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The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Wellington Provincial District]

United Farmers' Co-operative Association, Limited

United Farmers' Co-operative Association, Limited, General Produce, Seed and Grain Merchants. Directors, Messrs. John Martin (Chairman), Louis J. Nathan (Managing Director), Captains J. D. R. Hewitt, R.N., and W. S. Gardener, Messrs. R. F. P. Snow, A. O'Brien, G. S. Bridge, L. Wallis, and D. J. Nathan. Head office, corner of Lambton Quay and Johnston Street, Wellington. Manager, Mr. C. W. Mullins. Telephone 641. P.O. Box 253. Bankers, Bank of New Zealand. Branches, Palmerston North, Feilding, and Wanganui. London agents, Messrs. Joseph Nathan and Co., 18 Fenchurch Buildings, Fenchurch Street, E.C. The capital of the Company is £100,000, of which £50,000 is subscribed, and £25,000 paid up. The Company was incorporated on 31st August, 1895, to take over the business of the Manawatu Farmers' Co-operative Association, Limited, and the United Farmers' Alliance, Limited. The business out of which the Manawatu Farmers' Co-operative Association was evolved was established by Messrs. Joseph Nathan and Co., in 1877, when Palmerston North was a very small settlement. The association was incorporated in 1892, and conducted a large business up to the time of amalgamation. The United Farmers' Alliance, Limited, was incorporated in July, 1892, taking over the business of the West Coast Farmers' Association and the Co-operative Farmers' Alliance, and the business developed and extended till the above Union took place. The Association as now constituted is a very powerful one, having a body of some 1600 shareholders among the farmers, occupying some of the most fertile country in the North Island, extending from Patea to Wellington on the West Coast, and as far as Napier on the East Coast. It is worked on purely co-operative principles. All farmers who have a stake in the Association have the option of an open account, and may procure page 719 anything they need from the Company, becoming entitled to a bonus in proportion to their purchases. The Company transact business in general merchandise, undertaking to supply whatever may be required by their customers. Most complete arrangements have also been made for the disposal of all kinds of produce, which the Association will purchase outright, or accept on consignment, undertaking to realise to best advantage, and charging a low scale for commission. Liberal cash advances at reasonable rates are made to farmers who require such accommodation. The method of dealing with these consiguments constitutes one of the most important departments of this large Company, and clients may have every confidence that their interests will be duly considered and carefully guarded. Special attention is given by the United Farmers' Co-operative Association to the matter of seeds, of which large stocks are kept at all the branches. These seeds comprise imported varieties, as well as colonial grown kinds, and are of the best and most carefully selected and tested qualities. The Company claims to be able to supply seeds in any quantity and of first-class germination it the most favourable prices. No better evidence of the high quality of the seed supplied by this Association could be given than the fact that at the Wellington, Palmerston North, Wanganui, and Hawera Agricultural and Pastoral Shows of 1895 the Company carried off first and special prizes for their exhibits of grain and clover seeds and cereals. The descriptive seed list issued by this Association includes valuable information respecting many varieties which the firm handles, such as meadow fortail, meadow fescue, hard fescue, sheep's fescue, red fescue, Timothy, rough stalked meadow grass, wood meadow grass, smooth stalked meadow grass, sweet scented vernal, florin, or marsh bent grass, Yarrow or common milfoil, prairie grass, crested dogstail or gold grass, sand or upright sea lime grass, sea-reed or matt grass, tall oat-like grass, wood or spreading millet grass, cocksfoot, Italian ryegrass, perennial ryegrass, common parsley, white or Dutch clover, alsyke clover, trefoil or yellow clover, red clover, cowgrass or perennial clover, crimson clover, rib grass or plantain, and birdsfoot tréfoil. The Company has secured many valuable agencies for farmers' requisites, among which the following may be named:—W. A. Wood's agricultural machinery; Reid and Gray's agricultural machinery; De Laval's separators, Dennett's stump extractor, Wrigley's stump extractor, Wrigley's Wire strainer, Wrigley's wool presses, Gascoigne's wool presses, antiseptic sheep dip, Brooke's perfect sheep dip, Sir J. B. Lawe's sheep dip, Sir J. B. Lawe's manures, Hayward's sheep dip, Hayward's specific for lungworm, Ford's lungworm mixture, Elliott's sheep drench. They also represent the China Traders' Insurance Company and the United Insurance Company. The Company's trade mark is “U.F.C.A.” The head office and stores are in Lambton Quay, at the corner of Johnston Street, opposite the office of the New Zealand Times Company. The ground floor of the building—a two-story wooden structure—is occupied by the Company, the total floorage space being little less than 40,000 square feet, which is about four times the size of the premises recently vacated in Willis Street, which had become inconveniently small, by reason of the enormous development of the Company's operations.