Cooperative society idea advances
A PUBLIC meeting was held in the Trades Hall last evening for the purpose of bringing to general notice and forwarding the interests of a cooperative society to be called the Dunedin Industrial cooperative Society. The chair was occupied by Mr A. Melville, president of the provincial directorate, and the meeting proved of a highly satisfactory nature, the society being brought within measurable distance of an early complete formation. The chairman, in explaining the objective of the meeting, said it was to set going in Dunedin a cooperative
society. Towards the close of last year an inaugural meeting had been held for that purpose and provisional directors were elected. The proposal they had to put before the meeting was not one of a newfangled scheme, but a scheme that had been tested by the people in the Homeland. The people were forced by necessity to combine and form cooperative societies.
These were started in a very humble way by buying wholesale. A few people clubbed together and bought goods wholesale, sharing them out among each other. It was a humble beginning, but from it the cooperative societies have grown till they had exceeded the expectations of even the most ardent people who foresaw what cooperation might lead to. The people were compelled to form these societies by the difficulty they experienced in living in those days (60 years ago). The compelling necessity today was the high cost of living. During the last six years or so this had gone out of reach of most people, no matter what wages they
earned. No matter what rise wage earners got, the cost of living kept ahead of the wages. Continuing, the speaker mentioned that some eight or ten cooperative societies had started in New Zealand in recent years. Some had not been quite as successful as others, but they were all fighting along steadily and decreasing the cost of living. It was the only means in sight.
The government had done its best and had failed. Towards the close of last year a large number of people had taken shares before the society was properly formed, and that fact had been a great heartener to the provisional directors in the work they had been doing. The objects of the society were very broad. The first clause in the objects would allow them to start any business they thought would be conducive to the interest of members. They did not mean to step out and fight for a big business right away. They wished to start small and work up to as big a business as their capital would allow.