BIG DAIRY PROPOSAL

Waikato Times, Volume 92, Issue 14367, 20 May 1920, Page 6

BIG DAIRY PROPOSAL

MARKETING DOMINION PRODUCE. PURCHASING WHOLE OUTPUT. BRITISH CO-OPERATORS’ OFFER. A proposal is now being submitted t > Hie dairy producers of New Zealand for the effective marketing of the whole of Hie dairy produce of Hm Dominion. Three representatives .if what is perhaps the largest co-operative, concern in the world. Hie British C.W.S. (Co-operative Wholesale Society) are at present in the Dominion conducting enquiries and meeting and discussing big proposals with the leading dairymen. The C.W.S. represents in shares, no less than one hundred millions a money, and has an animal turnover of no less than one hundred milions a year. The rambleVions of this colossal concern extend throughout the whole of the British Isles, with branches in almost every (own and village. Its trading operations include almost every elass of article saleable over a counter, and the society lias its own farms, tobacco factories, ironmongeries, starch manufactories, chandleries. dhirh-r, m.-.' factories,' sugar and other warehouses, there being very little in the way of merchandise that cannot he purchased at any of its stores, where the members, numbering millions of the, general public, receive a paper cheek of Hie amount, of each purchase, and can o 1" ■■;. discount, which varies with the v—tr’.y profits of the society, whenever :':cv choose fn hand *n their cheek sheets. The representatives of the society, Messrs W. K. Dudley, Owen Thomas and P. Coley, arc now offering to the dairy producers of New Zealand a scheme of mutual co-operation in the control and marketing of their produce, so that it will be received in London and distributed over the British Isles through Hie medium of their many stores. Up to the present New Zealand produce'has really had no identity in Britain, but lias simply been taken over by Hie large buyers and used for blending with and raising Hie quality of inferior articles. Under the new scheme, if earr’ed into effect, the. butter will ho wra.' rul end sold as New Zealand hull 'V. the various well-known brands of the different companies being, of course, preserved.. The English representatives, hi, ‘alking over the proposal with a Times reporter, mentioned Hie fact, that while, in 101 5, the imports of butter into England amounted to 213,000 tons, last year they only reached 70,000 tons. This was, to a large extent, due to Ihe stoppage of Siberian supplies. The C.W.G. directors, they- said, looked upon Now Zealand as part of Britain, and did not see why, if they could deal direct with thy New Zealand producers, they should go to a foreign market. By accepting the scheme the New Zealand producers would still control their own market, in conjunction with their fellow cooperators in Britain. Travelling with the English representatives is Mr R. Ellison, London representative of the National Dairy Association of New Zealand, who is lu re again after an absence of nine years, to renew his intimacy with the actual producing operations and conditions. Mr Ellison is also fostering a scheme for the .sale of New Zealand dairy produce in England with the object <if securing direct representation from jVew Zealand in Hie fixing of prices and general control of their own produce. The schemes were set before a meeting of dairy farmers at Hamilton, a, couple of days ago, and will he dis- : cussed at Hie annual meeting of the National Dairy Association at Palmerston North during show week there. Whether the co-operative proposal is sufficiently lucrative to satisfy such keen businessmen as Mr W. Goodfcllow, general manager of the New Zealand Dairy Go., or not, remains to he seen. 'Anyhow the result of the negotiations will he watched with the greatest interest.