FARMERS' COOPERATION and RETAIL TRADE. TO THE EDITOR.

Waikato Times, Volume XXII, Issue 1831, 1 April 1884, Page 2

FARMERS' CO OPERATION and RETAIL TRADE. TO THE EDITOR.

Sir,— Asa sincere well-wisher and an intending (shareholder in the proposed Cooperative Association, I crave space for a few lines in reference to it. There seems to bo some doubt among those with whom I have spoken as to the line of business to be undertaken by the association, many being under the impression that the retail giocery, etc., will begone into in addition to the general farm products and lequirements. This I and many others think (with all due deference to the promoters of the association), would be a mistake, for two reasons. First, it is not the household requisites, such as grocery, drapery, boots, etc., that pre-t> so heavily upon the farmer. The Waikato farmer can procure the above commodities as cheaply, and of aa good quality, and on as £<>"d terms as can fairly hi desired, and if I judge my fellow settlers lightly, we ha\e no wish to add any other business to our present one. Secondly, as far as I can ascertain, the proposed association has the sympathy, and will have the substantial support of the retail traders throughout the Waikato, but it could soaicely hope to retain that if it sought to take away the bi cad from their mouths. Instead of sympathy and support, the association would meet with an opposition, how formidable only those who know the position of many settlers in respect to the retail traders can know. Whatever line of business the piomoters of the associations propose to go into the sooner it is clearly laid befoie the general public the quicker and more numerous will be tho application for shares. Farmers, proverbially slow in going into anything new, are particularly so when they are not quite certain as to what they are going into. There are other matteis in refeience to the association to which, as an old produce giower, I should like, it allowed, to refer in a future letter. — I am, &c, Whatawhata Farmer.