THE COOPERATIVE ASSOCIATION.

Waikato Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2182, 3 July 1886, Page 3

THE COOPERATIVE ASSOCIATION.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir,— When the last annual meeting was held it was generally understood that the directors would make such anangeinentsas would bring the business of the company on a cash basis, and it will therefore, lam mre, be a subject not less of surppsa than regr«t that by the decision of a mere 'hand- ' • ful of shareholders the directors should once more plunge into a course which must m«vitably destroy the association. Those who state that the fanners of the Waikato canuot pay cash are simply arguing that there ought not to be a co-operative associa- \ tion, for the whole secret of the hiiceess of co-operati\ c societies lies" in the fuct that receiving ready cash they are worked on a small capital and make no bad debts. If certain gentlemen want a trading society, by all means let them have one, bub they have no right to use capital which was subscribed tor a co-operative society for such a purpose. We hear a great deal of talk about middlemen. If by this is meantstorekeepois iv the Waikato, 1 fail to see ho>v thy/jo-operative bociety (uu compete with £bern on its piesent lines. It is a liotoiioiis fact that thes>o men me none of them mo-Mug fortunes, and yet theychaige a very high percentage over ineieliaiits' piiee-i. Almost the whole of their pioht disappear in bail debU and interest on money due to them by cu>toiuers>. If the co-opoiiiti\e .society charges a leas margin ot pro tit on the goods they sell, and at the •same tune loa^j the same amount in b;ui debts and bank interests; as tho ordinary ti.ider, then it i.-> manifest they must in the long run behea\y losers if, on the •other hrtnd, in oid'U' to make good the&e losses they eh.uge the so-me a* ottier tiadep, what is the ti'-e of th» co-operative Association i and why should we lend our capital to it '/ But in addition to this, it must bd remembered that it the eo-opuative association attempts to cairy on a. ciedit businc.sK they will inevitublylo.se fai nioio than ;i private trader would. It is a coiumqn ptactice with st.oiekeept.r-> to make dear purchases in order to woik off bad debts and oiheiwiie manipulate their account-., making a smalL lo^s to save a big one. The agent ot a co-opeiotive houiety would not lie allow. J to enter into transactions ot tins kind. Again a pnv.ite trader may give ciedit to ono man and vefu.se it to another without stating any reason. But the directors ot this association have no right to make a distinction between one shareholder and .mother, and if *me nun h.<s " account datum " another jnay demand it as a right, or else you put the directors in the invidious position of .appealing- to favour their friencU asjainbt. other shareholders. Two arguments are advanced against the cash system. Fir.st, that our customers want " accommodation" and have not the ready money to carry on their business. To this I'd reply, that such persons should deal with merchants who undertake tbat kind of business. It appears to me most unjust that those who have, subscribed for a business to be carried on on co-operative principles, ' should have their capital diverted to another pifrpose. At the pe.sent time those who leally want a co-operative society and can pay cash aie driven away from 1 thi# society^ to merchants who will gi\e them' better tenn.s for cash. The second objection raised is that pei&ons at a distance £Anuot send cash with theii orders. It is abounding to hear men who put theinfieUes forward as business men talking thus. There are a score of ways of meeting thi* difficulty, which every business man ought to know, such as deposit accounts, erosged cheques, and the usual business safeguard*. This distiict is hopelessly handicapped by the system of borrowing and obtaining credit for every transaction the farmer or trader undertakes. The trader pays in bills, the interest of which is added to the cost of the gbods. The fanner pays in bills or at long intervals, which again' adds bank interest. To secure himself the storekeeper has to buy tho fanner's produce, whatever itrf quality, and tho farmer his to sell his produce at the dictate of the middleman. Thus the whole course of trade is unsound and profitable to none but iJjo money lender. When the Co-operative was btarted the bulk of the £hanc{i/>lderB joined it in the hopes it would tenable us to buy and .sell with our own jtnoney and to lift the district out of the >tato of coiniftoicjal rottenness into which it has *uuk. TUa association has utterly faiJod to do this, biinply because it has not t)6ftn true W> co-operative principles. It is aaid that £l;e society could not possibly trade on a cash system, but they have never attempted to do so. As a mater of fact, there js at lea^t one store iv Hamilton run on this system, and I have authority for saying that the groat bulk of thohe who trade at the Hamilton Co-operative store are prepared to pay cash, if they can have the advantages to which their ready money entitles them. What we therefore demand from the directors is this : Let them make such arrangements as will really test the 00-operative principle on a cash basis at this particular branch. When that has f>aen proved a failure, then perhaps they piny be en tit led to abandon the system to which they raised their capital, and beco?ft<J » mere trading society, but in th« meiiniuwo I maintain that we have a fight to demand that the recognised principles of co-operation should at leabt have a, trial by what professes to be a uo-opera-tivo association.— I am, your.s obediently, A Would be Coopekatok. Hamilton, June 2Bth,

The number of telephones now id the United States is 323,574, while iv Great Britain it is only 13,000. In other words 'there are 25 telephones in the United fetates for ev«»'y one in England. Atteniost lias been called in New York papers to "the number of young cirls who move along the streets m threes f) in that city. That, it is explained," ie the moet conspicuous resii lit of the popularity of • The Mikado. The « Three Little Maids from School song is the most catchy one in the opera. It is sung ia every household in New York, 'thumped out with unrelenting enthusiasm on boarding -house pianos from one #U of the town to the other, hummed by 4he flftrdrivers, and whistled by the !,treet Amfas. Now the girls have taken 5V travelling jn trios. A pair is rare, Lhile the trios saving along everywhere, 'and they invariably wove as though hun.- • ?nh,g the ditty about the three little Jfapauew maid*.' 1