HOW CO-OPERATIVE ASSOCIATIONS WERE STARTED.

Waikato Times, Volume XXII, Issue 1870, 1 July 1884, Page 2

HOW CO-OPERATIVE ASSOCIATIONS WERE STARTED.

Mr Justin McCarthy, in his "Short History. ; of our Own Tunes," rjfcrs at considerable length to the origin and development of ttades unions in JUogland, the emancipation of the working classes from the disabilities under which they laboured tefore the several Re.orm measures for the amelioration of their condition were introduced into the House of Commons; also toother societies anil combi nations such as benefit societies and working men's clubs, which may be accepted as the inc\ i «ibL outcome ot the coi dicious of the times. H^ instances the siuces which attended the better tuanagjd of these combinations, nnd the material benefit which they aii'orded those who were immediately connected with them, or at least on whose beh lit and lor whoso benefit they were originated. Referring to the origin of the coopeiat \ c piinciple, he instances the idea which in 1841 stiuok a few ot the working men in England : rhdt if working men could combine etlec' tively and in large numbeis for a benefit society or for a strike, why should they not also co-operate lor tlie puipose oi supplying each other with good and cheap food and clothing, and tlividmg among themselves the profits which would otherwise be distributed among vaiious manufacturers and shopkeepers 1 This sentiment then ga\ e i l&e to "The Equitable Pioneers' Cooperative Store," winch was founded in Rochdale by a tew poor flannel weavers. Tne times were bad, ami these men cast about in their miuds for some way ot making their little earnings go fa •. By the teaching ot a populai leader they were taught the bad uttoots of the ciedit system. They saw that the shopkeeper who gave his goods at long credit must necessarily have to cliaige a much higher price than the actual value of the goods, much more than a lea-onable profit, m order to make up for his having to lie outof his money, and to secuie lumsuli agunst bad debts. They also saw that the credit sybtem leads to almost lueessant litigation : and besides that litigation means the waste ot time and money ; Some ot them, it appears, had a conscientious objection to the ta'ung ot an oath. It seemed to these Koclntale weavers, therefore, that if they could get together a little capital, they might start a shop or store of their own, ami thus be able to supply themselves with better goods, and at cheaper lates that by dealing with the ordinary tradesmen. Twenty-eight of them began by subscribing two-pence a week each. Ihe number ot subsciibeis was afterwards increased to forty, and the weekly subscription to threepence. When they had got £28 they thought they had got capital enough to bjgin their enterprise with. They took a small shop iv a little back stieet called Toad Line. After the shop had bueu fitted up, the equitable pioneers had only £14 left to stock it, and the concern looked so small and shabby that the hearts of some of the pioueers might very well ha\e sunk within them. A neighbouring shopkeeper feeling utter contempt for the enterprise declared that lie could remove the whole stock-in-trade in a wheelbarrow. The wheelbai rowload of goods soon, however, became too heavy to be carried away in the hold of a great steamer. The pioneers began to supply each other with groceiies; they went on to butchers' meat, and then to all sorts of clothing. From supplying goods they progressed on to the manufacturing of goods, they had a corn mill and a cotton mill, and they became to a certain extent a land and a building society. They set aside part of their piofitii for a libraiy and reading loom, and they founded a co-operative Tuikish bath. Their capital of £28 swelled in sixteen years to over £120,000. Cjsli payments and the division of piofits were the main sources of this lemaikable prosperity. Not meiely did the shareholders share in the profits, but all the buyers received an equitable percentage on the prico of every aiticlc they bought. Each purchaser on paying foi what he had bojgbt received a ticket which entitled him to that percentage at each division of profits, and thus many a ,poor man found at the quarterly division that he had several shillings, pet haps a pound coming to him, which seemed at first to have dropped out of the clouds, so little direct claim did he appear to have on it. He had not paid more for his goods than he would have paid at the cheapps>t store; he had got them of the best quality the pi ice could buy; and at the end of each period he found that ho had a sum of money standing to his credit, which he could either take away or leave to accumulate at the store. The North ot England was soon studded with co-operative associations of one kind or another, many of which pro\ ed sad failures through being mismanaged. As a whole, however, they have been a lemarkable success. The Civil Servants of the Crown soon adopted the idea, and now in some of the most fashiomble quarters of London the carriages of some of their most fashionable residents are seen at the crowded doors of the co-oper-ative store. It may safely be predicted that people will not let the co operative principle die. It saetns certainly destined to develop rather than fade, to absorb rather than be absorbed. The law was much against the principle in the beginning. Before 18~>2 all co-opera-tive associations had to come under the Friendly Societies Act, which prohibited their dealing with any but their own members. An act obtained in 1552 allowed them to sell to persons not members of their body. For many yeais thoy weie not permitted to hold more than an acie of land. But lately this absurd restriction >vas abolished, and they were allowed to trade in land, to hold land to any extent, and to act as building societies. Iv concluding his remarks on the subject the writer states that many of the societies were sadly mismanaged : in certain of them there was the grossest malversation of funds ; in some towns much distress was caused among the depositors in consequence. The societies had to pass, in fact, through a stage of confusion, ignorance, aud experiment, and it is perhaps only to be wondered at that there was not greater mismanagement, greater blunderings, and more lamentable failures.

The Prongia Road Board notifies its intention to strike a rate of Jd in the £ As Alabama young lady, caught smoking a cigar, gave it as her reason that '• it made it smell as though there was a man around." The Legislature of Ontario,. Canada, has lately passed a licensing bill which materially tends to diminish drunkenness. Under the old law four saloon licenses might bo granted in towns and ten in cities without reference to population. Under the new Act towns containing less than 6000 each will not be granted any saloon license, while in cities up to a population of 15,000, only three licenses are to be allowed. Cities of from 15,000 to, 30,000 cannot exceed five licenses for each, the highest number of licenses for any oity having a population over 30,000 being ten. This restriction of licenses is on the local option principle, which if carried out in New Zealand as in Ontario, would reduce the number of our pnblic houses to one-fourteenth of th^eir present number. The curious fresh-water jellyfish which appeared so mysteriously in the Victoria tank in the Royal' Botanic Gardens, in 'Regent's Park, has again shown' itself ; and, as indicating that the botanist has notyot exhausted, : the ; globe, the island of Socotra, in.the Red,Sea> has yielded to one visitor no' fewer "than thirty-seven , new species of >Bnt perhaps the "most,j'mpqrjta.nt' djsc'o'very, v in' jbYology whiclrlBS3 has to boast of is' that which tends, to ,prqve that - j;he :> protoplasm "• in cellsp'nss^s r tn rough th'ejr"' waifs, Junitjng >thein t r |With* otheF*,f"|Cj3il|jYjeoatwyj Hh.cs >;vjew !j^tat§i^nj|j^