THE Hauraki Plains Gazette With which is incorporated THE OHINEMURI GAZETTE. Motto : Public Service. MONDAY. WEDNESDAY, & FRIDAY. MONDAY, MAY 22, 1922. CEMENTING CO-OPERATION.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIII, Issue 4417, 22 May 1922, Page 2

THE Hauraki Plains Gazette With which is incorporated THE OHINEMURI GAZETTE. Motto : Public Service. MONDAY. WEDNESDAY, & FRIDAY. MONDAY, MAY 22, 1922. CEMENTING CO-OPERATION.

The report of the first, quarterly meeting of suppliers’ committees,,- held ' at Paeroa last ■: week/ contained many things of considerable interest to the great majority: in this community—-the dairy farmers. One of the mosu interesting portions pf the report is contained in the introduction, stating that these meetings-had been inaugurated because the business of the N.Z. Co-operative Dairy Co., Ltd., was increasing at. such a rapid rate that the directors found it difficult to keep personally in touch with the suppliers The fact is that the Company has reached the point where, on account of its vastness of operations, it is threatening to become unwieldy. This is a stage which all progressive co-opera-tive companies arrive at sooner or later, and measures have then to be taken to distribute the burden of responsibility, and broaden the basis of inspection and attention to details. Some time ago there was serious talk of closing the Company’s Paeroa office, but we should say that by this time the directors are alive to the fact that what is wanted is not more centralisation in Hamilton, but decentralisation, involving increase of authority and responsibility in branch offices. Writing from a first-hand knowledge of the whole of the area over which the N.Z. Co-op-erative Dairy Co., Ltd., opprate3, we have no hesitation in stating that the directors would be well advised to strengthen the Paeroa office owing to the rapid development of the Hauraki Plains, and also -to establish another branch office at Pukekche, which is the centre of the vast and immensely productive district stretching from Mercer to East Tamaki, and embracing the fertile Waiuku district and the Aka Alt" and Otaua plains. With a Paeroa-Hauraki Plains-Central Thames Valley-Goldfields district a Waikato district vith headquarters at Hamilton, and a Pukekohe district , branch, there could then be engendered a healthy rivalry between-the. different managerial staffs ; comparisons could be made annually at conferences between the heads of the three d’stricts and the directors, and weaknesses eliminated. Without some such policy of decentralisation the Company, we make bold to state, cannot possibly hold together for many years. The number and variety of requests made by suppliers at "the; Paeroa cffice would - probably rather astoirsh outside directors, and if the office were not here the Hamilton headquarters would be “snowed under ” Branch offices provide excellent “safety valves” for the letting off of the steam of dissatisfaction ; in countless instances a little explanation, investigation, and personal attention does a wondrous lot towards allaying friction, but if an office were not convenient the suppliers would more than likely nurse their real or supposed grievances until soone ror later “the lid would blow off.” The inauguration of quarterly meetings of suppliers is a step decidedly in the right direction, and if the policy underlying the new move is adhered to and extended, a very substantial advance will have been made towards cementing co-op-eration.