DAIRY PRODUCE.

Taranaki Daily News, 25 June 1920, Page 5

DAIRY PRODUCE.

co-operative marketing SCHEME, LINKING UP WITH ENGLISH SOCIETY, "" The important question of adopting a system of co-operative marketing was exhaustively discussed .at Palmerston North on Wednesday by the largest meeting of producers of the Dominion on record. The gathering was held under the auspices of the National Dairy Association of New Zealand, and was presided over by Mr. A. Morton, chairman of directors of that body. The attendance numbered close on five hundred. In introducing the subject, Mr. Morton said that the gathering was the outcome of a resolution passed at last year's annual meeting of the association, instructing the executive to devise some scheme for marketing produce on lines different from those hitherto followed. The executive had accordingly got in touch wren its London office, and the scheme to be placed before the meeting that day had been evolved by the association's London representative (Mr. Ellison)." The dairy producers of the Dominion had carried on their co-operation right up to the point when their produce left the shores of New Zealand. At that stage they had placed their produce in the hands of others and accepted the return forthcoming. Realising the disadvantages obtaining under this system, produoerg throughout the length and breadth of the Dominion considered it a desirable thing for them to strive to evolve some co-operative system which would brin* them into closer touch with the consumer and lessen the number of those who at present stood between producer and consumer. IDENTITY OF PRODUCE LOST. They were not aware, until they sold the produce to'the Imperial Government ? what it cost to put their produce in the hands of the consumers. They had reason to believe that a great deal of the produce did not reach the consumer, but got into the hands of the blender and that the identity of New Zealand's produce was lost. A voice: Shame! That was not in the best interests of the producer, said Mr. Morton. They wanted to be able to sell their article tl,,M'V merit l' so the Purchaser would know that he was getting a good, article. During his investigations, Mr. Allison.got into touch with the, Co-opera-tive Wholesale Society of Great Britain ' Speaking in regard to the magnitude, of this co-operative society, Mr. Morton said that its ramifications were well known and ex-tensive. It could not be TEfiJi? * onsumin S Population of the teat M COUW not be denied that the C.W.S. was a large buver of butter and cheese, and was a very large purchaser of Danish butter. 'dS butter was the highest-priced butter n » « had been said by oIZ nenta of the proposal before the meeting that the sole aim of the C.W.S. wato sell-and therefore to buy-*s chwnlv a. n possible to its wag so, how came it that they dealt so very largely in Danish butter, the highha/rCed ° f f butters? Our prodfce ami \T 3 il ! r ° Ug ' 1 a lar « B ™mber o It had ,p fe Jt ■ l ; eaC , ,led the turner e SttS£t P f C and f' e ° f New Zeal «»d See, terc tfof 1l, me T Mt in thebeit in! was m the interest of importers. DETAILS OP THE SCHEME formation in New Zeal™,. J. renrewnfof;,. 7 ~ ,and °' a company a*fit I • ,°, f the Producers, formed on the basis of butter-fat supplied. That Z*T' r\ t0 taka "P "iual hold mjt of. shares with the Cooperative ST 1 .? S ° Ciet - V of Great Britain in a of . • ° d J V bB created ■'" the shape I .is bXr/ C °?, trol loCated in L °» d °« iins board would consist of an ennnl r of cr N w r r E , ent , tttives ° f i£ J-• ♦ • 1, Ze &laud and the Co-onern, The o OCBa, V " f Great fiS •The whole matter of fixing the price o Produce would be delegated by the bnV, to a comnnttee of the board On th ■• committee 2fe W Zealand producer, would an absolute majority of the rep sentatives. The financing of the ,R through the medium of C.W.S. and the a. l. Company. Finance would be assured to the Zealand Dairy com pan.es by the establishment of letted of credit with various banks doing bw ness in New Zealand. The Bold of Control would sell the produce at a L fixed by the committee. A certain centage would be charged for sel 2 P^ W ° Uld be tho PropeitV o SSJW* Co >»Pany, and would be di ON SOUND LINES. The matter had been laid before the 7eatr h throughoirt New SW, " bad b «en mde quite with « - t] \ e . y . had no fau 't to find with the individuals who had been carrying on the export system It was ! the system which they condemned At every m ee ti ng held J consider f. £ , II ,?• v . nanmow resolutions , v « passed in its favor. The proposal was witt the rw ? e proposed ™«°' v n i,.„ii &WS '' would be extremclv valuable as pitting the producer to 2 Mr Elt 0 Wi H the >"* consume. Mr. M ,son then addressed the meeting on the subject. He said tw A. war. having broken down a itmer C o„ r fl ±-° n3 ;- the wav Wfts Ie « open at the h r ■*? ° f tb f co '»'nandee P rforsome! D rL Z '" the direc tioi. outlined. Juring the war a number of New Zenand gliders in London had from time with ft. Mme «o«neetion witn the C.W.S., which body offered ct J I 6 ValuaWo and exteTsive oul Z ,„ ? d - airy P roduce " He got into comrn.wicat.on with the C.W.S. and uIH KSt \7r me t M the C 0 2 tive New Zealand producers to link up with the Co-operative Wholesale Society of England with a view tp mutual benefit and protection. STRAIGHT AND HONEST. Mr. Ellison said that he had been met by representatives of the C.W.S. in a very frank manner. He had found them" straight and honest, with no personal aims or objects to serve, In fixing the price, the producers would be ak

