Thrift Paid Dividends For Irish Visitor

Press, Volume C, Issue 29681, 27 November 1961, Page 2

Thrift Paid Dividends For Irish Visitor

By shopping at the “co-op. shop’’ and purchasing shares in the co-operative society which conducts the stores, Mrs Sadie Burns of Belfast, Northern Ireland, accumulated enough co-operative dividends to pay a considerable portion of the fare needed to visit her son and his family in Christchurch. “These stores sell absolutely everything,” she said yesterday. “The co-operative society even provides birth certificates; it marries you; it buries you. j

Her loyalty to the co-opera-tive society and its principles is such that Mrs Burns prefers to spend 4d each way on bus fares from her home to toe nearest “co-operative” rather than shop at a corner store. ‘‘l would not be seen going into another kind of shop even if it does cut prices. I always say, what if you do save a half-penny on a pound of something there? You certainly don’t go home and put that Jd away in a teapot,” she said. The co-operative store offers a more permanent form of thrift. For every £1 spent in one of them a dividend of Is 2d is accredited to a shareholder. Interest, at 3j per cent, paid on dividends, soon mounts up and in a more effortless way than weekly contributions to a savings bank. Community Spirit The idea behind co-opera-tive stores fosters a community spirit. In a way they are community centres. “If you are feeling a bit lonely and go down to the co-operative you are certain

• to meet someone you know s and have a cup of tea to - toe restaurant,” she said. i Mrs Burns is also a keen > member of toe Irish Co-op- ’ erative Women’s Guild to r Belfast. She joined soon after her marriage and to toe ! 35 years she has been in toe [ organisation has held most of t toe top offices. She has just ; retired from a toree-year , term as vice-president of the > guild’s central council. t “Our motto is: ‘Each for I all and all for each.’ It is a . non-polatical, non-sectarian > organisation and brings t women together in a united ■ front,” she said. i The guild, established 60 years ago, sets out to encourage women, particularly young housewives, to practice i thrift by joining toe co-oper-ative society. Family Benefit The idea of family benefit was first presented to the British government by the guild. It has been responsible for toe raising of women's pensions and many kinds of improved welfare. It has endowed beds in children’s hospitals and has made

generous contributions to cancer research. Co-operative women’s guilds are world-wide. International congresses and national conferences are held regularly. As a delegate, Mrs Burns has travelled extensively in England, Ireland, Scotland and Wale*, She has also visited Europe, Canada, and toe United States on guild affairs. From 1953 until now. Mrs Burns has covered more than' 20,000 miles. Her co-opera-tive society dividends have been richly invested in a world-wide interpretation of her guild’s motto. Now in Christchurch with her son, Mr K. Burns, of Centennial avenue, his wife and three children, Mrs Burns has no deadline for returning to Belfast. If she goes back, toe deciding factor will probably be a nostalgia for her old “co-op. shop” and Thursday night guild meetings.