The Feilding Star. Published Daily. MONDAY. JULY 17, 1893. Co-Operation

Feilding Star, Volume XV, Issue 14, 17 July 1893, Page 2

The Feilding Star. Published Daily. MONDAY. JULY 1 7, 1 893. Co-Operation

At the present tinio in New Zealand what may be called a wave of cooperation is passing over the colony. We nave all sorts of companies and organisations on, what are described as, co-operation lines, but as they aro all of very recent date no man can say with any degree of certainty as to what their future may bo. But co-operation is not by any means indigenous to this colony. Fifty years ago in England the thing was started, and the results have not realised by any means the hopes of the originators. We are informed by the London Times of May 24th that the outlook of co- operation is not so bright as it was : the co-operators themselves say so. It is admitted that the movement has met with serious reverses in London. There failure has been common all along the line. There between 1874 and 1892 no fewer tban seventy-four societies were dissolved. Another disappointment is recorded. The co-operative societies turn out to be no better employers of labour than ordinary capitalists. The hours of work in co-operative shops are no shorter than elsewhere, and the wages of all but the managers are low. What is even worse, the trades unionist is sadly mean-spirited, and indifferent to the success of co-opera-tion; regardless of principle he buys his food or clothes where they can be got cheapest. He is iudignant if the public does the same towards him, and is in favor of inserting in contracts that the lowest wages shall not be paid. The very men who demand a fair day's wage for a fair day's work forget their doctrine when they come to spend their wages and seek the largest purchase for the smallest outlay, without thought of the circumstances of production. The fact is that the ship of co-opera-tion, after a fairly prosperous voyage, has run upon certain shallows which no skill on the part of the crew could avoid. So long as the object of cooperative societies was humble and limited; when they had a practical monopoly, and could count on regular custom; when the society, as shopkeeper, and its customers were identical, co-oporators saw only the good ttido of thoir work. In extending their operations and creating large wholesale and productive societies they camo into contact with other agencies ; they were obliged to study economy and to give their servants the market value of their wages and no more, or go into liquidation- The demands of their customers made this necessary, for no leaders of the unionists will persuade them to pay fifteen shillings for a pair of boots which can be purchased from an ordinary tradesman for twelve shillings. Co-operative Societies having gone into business have been compelled to act on business principles. The England of to-day has not grown up under this system . Men hitherto have trusted in themselves, and have been rewarded in the main according to their deserts, and the lot of the working man has improved until to-day it is, ou the whole, better than it ever has been in the history of the world. At this very time the official figures show a reduction iv pauperism almost without precedent. The early co-operators advocated thrift and solf-help in individuals, while some of the later ones have it that the old co-operators did not understand thoir own principles, and that the movement is worth nothing except so far as it is a stoppiug-stonetowards State Socialism. They tell the working man that his thrift can avail him but little, and that he must look for no material improvement in his condition until large portions of the national wealth are put by for taxation, or otherwise, at his disposal. This is the picture as drawn by a master hand, and is undoubtedly v truo one.

From time to time our readers will have observed that when members of the House of Representatives speak of granting money for the purpose of opening up new couutry by means of roads and bridges, they use the tone of very superior persons who had the power to grant a favor, and would only do so if approached in a proper spirit of humility by the suppliants i for such favor. The colossal ignorance they thus display is only suspassed by their consummate vanity. The settlers who are ratepayers in road districts, want no favors. They know perfectly well by this time that if they did they would not get them. When they waut roads made they make them themselves, and pay for them out of their own pockets. Certainly they borrow the money under the Government Loans to Local Bodies Act, but they pay every farthing of principal and interest back in twenty-six years. There is no obligation. It is merely a matter of business. But there is ono little matter in this connection which the House should look after. As yet the payments made in the shape of interest on money raised by borrowing, made by local bodies appear to have been absorbed into the revenue account of the colony, instead of being paid into a sinking fund as was originally intended by the framers of the Act. Under no circumstances ought this money to be designated, or treated, as revenue.