FINANCE AND THE FARM.

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 211, 22 September 1937, Page 4

FINANCE AND THE FARM.

No better example of tbe fruitfullness of industriotis private enterprise, aliied to a co-operative spirit iu marketing, could be offered than tkat of tbe Farmers' Co-oporative Auctioneering Company of Hamilton, saya tke Auckland Star. Tbis company deals entirely with land and its products' most of its shareholders are hard-worldng farmefs, who combined in' an effort to asSist tbenieelves in production and marketing, and who, by steadily increasing their output and using business methods in its disposal, were. able to make the best of the prevailing conditions even during the worst of the slump periocL With a capital of half a million, the annual turnover is just under two and a-half millions, and the company is in the exceptionally strong position of having assets valued at £594,574 against a total outside liability of £34,748, The returns from year to year indicate the complete dependence of New Zealand on world markets, and particularly on the British market. In the. depth of the depression net profits dropped as low as £5651. With a retum of prosperity abroad balances have been steadily mounting, until this year the figure of £60,816 was reached. This achievement is the Tesult of the buoyant state of the English market for wool, butter, cheese and meat, but it is also a reflex of the careful and courageous poliey of those in control of the business. It was suggested by a shareholdor at a recent meeting of the organisation that if the Dominion had been governed in the spirit that was behind the company New Zealand would have been in a unique position today- and the balance-ahe.et now presented offers strong support to that claim.