THAT CO-OPERATIVE DAIRYING.

Gisborne Times, Volume VI, Issue 175, 5 August 1901, Page 3

THAT CO-OPERATIVE DAIRYING.

(To the Editor of the Times.) Sir,—Mr W. D. Lysnar has placed his views of this matter before the puolic at considerable length, and has tried to show that the factory proprietors of this district are really robbing the farmers —for if Mr Lysnar is correct it must be nothing else than robbery. However, there are two sides to every question, and I hope I may be allowed the right to reply now that Mr Lysnar is finished, although I do not intend to deal with the matter at any great length, as I am not paid by the farmers to champion their cause. Besides, I think

tho farmers of this district, having had a life-long experience of pigs and cattle, etc., should know quite as much, or perhaps a good deal more, than either Mr Lysnar or myself ; and I also wish to state that I am of the same opinion as Mr Lysnar on at least two points quoted. One is that you can hardly get two people of the same opinion, and also that wherevor there is room for a cooperative factory there is also room for the proprietary, and I can say that noth-

inf! would give me greater pleasure than to see thoss farmers who are dissatisfied with the present proprietary system accepting the golden opportunity that is now offered them, viz., the Matawhero Butter Factory. However, that is their business, not mine, and if they have any faith in Mr Lysnar’s facts and figures the thing should not take five minutes to decide, as there is a clear profit of £4 3s 4d for ever cow that can be milked ; for

my part I cannot see where it comes in, but it must be correct, as Mr W.D.L. says so, and proves it by facts and figures. We nil know that auctioneers anil lawyers are specially privileged, but I notice, in' Mr .Lysnar’s estimate of the animal called a cow, he says they should produce at least 2SO lb of butter fat in a year, or rather season of ten months ; and I will ask Mr Lysnar to name a co-operative factory in New Zealand where the average for each cow is 2501bs of butter fat, also to name a cooperative factory in New Zealand where they make on an average throughout the season llOlbs of butter from every lOCilbs of butter fat, that is when the test shows the full percentage of fat. f also wish to know from Mr Lysnar what Bank or Finance Company lends money and only charges interest when the money is fetching in a profit, as in the ease he quotes, interest on 111800 for ten months —f presume the other two months must be when the factory is closed down for the winter. Mr Lysnar also values all butter at lOd per pound if sold locally. Perhaps ho will tell us how he is going to sell all the butter locally to get the lOd per lb, and get the profit per cow up to i'll 9s 2d; and if Mr Lysnar will name a co-operative factory in New Zealand that has made butter and exported it to London, and has cleared its shareholders Dll 9s 2d per cow on an average; or I will go further, and ask if Mr Lysnar or anybody else can name a factory as above that has cleared its shareholders L'9 11s 2d per cow on an average, that is for milk alone. Of course there is no doubt Mr Lysnar will make all these little trilling errors as plain as daylight. 1 was going to publish some of the accounts of sales from London to show the fanners the enormous profit that the factory proprietors arc making out of the industry, but I will wait till Mr W. 1), Lysnar shows me how to sell locally first, as I have no doubt, after it is shown to me, 1 will be able to sell it all locally next season, and then the London market will bo a secondary matter. .1 have been buying and selling and shipping dairy produce for the last twenty years, but one is never too old to learn. 1 may have a little more to say regarding tlie average of butter fat per cow in this district, and some other things. Mr Lysnar says the cows should do certain things, and 1 say they do not <!o them. However, we will ask Mr Lysnar, or some one else who knows, as there is nothing like knowledge. Thoro is an old saying, “ Experience teaches fools.”—I am, etc..

Thomak McGrkooii.