SELLING AND BUYING.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 5074, 12 January 1927, Page 3

SELLING AND BUYING.

TRADE WITHIN THE EMPIRE.

VISIT OF BRITISH BUSINESSMEN.

Further proof of the growing sentiment in England in favour of developing trade within the Empire is l given by the visit to Australia and New Zealand of three directors of the Cooperative Wholesale Society o'f Greajt Britain. These English business meh, who are at present in Australia, represent a federation of 1200 retail societies in England which have the huge capital of £43,000,000. The thousands of retail shops under the control of the society already handle much of our produce distributed 'from the Home markets, and it is therefore in the interests of both the Commonwealth and the Dominion that the visiting directors should be given the widest scope for acquiring knowledge, of our present resources and: prospective production. It is the object of the society to eliminate as many as possible o'f the intermediary handlings eif goods between producer and consumer. Co-operative marketing is a subject in which the producers of this Domnion have a very big interest, but in dealing with the society they need not concern themselves so much with the question of co-opera-tive versus private enterprise as with the fact that there is an organisation with an annual trading turnover of £75,000/000 to £80,000,000 which is interested in th® goods we can sell them. One. of the directors stated recently in Sydney that it did not 'follow, because they were a co-operative concern, that they wanted to get goods at the cheapest possible price. Their object was to provide their people with the best goods at the lowest possible price consistent with quality, but he emphasised the point that Britain must sell to the Dominions if she is to buy the Dominion’s produce. This is. only confirming what has bee’ll said before, with the difference in this instance that those making the. statement are not sellers seeking our custom, but buyers willing to do business with us. Cambridge Independent.