INFORMATION RELATING TO CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION 31 



1916 



vSale of agricultural products £ 566,470 454,415 



Materials necessary to agriculture, including 



sacks 127,903 144,365 



Total ... £ 694,373 598780 



The decreased sales of 1916 are due to the less abundant harvest. 



In 1916 the societies realized £359,060 by sales on the spot, £95,355 

 by exporting. * 



The Act of 1912, under which the Land Bank was formed, allowed it 

 to grant loans to co-operative societies on condition the members were, 

 under the Act, collectively liable for the debts of their respective societies. 

 As laws on co-operation existed only in the Transvaal and Orange Free State 

 the bank could not help farmers of the Cape or Natal who wished to form 

 co-operative societies. This anomaly was eliminated by the Act of 1916 from 

 which we have already quoted and which had force from 15 June 1916. 

 Its provisions have aroused a most lively interest in the farming classes of 

 these two provinces of the Union. Hitherto however only two co-operative 

 societies have been constituted within them. . 



The bank has obser\''ed that hitherto co-operation in Transvaal has not 

 affected the sale of grain, which presents the greatest difficulties, and there- 

 fore it makes a point of encouraging the formation of small societies of a 

 different kind which do not entail large general costs nor the immobilization 

 of a large capital. Thus at Ennersdale in Natal a society for breeding milch 

 cows, the first of its kind in the Union, was founded. It aims at enabling 

 its members to procure good milch cows. The number of members is li- 

 mited to ten, and no member may be supplied with stock to the value of 

 more than £300* The price of the cows is repaid by monthly instalments, 

 uniform in amount, extending over a period of five years, and secured by 

 the obligation imposed on the members to sell all their cream by the medium 

 of the society, which ever\' month deducts the quota of repayment due from 

 the sum realized by the cream. The amount thus deducted is paid to the 

 bank every month. The society has the right to defer the liquidation of 

 reimbursement when those interested have paid about £50 of the value of 

 the stock furnished to them, in order that all may acquire absolute property 

 in the stock at the same time. This form of organization seems to give 

 good results, and it is found that costs of administration are gradually eli- 

 minated. 



Another society, also founded at Ennersdale, enables its members to 

 buy manures and sacks. The members are of course bound to sell their 

 products by the medium of the societ3^ 



Some efforts have also been made to develop co-operation with a view 

 to colonization. 



