THE FRUIT INDUSTRY.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XL, Issue 13150, 9 August 1913, Page 6

THE FRUIT INDUSTRY.

A CO-OPERATIVE SOCIETY. (Special to Herald.) CHRISTCHURCH, this day. An important movement m connection with, the marketing and distribution of fruit particularly Uanterburygro\vn fruit, has been started m Oiiristchurch by the Canterbury Fruit and Produce Growers' «Jo-operative {Society, La— Sufficient siupport has already been received irom growers to warrant the society recommencing operations on the first of next month. Ine present movement is essentially different from any other previously attempted by fruitgrowers m Chrtstchurch. Hitherto the methods adopted have been those of ordinary commercial undertakings, with division of profits, on the basis of the capital investments, the. number of shares held determining the voting power of each shareholder. The society now established is a purely co-operative one, with one man one vote, and a limit of dividend payable on capital and distnbu- i tion of pronts m proportion to the vakie' of the produce sent' m by members. The primary object of tHe society is to secure higher pronts to growers. Later on the society will be utilised to work up the export trade m fruit, and to dis- j tribute practically all the supplies re- ' quired by fruitgrowers. , Such a society will also be necessary to take advantage of the Government proposals for the lending of money for the erection of cool stores and canning factories. At the present time all fruit sent to South America from New Zealand is shipped under one mark, as "grown m NewZea-j land." With the society m a position ' to guarantee a specified number of cases I from growers, the fruit could carry the 1 society's brand, which Avould benefit, all Canterbury growers. The , provincial! district produces the best Stunner apples, but under present method^ of shipment this distinction ip absolutely lost. Membership of the society will not be confined to Canterbury, as it is intended to ask shippers of produce from all parts of New Zealand, Australia, and the South Sea Islands to take shares, i