GETTING TOGETHER.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 11029, 18 March 1914, Page 4

GETTING TOGETHER.

NOT TO TALK. BUI TO DO THINGS. AUCKLAND, March 17. Should'' trade unionists foster the' principle of co-operative purchase? This question", lias been raised and answered in the affirmative by the Auckland Waterfiido Workers' Union, which has in hand a scheme for. supplying its own. members and those attached to arbitration unions throughout the city with meat at cost price. Already the experiment is b'eing made pn_ a small scale, and'on Saturday a specifti meetiug or the union will be hold for tlie purpose of considering a larger scheme, said to be placed on a proper business basis. ■■■ ■. An official of the union states that this is the first attempt by li New Zealand trade union to adopt the co-opera-tive purchase principle. The idea, he told a "Star" reporter to-day, was to provide working men with one of the principal food commodities at much cheaper rates than arc at pre-. sent prevailing. Just now the. idea was ebing tried on a small scale, and members _ of the union, were purchasing meat direct from the freezing chambers. The result was that they were obtaining lamb at fourpen co a pound and mutton at three-, pence halfpenny, practically one-half of tlie current prices in Auckland. Last Saturday 1725fb was distributed in this way to the members, and the previous week even more was sold, the method of procedure being for members to buy the carcases direct, and for the union to supply men to cut them up for, division among the purchasers. He claimed that , not only was the scheme valuable to the members of the union, but that it was calculated to foster the principle of arbitration. Speaking of > the larger scheme the union has in view, the official said that a depot would probably be provided for distributing the meat, and members of all arbitration unions would be invited io become members of the Co-operative Buyers' Association.

The. enterprise, however, appears to leave the local butchers cold. ' A mere flash in the pan," was the description applied to it by one well-known' tradesman. who stated that the union members were at present buying the best meat. If they attempted to establish a depot,, he said, they would soon find that they could sell 110 cheaper than the Auckland butchers, and would hare, to conform to the bv-laws regulating the sale of meat. He did not think that the sanitary authorities would for very long tolerate the conditions under which the carcases were being cut" up, and Auckland butchers need not be troubled about the scheme yet.