MANAWATU DAILY TIMES. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 9, 1920. QUESTION OF THE HOUR.

Manawatu Times, Volume XLIII, Issue 1584, 9 June 1920, Page 4

MANAWATU DAILY TIMES. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 9, 1920 . QUESTION OF THE HOUR.

In regard to the proposal that the ' butter and cheese producers here should combine, and place the whole of their produce with the Co-operative Wholesale Association of the United Kingdom, the "New Zealand Trade Review" has this to say:—As far as we can gather this is a very big organisation built up as follows:—In the various towns of England retail cooperative associations arose that were started by a collection of individuals who devised the idea that by starting a co-operative shop of their own they would reap to themselves the profits formerly acquired by the retailer with whom they dealt, thus cutting out the "middleman." Then, we gather, they went a step farther and these associations combined into a wholesale cooperative association, which has gradually built up such a huge organisation that they own their own dairy farms, clothing and other factories, butter blending and margarine establishments, and even steamships to carry their goods, thus cutting out the "middlemen." The crux of the question for our dairy farmers now is—can they successfully throw over Tooley street and combine or work in with this huge organisation successfully and with greater profit to themselves? The one objection that we see is that while our farmer is all the time out to secure the last possible farthing for bis produce, tbis association is out to provide goods for its various retail associations and thereby to the British consumers it represents with the goods at the lowest -possible price. It must do this to justify its existence. It appears, therefore, that the two aims or purposes are diametrically opposed, and this being so the stronger is going to win. Can our farmers stand up to, and hold their own with, such a huge organisation, which seems to border on the nature of a big "trust?-" We understand that the "market price" is to be fixed by a board of representatives of both sides and having opposite interests as to price these two sides would be in constant opposition, and therefore it seems to us that the probably superior brains (for it must take a lot of the best brains to work up this association) are going to beat the brains on our side. In that case we sball have antagonised the outside trade, from the Tooley Street merchant to the retailer in every town that has suffered from the competition of these retail associations without benefit to ourselves. New Zealand only supplies a bare fifth of the imports of butter and usually a quarter (though last year half) of the imports of cheese into the United Kingdom, and these associations only represent a small majority of the consumers. This is a very weighty proposition for our producers to consider and it behoves them to consider very fully before committing themselves to such a scheme.