and the prices ruling for produce of H 'f similar kind from other countries. They,. * were not proposing to create a monopoly; 1 or trust, the' impossibility of which '\ was due to the fact that New Zealand ,' had only a small proportion (10^per, 9 cent .in the case of butter) of the J>ro- , duce entering the United Kingdom. The proposal to go in for co-operative „. marketing was no new proposition, and might with advantage be applied to a 1 variety of New Zealand products. The Australian States had, he believed, now arrived at a scheme for the handling and disposal of their produce on New Zealand market*. He had also discussed the matter vflth Siberian representatives in London, and they had evinced great interest and keen sympathy in the formation of a scheme of this nature, and wore very keen on linking up with JJew Zealand in ithe master. The C.W.S. represented .-a, very large body, of «on« fumers. There were some people who believed that the best system of all would be for New Zealand producers to open their own floor in London. He believed that out of what they were now proposing something of that nature would eventually evolve, but the time for this had not yt»t arrived. Meanwhile the offer of the C.W.S. wag one' that had never before been made to any other British Dominion. The offer wae confined to New Zealand. The Australian producers, who would jump/at the offer if it were made to them, were going to open their own marketing floor in London. The C.W.S. was prepared to take a large proportion of New Zealand cheese and possibly the whole of our butter. i AN IMPORTANT FEATURE. Mr. Ellison declared that an important feature of the scheme was that the C.W.B. wag prepares to sell New Zealand butter as the produce of New Zealand. That in itself was a tremendous advantage. At present the shops simply sold butter at so much per pound, and rS I was Bo,d in the "fcrne wa 7- the UW.S. was prepared to put the stuff on its counters labelled as New Zealand ' produce. The C.W.S. was proposing to find 50 per cent, of the necessary capi- , tal to finance the marketing of our produce. There .was no proposal to consign p ™. u . c ? t0 the society. Our Interests would be in the hands of a board in London or elsewhere, we would be at -lib- ' erty to accept it. If the producers ' evinced a desire to go in for the scheme " ample opportunity would be giren thVm of reviewing the whole proposition with ear?* M m ° d iJ f- ing lt if d6emed «<*■• t would be a calamity to the dairyhw ndustry 0 f the Dominion if they 20 to take advantage of the offer of th Co-operative Wholesale Sooiety. ' - OPPOSITION TO THE SCHEME,.- - '■ At the invitation of the chairtniin representatives of export hoSSTK ■■■ »M r '+W e Z, (J ° Beph Natha » '* CO) said that Mr. Ellison had made thk mistake of thinking that co-oneraßnn a shibboleth. Th. operative producers and consumers were opposed just as mud. as proprietary mferests were opposed te their consumers' interest. He held that the soe.et.es i„ England were composed of the R ad]cal tereat| and wer F a on the same plane as eo-operative In- ' crests in New Zealand. Their aim wa. to supply cheap food to their consumers In New Zealand we occupied a unique position in that we didV arry over from one season to another Oui clientele at present included some kt !i. le /°-°P e rative societies in theKi f En , sland and nu * b ered about 100,000 reta.lers. Now came a proposition to turn down the system that had been operating for 30 years. He drew \l i° °° ming pf a financlal crisis and the danger of making expertments. He pointed out tfiat the coto. ' ultra-radical Labcrites on the English ' Bide and Conservatives on this side/and that they were not bound to Buy our produce if they could get cheaper produce later on. Let us g 0 i„ to onr ow „ . floor at once, if thought advisable, and ' not foul our nest" by going against the •" people who would be our best customers . t was all right for co-operative socie■ies. They would dominate the position. The proposition to establish oui own floor was bad enough, but this was worse He had made a proposition ta . establish a committee in London to oo'n- ' eentrate our produce, which would 1» ' ; workable, if .they did not bring in out- ? side interests. If they forced the lam> represented by the New Zealand pro. " diicers) to lie down with the lion, they ' would find that the lamb would soon hi inside the lion. (Applause and laughAN INOPPORTUNE TIME. Mr. Buckeridge (Lane and Co!) said the scheme seemed to be in the nature ■ of a revolution, being placed before the country at an inopportune time when the finances of the country were not stable. By allying themselves to Uese people.they ran a chance of alienatina the other 160,000 retailers with whew they had been connected in the pa*t The 150,000 shops controlled by the society were not all produce 'shops. When they entered into a partnership they should find out nil thev could about their partner. He had gathered information on the subject. He had endeavoured at one time to got representatives of the society to come out to New Zealand. They had told him that the Mow Zealand business was no good to them, as it would be their duty to get the highest price they could get for the New Zealand producer. Some in the ' 100 m had tried the society, but had tound that its means of distribution were not suitable to them. As chairman of directdrs of the New ZealaM Cooperative Association, he had some'yeHrs later approached the society, and in the end they had given him the same answer (is they had given him before. Thev had said that New Zealand butter >vas not suitable for their purposes, and that New Zealand butter would not sell to their public, (Cries of "Rot!") It might be rot, but that waß what they said. There was still a prejudice against New Zealand butter as against Danish butter. He did not think it was* cane proposal to take away the market, pwjudiced in favor of New Zealand butter and put it on a market which was prejudiced against it. & The resolution was carried without disßent.