CO-OPERATING IMPERIALLY.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3352, 20 December 1926, Page 7

CO-OPERATING IMPERIALLY.

A delegation representing the English Co-operative Wholesale movement sails next month to explore the possibilities of trade with Australia and New Zealand. The delegates Avill comprise Sir Thomas Allen, Air W. T. Charter, and Air J. English, and will make an exhaustive survey, lasting at least six months, of the productive centres of the Commonwealth and the Dominion. Special attention will he paid to the butter and cheese markets. The delegation will see whether these commodities can he secured on terms which will give them a wider distribution in this country. The Co-operative Wholesale Society has from time to time bought up wheat supplies from the Dominions. Last year it financed for the first time through its hank the Western Australian wheat crop and had a big lien on the stocks, running into six figures in value and many millions of quarters in hulk. Tlie quality of Hie yield was eminently satisfactory. Canada is taking more than a passing interest in the idea of big co-oper-ative business and the Ontario Minister for Agriculture, as a result of Ills recent visit to Denmark, has announced that he intends to make his department responsible for the co-operative organisation of the marketing of butter, eggs, cheese, fruit and other farm products. One necessity for the success of the scheme is assured markets, and when Air Arthur Henderson, ALP,, and Air A. V. Alexander, ALP., recently, as members of the Empire Parliamentary Association, spent some days in Toronto as guests of the local Government and became acquainted with its plans, they suggested to Air Ferguson, the Premier, that he should get in touch with three officials of the C.W.S., who happened to be in Canada inspecting their Alontrcal office. They accepted his invitation to a conference, and as a result of the discussions which took place ’ the Ontario Government has made very serious proposals to the C.W.S. If they will agree to establish a buying agency for the direct purchase of Ontario’s surplus of farm products, the Ontario Government will provide them with office accommodation, and will undertake to establish depots, equipped with coldstorage facilities, for the collection of produce, institute an efficient system of inspection and grading, and stamp all products offered for sale with a Government brand as a guarantee of their quality. The officials of the C.W.S. could not reach any final decision without llic authority of the full directorate, hut they look favour,a lily upon the plan.