NORTH NEW ZEALAND FARMERS' CO-OPERATIVE ASSOCIATION.

Waikato Times, Volume XXII, Issue 1865, 19 June 1884, Page 2

NORTH NEW ZEALAND FARMERS' CO-OPERATIVE ASSOCIATION.

An extraordinary general meeting of the shareholders of the association was. held at the offices, Hamilton, on Tuesday, for the purpose of confirming or otherwise the following resolution passed at the extraordinary general meeting on the 27th ot May last :— " Eveiy shareholder shall have one vote for any number of shaves he hold*, up to live ; two votes for any number up to fifteen ; three votes for any number up to twenty-five; tour for any number up to fifty; and five votes for any number above fifty. But in no case shall a shareholder have more than five votes." There were between fifty and sixty shareholders present, including the following directors ;- Messrs W. A. Graham, Gillett, Newland, Westnoy and Barngb. The chair was occupied bv Mr W. A. Graham chair man of directors The Cli.iinn.in, . m opening the proceedings lead tbo advertisement m The Waikato Times convening the meeting. He said they were called togethoi fora specific purple and for that only, and it would bo necessary for the .shareholders to confine themselves to that. It was satisfactory, whatever might be the result of the meeting, to see such a large number of shareholder!, present. He ti usted that they were prcp.ued to listen to what the directors had to say and to help them forward. Upon the shareholders, no less than on the directors lay the responsibility <>f the success or nonsuccess of the association. It was not necessary that he thould explain the object for which they wore called together. Mr Teas wished to show if it was true that the offices of the association had been shifted to Auckland. The Chairman said Mr Teas' question had nothing to do with the pm pose of the meeting. It could bd discussed af toi w.ird«. In answer to a question, the Chaiiman explained that on the question bef->ro the meeting every shaio would cany a vote. On the suggestion of Mr F. 0. Germann, it was decided to take the sense of the meeting by a show of lruuls, such a method bern" 1 in accordance with the rules, which provide that, if dissatisfied, any five shaicholders may demand a poll. Mr Gillett, as the director who had proposed the alteration in the first instance, i said it devolved upon him to move the iesolution which the chairman had just read. He did so pro forma. Ho would explain his meai.ing. He wished to lay befoie the shaieholdeis as clearly as he could Ins obiect in moving the amendment in tlio manner of voting. To do this he would have to go back to the fir->t meeting of the piovusional dnectors. At that meeting it was objected that any shaieholder should hold more than 100 shaies, and then that each share should cany a vote. Many people were scaicd at the notion of the holdeis of 100 sh.nes having too much power, and Mr Forrest came foiwardas the champion of the small men to amend the rule dealing with voting. At one of the meetings he (Mr Eone->t) gave i otico to move fur au amendment, his intention at that time being to give no sh.ueholder moie than one vote, on the nnnhood su triage principle ; but seeing that he would have no chance of cairying this motion, cither at a, boaid meeting or a meeting of bhaieholdois, ho altered hib motion, so that no shares beyond 20 should bestow any \otmg power. Ho (Mr Gillett) was not, for one, prepaied to accept this change. The pur poit of Mr Fonest's motion was that clause 44 be altered so as to lead that *' no shaicholder bhall have more than nve votes, the scale being, one vote for one shaie, two votes for five shaies, thieo votes for ten shaves, and hve votes fur twenty shares. In his opinion Mich an arrangement as tin* would never do, and on the spur of the moment he took up the ai tides of the Canterbury association, and, as an amendment to Mr Foi rest's motion, moved that the rule of the Canteibmy ai tides be adopted in lien of their own. He bimply made this proposition as something better than Mr Forrest's, and he had moved the same motion again that day, in order that he might make an explanation to the meeting. Frankly, he did not consider that the contemplated change was necessary, but he was quite sine that Mr Fonest's scheme would not have been acceptable to the shaieholdera. At the tune refened to nothing had been said about placm"- bhares on the Auckland market, but ten minutes aftei waids Mr Fonest pioposed that 2003 shaies should be allotted to Auckland and the Tluuuo,. No specific provision was made as. to how these sha-es should be distnbnted, but the chauman concived the idea that if tliLse sh.ncs weie disposed of singly it would give them 2000 consumes at oncj. No isolation was m ule, but the director pie^ent agieed that it would be a good thing to so distubule the bhaies. This deteimuiation shifted the locale of the bugboar altogether. Instead of the one-lmndrjdshaie man, the v.fin with one shaie m Auckland now became an object