THISTLEDOWN.

Te Aroha News, Volume XI, Issue 1732, 20 April 1895, Page 2

THISTLEDOWN.

“ A man may jest and tell the truth.” —Horace.

Certain gentlemen at Home connected with the National Agricultural Union, headed by Lord Winchelsea, the leading farmers’ champion, are talking .of raising '£loo,ooo to finance a co-operative society dealing with farmers’ products and conversely supplying them with manures, etc. Wellinformed persons reckon that from a third to two-thirds of the retail price of - such articles as butter go into the pockets of middlemen who make a better living than the bulk of either producers or consumers by simply acting as, distributing agents. Unfortunately it is thought impossible to raise this sum without appealing to outsiders, so that it will not be a case of genuine co-operation. Why cannot our settlers try something, of the sort ? Why Hot begin in a modest way with butter and leave developments to the future ? If 20 or 30 farmers milking, say 500 were,, to establish a store in Auckland iif charge;.: of a competent person, the word expert is/ rather at a discount just now, whp would grade their butter. Those who took pains to make good butter and pack it carefully and neatly would soon reap the be efit. Ifowould be ridiculous, if not too serious a matter/for laughter, to see best dairy butter, quoted in the Auckland markets at fivepence and sixpence wholesale, while factory butter never falls below elevenpence and a shilling. Suppose this plan gave the dairyman eight pence on the average all the year round, it would mean a vast difference to him. And once it proved a success on a small scale numbers would join., It ought to be an essential condition, however, that suppliers and only suppliers should hold shares, if possible in proportion ,to the number of cows milked' so as to keep the .affair, genuinely co-operative. Persons who could not take .up share for cash could pay by regular deductions from the price of their butter. In - this way the Whatawhata factory was built, Messrs Reynolds advancing the money but the first season; if I remember aright, paid them off and the factory is now the property of the suppliers leased to Reynolds and Co.

.. -v It may be objected that there was once a Farmers’ Co-operative Society in the Waikato which was a failure. Of course it failed, as it'could not but" fail managed as it was. It violated the first principle of co-operation in taking and giving credit and when out of' articles required by its customers purchased from local retailers for fear of losing custom. One of its branches being conducted on: sensible lines paid, but- could not support the general maladministration. Why .should not the Te Aroha West Factory make'next year the start? It would "he necessary, however, to /run it all the year and have cash stores so as to Keep the supply regular. • . * " ;-* ■ v * • * . Another thing which strikes every "now chum with surprise, is the absence of the markets invariably found in Home country towns where the) farmers’ wives and daughters have stall for the sale of butter, vegetables, eggs, fruit and such articles. In Auckland, it is true, -they have a market house but no market. The building neod ngt be expensive, only shelter from the sun and the rain is wanted, and- a small toll would pay the interest on the cost, sinking fund and depreciation. Borouo-hs should not seek to-make a profit but only to recoup themselves- for their original outlay. The nearest approach to°this market is the weekly auctions held by Mr Knox in Hamilton, which have proved a great convenience to all,'by bringing producers and consumers into direct contact.

T^? 3e w^lo haye seen the substantial buildings of the past, and the flimsy jerry erections of say the London suburbs are always struck with th'e contrast, and hastily jump to the conclusion that faithful work is as dead as Queen Anne. Without on'dorsing and such sweeping assertion it must be confessed that incompetent, even dishonest, work is too common in all trades. I haye seen four very large railway bridges brought down by a flood, and examination showed the cylinders filled with sand and gravel' instead of concrete, and not long since I heard of similar "jerry-mandering in this country in pile-driving. Shoes yrere short and when the inspector’s hack was turned they were taken off, the naked pile drivon as far as it would go and sawn short if it would not as was generally the case go home, while the shoe did duty 'for another and sometimes a third. The ancient guilds always insisted on faithful WOrk, and it is often made a reproach against their modern successors, Trade Unions, that their action has an opppsite tendency in discouraging the honest worker by putting all, competent or incompetent, honest or dishonest, on a dead level of wages. So far as one of the most important unions in England is, concerned this is no longer the case. *•* • * #

Mr Knight, the general secretary of the Boiler-makers and Iron Ship Builders’ Society, has issued stringent orders to all local secretaries to insist on contracts being faithfully carried out. In one instance where a'firm was put to loss by men losing time from drunkenness he paid the estimated loss, and recovered, it from the workmen under threat of expulsion. In another where the men took advantage of their employer being tied by a time contract to strike for increased wages, he instructed the firm to comply with the demand, repaid them the-excess, and again recovered it from the men. If all trade unions were'to adopt similar lines and protect the employer against imposition, as well as the men against sweating, opposition to them would be a thing of the past and their usefulness would be largely increased. « • * , * ■ * " ■

I have left myself space barely to allude t? the apparently bright prospects before the lhaffies in connection with the deep levels and the how development in the ?y™ e aad zinc process From all I hear the Thames is just now in a deplorable state, but there are no less than three schemes before its companies now for testing and working to the 2000 ft. level, each to all appearance backed by English capital. 1 he phenomenal success of Waihi and other Uhmemun mines, not to-speak of Coromandel, combined with the glut of money at home, has restored the confidence forfeited by so many wild cat projects in the past The almost certain defeat of the Cassel Co. mu 0 cofst of treatment-of ores outside the Thames proper, while the improvements in their process will not only have a similar effect, but will render possible the treatment of slimes now not amendable to the action of the cyanide. I