HEAVERS OF FAME.

Waipa Post, Volume XXI, Issue 1280, 12 August 1922, Page 5

HEAVERS OF FAME.

THE PIONEERS OF A MIGHTY MOVEMENT.

Over seventy years ago, in 1844, in a sm'all house in Rochdale, twentyeight working weavers met together and founded the first co-operative store. Each of the weavers had saved a pound. A store was opened in the house of one of the members in Toad Lane, Rochdale, and the money was invested in the purchase of flour, oatmeal, butter and other groceries, which were placed on sale among themselves.'

The idea underlying the venture was that the goods should he sold at nlarket prices, that profits be divided in proportioon to purchases, that members should pay subscriptions to capital in quarterly instalments, and that interest of 5 per cent be paid. It was not long before the business extended. In succeeding years a store was opened for the sale of linen and woollen goods ; then the society started to .sell meat ; bakeries were built, and very soon hialf-a-dozen branch stores were opened in the town. By this time the original house in Toad Lane had been superseded by a large central store, v”th libraryand reading room combined. 'Other towns and cities throughout the Midlands and the North, soon followed suit, and in 1883, nearly forty years after the first store was opened, there' were 1051 societies in existence.

Such was the romance of the great co-operative movement which to-day has a membership of 4 131,477, a vast •.increase from 1883, when the total was 627,625. From a very small figure indeed the profits have grown greatly while the amount of sales to-day, has reached the high figure of £198,930,437. *