Co-operative Dairying.

Gisborne Times, Volume V, Issue 105, 13 May 1901, Page 3

Co-operative Dairying.

(To the Editor'.)

Sill, —Now, as there is to be a meeting of the milk-suppliers, f sincerely trust that they will ho ablo to sec clearly their way to adopting the co-operative principle, when they will be able to receive the true value of their labor, instead of a few reaping a big harvest. The Government would then send an experienced person who would attend to tho various tests, and see that tlio people got their dues. This must cDino sooner or later, and tho sooner tlio better.

In Taranaki the dairymen have a great deal to put up with, such as housing cattle in winter and growing winter food for siuue, and then the milk tests do not compare by a long way to ours. If, then, with all the additional expenses the Taranaki people can make such great profits, certainly we ought to do better, as our milk tests have been shown to run from 4 point to G. If some of the Taranaki capitalists were interviewed on the matter I am sure that factories would be started in various localities in this rich pastoral district. Messrs Turnbull and Co., of Wellington, would be the right and proper person to take the matter in hand. This company is now building boats for the shipping of "butter alone, so that there must be immense profits derived from “ butter fat.” In the Waikato district there are over eighty factories in working order, and all paying well, although the land is of an inferior quality, and has to be manured every two years. There is no class of people “under the sun” that earn the little that they get so hard. There are no holidays, and even on Sundays they arc up by candle light. Therefore, I say they should receive their full due. It would pay handsomely for milk vendors to give a competent person four hundred a year, and work on the co-operative principle. It certainly would help thorn in reducing the rent bill more than the present sytem. I shall further dwell on the advantages of co-operation in this very important industry in my next.—l am, etc., Justice,