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South Canterbury Times, Issue 2478, 28 February 1881, Page 2

The Farmers’ Co-operative movement is already beginning to disappoint the crowd of sinister prophets who grew up like evil weeds around a tender plant, threatening and predicting its speedy downfall. Not only has it taken firm root in the soil of South Canterbury, but its roots are spreading, the plant is thriving, and even the larger fanners who gave it the cold shoulder when they might have been expected to lend the movement a friendly hand, are begining to view with seriousness what they originally regarded with derision. But the plant, only a few weeks old, is not only thriving but beginning to bear fruit, and this in a very practical manner. The management of the Canterbury Farmers’ Co operative Association have secured stores in Timaru, and large quantities of grain are coining forward daily. They have also chartered ships to convey grain to the British markets where they have established reliable agencies, at whose hand the turn of the market will be vigilantly watched in the interests of the consignors. By this_ means returns may be anticipated of a more satisfactory nature than any grower could hope to secure by shiping at his own risk. The work of selling advantageously is a most delicate operation and unless entrusted to reliable hands it can be manipulated in such a way as to leave the enterprising farmer in the same position as if he had realised in the colonial market. The Association, we learn, have secured the services of experts, who will look after the interests of their clients just as well as if the latter were on the ground and at their elbow. But the utility of the Association is not confined to the disposal of farm produce, a watchful eye is kept’on the farmer’s requirements, and in this direction also the pockets of the Shareholder’s are studied. We will give one illustration. Fuel, owing to the growing popularity of steam machinery is rapidly becoming a heavy item in the farmer’s expenditure. Well, the Association is now supply inn the best double screened Newcastle coal, which has hitherto varied from 40s to 45s per ton, at 31s per ton delivered on the rail in Timaru. It must not be supposed that we are recommending the coal of other Colonies or that we wish to see the splendid fuel of the West Coast of New Zealand superseded in South Canterbury. We are simply drawing attention to one of the advantages that the Shareholders in the Canterbury Farmers Cooperative Association are already deriving as the result of co-operative effort. The advantage is one out of many, for we are assured that the shareholders will have reasonable freights, merely nominal commissions and charges to contend with, and that their grain will produce the very best return obtainable. Of course we are aware that there are plenty of farmers whose affairs are so hopelessly embarassed that they dare hardly call their souls their own. These stalwart tillers, who, like the noble animals in a team, waste their sweat under the lash of the merchant, have our hearty sympathy. But to farmers who have their hands moderately free, and who are not exactly in a state of bondage, this Association offers such startlingly useful and profitable results that any invitation to join the movement and still further add to its strength must be quite unnecessary.