of distmst. In the meetin"- of director, on the previous day thesis matters wore t ilkccl ovei, and thvy came to the conclusion that there existed nothing to compel them to distribute these 2000 s,ha es m any paiticuhu way. In confirming or if jecting the lesolution now befoie the meeting, he wished the, shareholder to be quite clear upon that point. Hefcning onco niore to the lesolution, ho would say that, for himself, he was perfectly satisfied with the mct-hod of voting as oiigiiully proposed. (Applause.) The Chan man said he had nothing to add to Mr Gillett's statement, He conoborated all that had been said about the 2000 shares. At the same time, in justification of his own pait in the matter, he would remind the shareholders that the diioctors had been mstiucted to keep down the number or sh aics allotted to any one man as low as possible. The idea was that it was more desirable to get a laige number of small shaieholdois than a small number of large shaicht/ldeis. It was his firm conviction that the Auckland shareholders would do a largo bu&mess with the association. Regarding the voting, the question lestod entnely with the shareholders, aud he did not care which way their decision went. Capt McPher^on regretted that Mr Gillett had not the courage of his opinions. He had moved an amendment in the method of votiug, aud now diew back. Mr Gillett said ho had already explained that his amendment was put forward merely as the lesser of two evils. Mr T. G. Sandes said he had an amendment to propo&e. He was very pleased to see that the diiectors themselves were not much in favovu of pressing the resolution. Those gentlemen were greatly to blame for the misundci standing* which had arisen. He quoted fioin the chairman & report at the first geneial meeting a paragraph in which it w.is announced that it was the intention of the duectois to place 2000 single shares in the Auckland market. What else could shareholders at a distance, who lead the report of that meeting, think than that it was intended to place the 2000 shares singly ? He thought so, and others thought so, with what result they all knew. He had been accused of turning his coat m this matter, but he could show them that the accusation was injust. He had found when going around the country advocating the claims of the association that there were many people who objected very strongly to each share having a vote. This was not his own opinion, but at the earnest solicitation of many people he had agreed to further their views. In view of the subsequent announcement that the directors intended to float 2000 single shares in Auckland the lesolution before the meeting would, if carried, be the death knell of the association. There were many people who did not like the prospect of two thousand shareholders ii Auckland dominating the association. In two years they would take the whole thing away to Auckland and electthetwenty-five directors fiom amongst themselves. [Mr Teas : They will do that as ifc ia.] It .should be their object to keep the balance of power in Waikato. In the interests of the people of this district, who started the association, they should see that the eight vacancies iv the directory were filled up with Waikato men. Things had been tending in the direction of Queen-street too much. It was not to the interest of Waikato farmers that they should. Queen-street had been no friend of theirs in the past, and when once the farmer got there it was difficult to get out .again. They bad looked to the association to emancipate them, not to perpetuats the old evil. It had b«en resolved that the offices of the association should be removed to Auckland, aud that a travelling agent should be appointed, to call on the farmers. Now he , made bold to Bay that if the manager wore asked to ! give his, honest", opinion on this step he I would say that there* was no necessity for | the change. ■ It simply <mee»b~ throwing I the whole of the pow,er into the hatidsof the Auckland directors: ' He regretted very much that Mr SPoreest was not present morning/ He woulcHilte to'have bad a word with bim.^rlt' wgs not strictly, in oi Her; MdiW wbuldOiUe' tdJdfiim whether the shareholdevat'hKd'lßeen a letter written 'ibv^r'TroWesfc- a&ttafo '&prnmg'sivWaik»to f ixTune3\ -Tta/rpP<png/ MofcfettL o£ ;tU*t

