actual cost is over £13,000,000. Estimates as to the value of land are often the purest guesses. How can you call the sum which you think A would bid for Blackacre anything but a guess when you are unaware not only of A's psychology and purse, but whether a would-be purchaser of Black-acre will over come into being.—En. Spectator.]
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