NOTES ON CO-OPERATION.

Otago Witness, Issue 2051, 15 June 1893, Page 11

NOTES ON CO-OPERATION.

By Pater.

The Glasgow Eastern Society has just opened a building costing over £7000. Theftontbuilding is of three storeys, the under one being divided into shops for dairy produce, groceries, boots and shoes, and for a butchery. The upper storeys are let as dwellings. At the rear is another building, used as a general store and for various educational and |co-operative purposes. The topmost storey contains a hall for meetings, and conveniences for cooking classes, laundry work, and dressmaking classes. One. room is set apart specially for women, who meet frequently to discuss co-opcrabive and other subjects. This society controls 21 shops, and has a membership of over 2000, with a yearly turnover of about £90,000. Two or three other instances of large turnovers are given in the latest issues of the Co-operative News. The sales of the St. George Society (Glapgow) for three months totted up to over £28,000, and the Kinning Vtxik Society in the same city turned over £55,000 in 1$ weeks. So well has co-operation thrived in Scotland ths,t the societies there are talking of having an annual congress of their own, instead of mteticg with the Euglish and Irish. Bub the same papers contain larger figures in connection with a couple of English co-opera-tives, only one of which, however, I shall rt fer to. The Rochdale Equitable Pioneers' Society shows the sales for three months to h^ve been over '£76,ooo. This society is now dealing with the interest question. About 18 months ago I defined some "of the principles cf co-operation, and said that in ideal co- operatives members supply just sufficient capital to do their share of the business, and that if the exaob sum could bo fcub.-cribei then it did nob matter whether the subscriber got any iuterest or nob, for when a rttusn did not come in interest it would come back as a bonus on business done. It is possible, however, to hold £200 worth of shares ia most tocieties, though ib only requires perhaps £10 to carry en the business done on behalf &f the holder of that amount. Then, if the rate of interest allowed on capital is higher than can be got elsewhere, the £190 is getting paid a high rate of interest out of the surplus that should b3 paid as dividend in the pound on customs. This is rather a long parenthesis, sj now I shall rttutn to the point. A motion has been tabled either to reduce the rate paid to capital or to disallow all interest on buies above £80. In another society the ordinal y rate cf interest is only allowed on an investor's capital when his or her purchases bear a certain proportion to the capital. What a difference between these aud most of the so-called co-operatives of New Zealand, in which more than double bank rate can be allotted to capital before a microscopic bonus can be got by the farmers !

I daresay ifc is ralher late in the day to refer to the matter, but would it not be advisable for the members of the Dairy Association when they meet next week to discuss the differences between co-operation and joint stockism ? There is a list given in the report to be submitted of 25 dairy factories. How many of these are controlled by two or three men ; by men who hold shares greatly in excess of the business they transact with the company they are in; by men who have no interest at all in the companies beyond getting as big a dividend on capital as they possibly can ? At present the rules of these companies could with little difficulty be made co-operative, but by-and-bye I am afraidjt will b8 a difficult matter to effect this reform. It seems to me that the Middle Island Dairy Association could export the whole of its products to the Co-operative Wholesale at Home. I think I am within the mark if I say that about £2,000,000 a year is spent by the Federation in importing dairy and farm products, and the trade in frozen meat could be largely increased at more satisfactory profits to the farming community if the Co-operative Wholesale were made the medium of distribution. I imagiae a trade concentrated as I have indicated could bo carried on more economically than at present, and recognised brands would meet with surer and readier sales. As the last quarterly sales, in] spite of the depression in Lancashire, the centre of the three C's — cotton, coal, and chemicals— of the Co-operative, Union amounted to £2,225,000, it can be? S'en that it would be of immense advantage to secure it as a distributive agent. Convictions by the wholesale are being obtained at Home sometimes against co-operators, but, of tener against private traders, for selling mar-, garine for butter, and for keeping other adulterated goods. Co-operators have been fined even when they have bought and irold in good faith, and when they have informed customers that the gocds they are selling- are mixtures, such as coffee, which it is well known is, as sold, half, or more than half, chicory. In one case a private firm was fined £7 and costs for selling what was termed fresh butter, but which turned out to be 90 per cent, of foreign, fat and 10 per cent, of curd and water. I am sorry that the praise I bestowed last week on this proposed Port Chalmers Dairy Factory was nob deserved to the extent it was given. There are three distinctly anti-co-operative points in its constitution as now drawn up. First, it is to be registered under the Companies' Act and is therefore limited in its share list, and all shares must be taken up ; second, perhaps not more than a third of the shares are held by producers ; and third, onc-man-one-vote is not to obtain. True cooperatives are registered under " the Industrial and Provident Societies Act of 1877 " and need not specify any number of shares— the Christchurch and Napier Distributive Co-operatives are so registered, and others can do the same. Of course capitalists who are to take up twothirds of the shares, and whose interests will not be served if the farmers run on co-opera-tive lines, will throw all obstacles in the way that they can and will take advantage of the farmers' ignorance as to methods of procedure, and they will of course object to one-man-one-vote, because the one third of the shares may be held by farmers numerically stronger than nonproducing shareholders. lam reluctant to believe that the farmers are so poor that they cannot manage to subscribe the capital required among themselves. To subscribe, say, £2 a cow, payable, say, 5s a cow per month, or even less, ought not to be above the means of any dairyman, and if dairymen will nob temporarily deny themselves for a future permanent gain, then they deserve to fall isto the hands of middlemen, to be squeezed to the uttno&t ; and they assuredly will be in time, for capitalists have their faculties sharpened by prac'.icp, and are not only able to take every advantage of the comparatively slow-witted farmers I mean no insult, but circumstances cause them to be so, it is their misfortune not their fault — but to combine for the furtherance of their interests. So my advice to the farmers in this concern is, persevere ; for nothing worth having is got without self-denial, and if the society cannot be floated under circumstances favourable to farmers, then stand out aud preserve liberty of action

for a future occasion. But the longer the formation of co-operatives is pub off the worse it will be. Would ib be possible to get enough subscribed by farmers to erect a factory with the assistance of money borrowed on it ? lam against borrowing, bub rabher that than capital to control voting power. I have received two letters dealing with the rules of the proposed society, and one of bhem says "the company is being got up for the benefit of milk suppliers," and seemingly uses this to justify the exclusion of consumers from getting a bonus. Why, many of the so-called co-operatives use the bonus as a sprat to catch a mackerel. Give a bonus on ordinary market price and custom is bound to flow in. To my mind, a bonus on the lines that were proposed means a subscribing to the share capital by consumers and such an increase in cu=tom that the benefii; will be one to the consumer — who benefits nothing at present — and two to the producer. And with this I'll leave the subject for the present. If there are any other points that need referring to I shall be glad to do so if I am able. It may seem by my notes at times that I am the enemy of the capitalibt and do not appreciate capital. I take it at its full value ; but capital must be subservient to ita users and nob their master, as is too often the case. And the best way, it seems to me, of bringing about bhe desired end is to make, by co-operabion, every man his own capitalist. By the bye, some time ago an attempt was made at Riversdale to establish a dairy on cooperative principles. Has ifc too failed ? Are the farmers wanting in self-effort ? Are they all willing to sacrifice the future for the immediate present ?