letter kad s-"Mr T> G. Sandes' raving ftbout the 2000 Auckland shaftholdert w unmitigated rot." Now, to put it mildly> was this polite?' (laughter), was i\ language becoming, a gentleman who held the position of a director elected by the shareholders of this association ? Mr Forrest s solicitude for tho public interest misjht be measured by the fact that because his bread bill was largo he wished to mnk the whole capital of the association in bricks and mortar. Mr Sandes concluded by moving " that the resolution be not confirmed. The amendment was seconded by Mr TeaF. Mr Selby asked for information concerning the number of shares issued, single and othei'3. The Chairman said at the present time there were eighteen one-share holders, several of whom were in Waikato, and one I lived at Howick. He bad received a letter from the secretary stating that no action world lie taken in reg..rd to floating the 2000 shares until the wishes of the share- | I holders were known. Of course, there was nothing to stop anyone applying for one j share. . . ', Mr Selby : Cm we not lunit the j number ? The Chairman ;— Not at this meeting. On the subject of the Auckland directors he would read a letter from Mr Waymouth, one of the Auckland directois, in which that gentlemon expressed his regret that statements damaging the association should have got into the Auckland papers. He said the town directors had the interest of the association thoroughly at heart. So far astheyweie concerned, they did not care where the chief offices were, but there must be an office at Auckland. The Chairman reminded the meeting that everything that had been done was done by the Waikato, and not by the Auckland directors. Mr Dawson wished to know whether the,, dhectors would pledge themselves not to sell any single shares. Mr G. Y. Tisdaoil said they should not be at the mercy of anyone. The meeting should resolve that no single shares bo sold. , The Chairman pointed out that this could not bo done at the present meeting. Regarding what Mr Daw.-,on had saii the dhectors present could not pledge their absent colleague-*. Mi Sanded amendment and the resolntiou were then put to the meeting. For the f miner theic voted 43, and foi the Uttei The resolution was declared, amidst applause, to hvve been icjectod. Mr Geo. Kdgecumba wished to know whether any other subject could be discussed at tho meeting. They did not often get the opportunity of lwvm« Mich a large number of shareholders together. The question of removing thfi offices of the company to Auckland was one on which many people felt strongly. Tho great objection to this couise lay in the fact that it would be iiupovible under the pioposod an.ingoment to get a meeting like the piesent one. He undei stood the annual meetings must bo held at the legisteicd office, but h" would .isk whether, awnning that it was ue.cess.ary for economy s sake that thoio should only bo one office, and tli.it at Auckland, anangements could not be ma lo for hoi ling the annual goneial meetings in Waikato. He «as cci tain that the "shareholders ga\e the diiectois credit foi d< ing tl c best they could, because, tho-,e gentlemen's mteiests wcie identical with those of theshaieholdeis, but he put it to them whether it 'mid not be more satisfactory to meet shaieholder-* than to meet pioxios. , . The Chairman said the directois would be \ ci y glad to receivev c suggestions for their guidance. The diiectois thought it would not be piudent to keep up any branch establishments at present, but there w as no leason why the general meetings should not be held in Waikato. It lay with tho general meeting to decide wheie tho next should be. Theie would be another extraordinary meeting shoitly when the diiectors would be in a position to »ff oid fiuther inforniaMr W. M. Hay, the solicitor of the association, gave it as his opinion that tlieio was nothing to prevent the meeting, being 1 eld in Waikato, Mr T. G. Sandes thought the directors ou;ht to reconside de the fiist resoluton parsed ta thelprjvious day'smeeting. He thought the unalloted shares should be open to oveiybody, i Auckland, Thames or Waikat>, Tn tio nu ultimo tb<sy should keen tho association to themselves. They le.illy did not want shaieholdeis in Auckland. If it suited them, the people in Auckland would deal with the association vthethei they bad shaics or not. Mr Newland vii 1 the directors would only be too gla/1 to sell the whole of the shares in Waikato. The Chairman was glad to hear the opinion of the meeting exposed. He believed the tinri was not fai distant when they would bo called upon t<i issue another 10,000 sliatos. The number of shaicliolder.s <it present on the books was 010 ; he had no doubt many meie would be desirous of joining when the benefit of flic association became fully apparent, The diiectois wcic nuking arrangements by which they hoped to bring the advantages of eo-opeiation within the reach of the shareholder at a very eaily peiiod. Rcg.uding the vacancies on the boaid, the arrangement was that they were to be tilled up as soon as the 10,000 shares weic allocated. In reply to Mr Edgccmnbe, the Chairman said the directois intended calling another meeting very shoitly. They desued to meet the shareholders as often as possible, at any rate dining the first year. Mr Edgecumba said it was necessaiy to specify the business to be done at these meetings. If therefore, any shareholder wished to bring a question befoi o the meeting lie pi e-iumcd the diiec tors would inseit it in their notices. The Chairman replied in the affirmatne. The meeting then terminated with .i vote of thanks to the chairman, proposed by Mr R. F. Sandes, and canied unanimously.