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New Zealand Mail, Issue 558, 14 October 1882, Page 17

In several of our recent issues public attention has been directed to the advantages which might be expected to result to the colonists generally, but specially to country settlers, from cooperative associations. The purpose of the articles referred to was to show how, by means of such agencies, the producer could secure a better remuneration for the result of his expenditure in money and labor, and the consumer have his wants supplied at a cheaper rate than obtains in either case at present. It is gratifying to find that some service has thus been rendered to a movement so immediately connected with the progress ot a young country, and which is certain to command general favor so soon as its principle is properly understood, and the working of it is placed on a # sound and practical basis. Hitherto, comparatively little heed has been paid to the remunerative power of combination, in so far, at least, as it respects farming and grazing products; and the consequence has

been that those engaged in agricultural or bucolic pursuits have had to deal as units with a trading combination, more or less pronounced, to the diminishing of their profits and the increasing of their outlay. Now, however, the thoughts of the agrarian population are being gradually occupied with a matter which very materially affects their comfort, and the practical outcome is to be 3een in those efforts which are being initiated in several different quarters of the country to bring about a more healthy state of things, founded on the law of mutual reliance. The most important movement of this nature which has yet been attempted is the formation of the New Zealand Farmers' Co-operative Association of Canterbury (Limited), incorporated under the Joint Stock Companies Act, about a year ago. A copy of the memorandum and articles of that association has been forwarded to us, and persons who, anywhere, may contemplate any similar organisation cannot do better than proceed along the lines there laid down with great care and completeness. It is, of course, impossible to give these articles in detail, but as indicative of the purposes and plans of the association, the following may be quoted: The objects are to " carry on the business of a co-opera-tive association in all its branches ; buy and sell goods, stores, and effects of all kinds; conduct sales upon a cash basis; to offer, facilities to farmers for the shipment of their produce to the various markets of the world, and to appoint agents in different .localities for the furtherance of this end; and to '.', do all such things as are incidental or conducive to the objects of the association." What results may attend the operations of this combination it may yet be too early to speculate on; but of this there can be little doubt, that it must exert a material influence upon all the business relations of the locality, and the ultimate placing of them upon a more healthy footing. A movement akin to the foregoing, headed by such* men as Mr Osmond and Captain Russell, has, with every prospect of success, been inaugurated in Hawke's Bay, under the title of " The Hawke's Bay Meat Export Company," a report of whose proceedings was published in our issue of the sih instant. In the wake of this, Wanganui is also bestirring itself, and taking such measures aB are calculated to bring the. surplus produce of the fertile and extensive country adjacent, into the foreign markets under the most favorable conditions. And, if last, yet by no means least in relative importance, is the effort now being made, at the instigation of of W. C. Buchanan, Esq., M.H.R., to establish a "Butter and Cheese Factory" at a central point in the largo district of Wairarapa. All. these .several efforts are indicative of the fact that the public mind : is waking up to the idea that an immense impulse to individual energy "may be given by a combination among those engaged in homogeneous pursuits, in virtue of the assurance which such combination gives that the largest amount of profit possible will thus be secured for every species of industry. Such attempts at co-operation, if wisely viewed and directed, Ought not beget anything like a feeling of distrust or hostility as between our town and country communities ; but, on the contrary, should tend to develope a feeling of interdependenceand mutual confidence condu» cive to the advancement of the true interests of both. It ought, in fact, to be the aim of both our civic and rural populations to conjoin heartily for the increaseand disposal of the resources of the country in such ways as will prove satisfactory to all parties concerned. For example, practical measures might easily be adopted with the view of inducing the business men of Wellington to aid in the efficient establishment of the Wairarapa Butter and Cheese Factory, and the Meat Export Company in Wanganui; and, in like manner, the residents in the Wanganui and Wairarapa Districts to take shares in the Frozen Meat Company of Wellington. The great thing is to get society permeated with the idea that individual advantage is not the main object of human effort; that there is a moral, as well as a material, advantage to be derived from ex- ! emplifying the doctrine of the brotherhood of effort; and that what does most good to the whole community will best contribute to the highest advantage of every part thereof. In this theory there is assuredly nothing Utopian viewed merely as a theory, and the signs of the times make it certain that it is one destined in the immediate future to act largely as a

regulative power in all the mutual relations of life. They who recognise this soonest will, in the end, be the wisest.