The Waikato Times AND THAMES VALLEY GAZETTE.

Waikato Times, Volume XXII, Issue 1843, 29 April 1884, Page 2

The Waikato Times AND THAMES VALLEY GAZETTE.

Equal and exact justice to all men, Of whatsoever state or persuasion, rel'jpous or political Here shall the Press the People's rifjht maintain, Unawed by influence and unbnbed by gain

TUESDAY, APRIL 29, 188 4.

No better evidence of the avrakening, of the farmers to a true sense of position can be got than is ! afforded by the success which lias attended the floating of the North New Zealand Farmers' Co-operative Association. This .society hat) not been set a-going

without much downright effort, but it is satisfactory to know that ifc has been established at lust. Not only in the Waikato, whore it has had its birth, and where it has been cirofully nursed through all the little ills incidental to childhood, h.is it been accepted, but in all the country districts between here and Auckland it has been hailed as a means of deliverance ; and even in places more remote, along the Eist (.oast for instance, it has roused the onth'isiasm of the agricultural community, who are anxious to participate in the benefits of co-operation. We h ive often had occasion to bewail the obtuseirss of the farming class — their over cautiousno-s in approaching any new .scheme or principle, but thi-. very quality makes them the more eager to embrace whatever they feel to be good and calculated to promote their inter sts. They were slow to recognise the advantages of co-operation, but having recognised them, they have entered into tlu* work with a heartiness which does infinite credit to their understanding. In another column we publish the minutes of a meeting of the directors of the association held yesterday, from which it will be seen that the society means business. The cordial support which has bern received from all quartern justifies the directors in appointing an early day on which to allot shares. This work they purpose carrying out on the 13th prox, and on the 27th of the Mine month they intend to call the {shareholders together for the purpose of fleecing directors and proceeding with the real business of the association. All th ngs considered this is quick work, and the class sought to be benefited owe a deep debt of gratitude to those gentlemen who hive undertaken to carry out the preliminaries in connection with the affair. 'Jhil the provisional directors will receive a fitting expression of llrs gratitude we do not doubt, though their be.st reward will ho in the consciousness of their having done a good work, a work which will leave a lasting impress on the district. Nothing is worth having that is not, worth fighting for, and we know of nothing which has served to display the pugnacious faculty of the Briton more than this Farmers' Co-operi-tive Association. It will certainly take time to I'ully develop all the advantages to be derived from this movement, but w e feel sure it will amp'y repxy all the trouble that has been taken by the promoters. The assoi iation has now arrived at that stage where we can leave it with the fullest confidence in its success, and with the more satisfaction in that we have in some measure assisted this movement fraught with such benefits to the farmers, and through them to the whole community.

Tun Premier mob the doctors and non-doctors of Canterbury on Saturday evening, and received afc tJio hands of one of the largest audiences over gathered together in Canterbury a vote of no confidence. Major Atkinson's speech was in effect a repetition of the Hawora and Dunedin addresses, that is to s.iy, it was a vindication of the financial po'iey of th" Government. As such it will be accepted as conclusive by almost everybody outside such corrupt habitats of Provincialism as Dunedin and Christchurch, but hardly within the boundaries of those cities. A long course of tuition has served almost to convince the people of those centres that Major Atkinson and his party are political ogres, whose .sole delight is to crush the life out of the great South' rn provinces, whoso daily food is the life blood of poor, dow n trodden Canterbury and Otago Upon no othei theory can we conceive it possible that the people who want an Otago Central Railway, the people who clamour for a line across unprofitable country to the West Coast of the South Island, should be found railing at the borrowing policy of one of the most strictly economical Governments the colony has ever seen. That the Government is not the embodiment of perfection we know very well, but its merits and its fault ■• are alike to the taste of the people who slander it the most. The loud-voiced politicians' of Canterbury are nothing if not "Libcial," and the present Government is "Liberal" to the core.