THE CO-OPERATIVE MOVEMENT DEFENDED.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2472, 19 February 1881, Page 3

THE CO-OPERATIVE MOVEMENT DEFENDED.

Mr James Watkins, Secretary to the Canterbury Farmers’ Co-operative Association, writes to the Nor;h Otago Times,” as follows “ Sir,—-In your leader on the thrill of farmers’ co-opera-tion agitation, in tbe “ Times” of yesterday, you state that “at Timaru it found vent in the formation, in paper at least, of a huge association to enable the farmer to place himself in business relations with tlie European buyer, without the intervention of that Philistine of the Philistines the middleman.” I am l ja PPy r to inform you that the Canterbury Farmer’s Co-operative Association limited, to which yon evidently refer, has been formed not on paper only, as might beinfered from your remarks, but on sound commercial and co-opera-tive principles, and is extensively supported by the farmers. The Association is now in thorough working order, and the directors are prepared not only to place the shareholders in business relations with European buyers, but undertake the transaction of business for them, and' not only in the European centres, but ih New Zealand, Australian, and other markets, and dispose of their produce direct or through agents of reliable, standing and .-ability, and purchase for them agricultural implements, seeds, and any other .articles they may require from the best manufacturers and producers at the lowest cash prices. The directors are -also prepared to make liberal cash advances on produce placed in their care 4it lowest rates of interest, and without •commissions or extra charges.

Bather a good thing occurred at a certain hotel a few miles down the South line the other day. The bar of this hostelry like that of too many others at harvest time, was infested with loafers, on the look-.:ut for a drink at anyone’s expense raiher than at their own. Mine host, observing the thirsty condition of these guests, rolled a barrel of sour beer outside into the back yar ■, and waited to see what would happen. In a very short time the beer was tapped, and in spite of its being undrinkable, was eagerly swallowed by t he loafers, who took every precaution to prevent the “boss” from seeing them opciating on the beer,two of t hem stopping in the bar holding the landloid in conversation while their companions were engaged in emptying the barrel. These were presently relieved by others, and so the game went on until the beer was all gone, by which time the loafers were, half of them* drunk, and the rest defiant. A row thereupon took place which resulted in a good deal of unpleasantness, and is likely to bring tome of the actors rather prominently under Mr Beetham’s notice in the coarse of a day or two. In the absence of a convenient train Herr Bandmann, the renowned, and Miss Bcaudet, the accomplished, had to exchange the sweltering heat of a crowded theatre last evening for a cold midnight drive of between 50 and 60 miles overland to Oamaru. The drive was necessitated because they did not care to face the surfboats, and as they had to appear at Dunedin this evening, It was necessary that they should leave Oamaru for South by the morning train. The other members of the Company were rowed out to the s.s. Taiaroa shortly after eleven o’clock, and as there was a good sea on, they had a somewhat adventurous scramble up the side, irrespective of the sea-sickness that supervened. There is more hard work and adventure than comfort even in the career of an actor. The genial editor of the " New Zealand Times” has got into a very bad frame of mind over “ Mrs Brown.” He says—“ We declare that every statement made by Mr Arthur Sketchley about this colony is a wilful, wanton, and malicious falsehood, and we brand the man upon the back as one of the foulest slanderers who ever polluted the shores of New Zealand by setting his feet upon them.” It is said that “ branding the back ”is a congenial occupation of the "Times' ” "We.” The man suspected of the murder of the Maori at Te Aroha, was, until his removal on remand to Grahamstown, imprisoned, for want of better accommodation, in a beli-tent, and with his hands handcuffed behind his back. A correspondent to the “Taranaki Herald” says the pipe-stem found on the ground where the murder was committed, has been claimed by a miner named Marshall, who states he lost it on the evening of the night upon which the murder took place, but does not remember how.