FIGHTING COMBINES.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 113, 16 May 1927, Page 4

FIGHTING COMBINES.

SUGGESTIONS TO FARMERS.

SYSTEMS EXPLAINED.

Methods of marketing their produce to better advantage, particularly by means ot co-operative societies, were explained to the onion growers of Marshland, Canterbury recently, by Mr. H. D. Acland, president of the New Zealand Sheepowners and Farmers' Federation, and at the conclusion of the meeting a member of the audience stated that, in his opinion, a cooperative society would be formed in the very near future.

Mr. Acland explained the systems of cooperative marketing adopted in Denmark and Ireland, detailing the procedure. In ■New Zealand, he said, farmers were buying retail and selling wholesale. That procedure must be reversed. In Denmark a man came from the factory and collected produce from the farmers, taking it to the market. The co-operative society, after preparing the produce, sent it to the selling organisation which had a centre at a main port. The produce was then sent to England said sold. Thus, the farmer able + tO . get an advance against his produce straight away. A farmer was not paid according to the number of shares he bad in the concern, but the whole of the pronts were divided amongst the suppliers m proportion to the amount of produce they sent in. Farmers did not have to spend a lot of time in taking produce to the market, and they had the advantage oi a large amount of produce going away to be graded. Special herd testing was earned cut, with the result that there was an enormous increase in returns. "Under the existing state of affairs the small man cannot afford to go on his own, but he is able to do so under a co-operative scheme." Referring to the big combines, Mr. Acland said that the shipping companies were able to "put it over" the producer at any time. Combines could only be met by combines. Explaining the methods of a cooperative society established 15 years ago, the speaker said that all members were made to sign an agreement that they would send a certain amount of produce each year tc- keep the society's factory going. Thus the contractors were the farmers themselves, and also the owners of the factory. "The dominant note in any co-operative society must be the note of the individual and not his money. One member one vote must be the system. You may only get a fixed interest on the money you put into the society which has unlimited membership within a radius of so many miles."