FARMERS' CO-OPERATION.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 182, 19 December 1912, Page 5

FARMERS' CO-OPERATION.

j MEETING AT KAPONGA. A meeting of the suppliers of the Ivaponga Dairy Factory was held in the Town Hall, Kaponga, oil Tuesday afternoon, when there were about forty present. The chairman explained that the meeting was not a factory meeting proper, but would give them the opportunity of hearing Mr. Buckei'idge explain tiie proposal which was being formulated in the district to establish a big cooperative society for the carrying on ol their own means of distribution, etc. He then called upon Mr. Buckei'idge to address the meeting. Mr. Buckeridge spoke for about threequarters of an hour, during which time he fully showed what kindred societies to the one now proposed were doing in other parts of the world—in England, Scotland, Ireland and Belgium. He then dwelt with the history of co-operative enterprise in Taranaki—both dairying and otherwise—and the causes that led up to the failure of almost every one outside of dairying. lie then showed the immense successes that were being made of similar institutions to the one proposed in other parts of New Zealand, where they were adequately capitalised and efficiently managed, and urged upon the fanners pyesent that they should similarly combine to manage their own affairs to their own betterment.

Mr. Buckeridge was attentively listened to throughout and frequently applauded. At the close of his address he answered numerous quetsions, and a motion—"That this meeting is in full sympathy with the objects of the proposed society," on being put to the meeting, was carried without a single dissenting vote. Votes of thanks to Mr. Buckeridge, wishing him every success in his endeavor to organise tiie farmers on the lines he is, and to the chairman, were carried with acclamation.