UNDERMINING THE CO-OPERATIVE SYSTEM.
To the Editor. Sir,—l have read with Interest Mr. .T. B. Simpson's letter in the Dally News of January 21, and I wish to endorse every word he has written re the policy of allowing private concerns to undermine our system of co-opera-tion, a system which helped materially to make New Zealand what It la to-day. But there must be a reason that requires explanation that induces such a degree of dry rot to set In 83 has set in from end to end of Taranaki. Every factory In Taranaki is losing thousands of pounds of butter-fat dally. This butter-fat is carried past the doors of all our local factories, and railed to places a great many miles away. Why does this hoppen? Why cannot our local factories compete with any outsider? They all have sufficient buildings and plant to treat double the supply they are getting. They also have staff enough In each factory to deal with a much greater supply. What, then, is the trouble? I think the trouble can be traced to the class of directors, or administrators, that are running many of our factories, a class of selfish and anprogresslve men, who are out of sympathy with the suppliers We take. for Instance, the custom of some factories of only paying out about half the price of which the butter is sold to the Imperial Government, to the suppliers for the first four months of the year, a time when the average dalrv farmer wants all the money he can lay hold of. And a lot of oilier waste that the farmer has to pay for which he gets no adequate return. I knew a Dairy Company once who had a tin pot little factory which 'served their purpose for 25 years. At last thev built a new factory in every respect with all hew capital. Still the old shareholders, because they happened to,he on the directorate, are drawing to the present day Interest on the shares they held In thQ old factory, which Is as useless to the company as If It never existed, with the result that a new supplier coming In is not only paying his .own shares off but is also paying interert to the old shareholders on property that does not exist. At the time this happened there was no outside eqflfxctltion. The chairman of, this particular factory told those that protested that they would liave to comply with tho rules laid down or keeri away. Of course, ho know that they had no other convenient factory to go to, and there was no word about the outside business then. But now outsiders are getting a lot of cream from the neighborhood of that same factory, and I have no doubt that similar injustices In other factories have driven the suppliers to the private concerns, wh'ch Is to be regretted, as tho co-operative system is the best system to giro the producer the fruits of his labor, but It Is not too late ytt If suppliers only collect thoir senses and elect progressive men as directors—elect them solely on their merits. —I am, etc., JOHN DIGGINS. Inglewood, January 26.
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Taranaki Daily News, 28 January 1920, Page 2
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532UNDERMINING THE CO-OPERATIVE SYSTEM. Taranaki Daily News, 28 January 1920, Page 2
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