CO-OPERATION.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume VI, Issue 1623, 28 April 1919, Page 11

CO-OPERATION.

CANTEBBTJBY INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY. | The quarterly general meeting of the i Canterbury Industrial Co-operative Society, Ltd., was held in the Trades' Hall on Saturday evening. There was a good attendance. | The president of the Management Committee, Mr M. Hitchen, who was in the chair, reported that in the three months ended March 31 last, the membership roll had increased by 82, and at the latter date stood at 404, This increase was highly satisfactory |when compared with that of one of the ilargest co-operative societies in England, the Halifax Society, which took ; nine years to reach a membership, of 414. ! lie strongly exhorted members to take a keen and detailed interest iu the affairs of their association, and by their helpful recommendations and loyal support to assist the management in their efforts to cope with the increasing requirements incidental to a growing j membership and expanding trade. Mr H. D. Aeland spoke of the opera- : tions of large trusts, particularly a Igroup in America known as "The Big ]Five," which was making huge profits lout of food supplies and other necessities of the people. Four of these in 11916 succeeded in extracting the huge j toll of £:;.5,000,000 in profits. Co-opera-;tive tn/Ming seemed the most effective means of preventing such pernicious operations. Capital was necessary, but must be a servant, not a master; and co-operative principles would work out eventually in a more equal distribution of capital. People might ask what the Co-operative Store had doue in Christchurch; but one had also to consider the advantage conferred in what it had prevented "the other fellow" from doing. As an instance of the value of , the co-operative movement in teaching and training men and women in the : duties of citizenship, he quoted a j passage from the "London Times," drawing attention to the greater keen- '. ness of the women iu the North of ; England districts during the recent Parliamentary elections than that evinced by their sisters in other parts, and ascribing this to their connection with co-operative societies. Mr Aeland commended the cautious policy of the management in its conduct of the society's operations; it was better to wait for the main body of the membership than to forge too far ahead.

i Mr J. B. Strutlicrs said the movement was evolving in a satisfactory manner. The cost of living was a serious item. Increase of wages was no cure for the present condition of things; it was invariably followed by a'more than corresponding rise in the cost of commodities; and so the cure and the evil followed each other in a vicious circle. The elimination of waste, better organisation, and the bringing of the consumer more directly iuto touch with the producer, were the principles for which the co-operative movement stood, and were the only remedy.

Mr J. Kennedy advised that dividends should be limited to allow of a reserve fund being built up as an offset against the possible outbreak of epidemics of sickness or hard times in trade; so that it might be available to assist members who, through sickness or unemployment, might be temporarily unable to comply with the society's conditions of trade for cash onlv.