1 May, 1898.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 841 
as well as the through lines to Sydney and Melbourne. Capable of being 
worked up to 250 tons of flour per week, the mill gets through on the average 
about 200 tons a week during the whole year, which means about 125,000 bags 
of wheat, and for the whole of this there is provided storage, a large portion 
of which has already thus early in the season been filled up. As the full equip- 
ment of so first-class an establishment as this, including land, buildings, 
machinery, storage, and railway connections, is placed at about £20,000, the 
balance of £10,000 of the share capital is understood to have been intended 
for carrying out the clause in the articles referring to “advances to farmers 
upon their wheat,” but this part of the association’s original intention seems to 
have been very largely held in abeyance. In reality the co-operative element 
is admitted to have been allowed to drift considerably, and the cause is not 
difficult to find. In order to obtain the required capital the share list has been 
opened to non-producers to such an extent that they are largely in the 
majority, with, of course, the consequent result. They, and not the farmers, now 
hold the controlling influence, so that the mill, while still co-operative in name, 
is actually proprietary in fact. In this connection, the presence of the follow- 
ing “dividend clause’’ in the articles of association carries with it its own 
significance. 
The directors may, before recommending any dividend, set aside out of the 
profits such sum as they think proper as an investment upon such securities as 
they may select, and may, after providing for a dividend at the rate of 10 per 
cent. to the members generally on the amount paid up on their respective 
shares, set aside out of the profits as they think proper for distribution by way 
of bonus among the members who shall, during the twelve months immediately 
preceding, have been the vendors of wheat to the company, which sum shall be 
distributed amongst such vendors in proportion to the quantity of wheat sold 
by them to the company; but no bonus to any such vendor shall exceed the 
rate of 24 per cent. upon the amount paid up on the shares held by him at the 
time of allotment of bonus. 
Relegating the producing members to the position of bonus shareholders, 
and even that with a limit of 23 per cent., will be noted as very plainly indi- 
cating how far this association has departed from its original idea of co-opera- 
tion, and how little it now differs from any other proprietary company, in so 
arranging the profits as that they may be distributed among the “ general 
members,” who, having no direct connection with the production of wheat, 
cannot be expected to have at heart the interests of the wheat-grower 
exclusively. 1t is essential, however, in any scheme of organisation for the 
establishment of a co-operative flour-mill for the benefit of the farmers, that it 
must be controlled by the farmers, and that the point now.to be considered is 
how is that to be done? 
THE SAFE CO-OPERATIVE BASIS, 
In seeking to find out how a farmers’ co-operative flour-milling association 
may be formed and successfully carried out in any, or all, of the wheat-growing 
centres of the colony, past examples, showing what to avoid, are quite as 
valuable as those indicating what may safely be followed. In pointing to the 
fact that the farmers have proven themselves capable of co-operative organisa- 
tion of a most complete kind in connection with the dairying industry, the 
reply is, “ Yes; that is all very well, but starting a flour-mill is a very different 
thing to running a butter factory, which requires only about £1,000 to start, 
while a flour-mill needs, according to its size, a capital of from £15,000 to 
£50,000.” While the raising of the larger amount of capital may be admitted 
as a difficulty, still it is not an insuperable one, and further, it can be over- 
come, aud that without, as in the case of the Wagga mill, emasculating 
co-operation. Promising that this important matter can be arranged, then there 
is much to say in favour of co-operative flour-milling by farmers as compared 
with running a butter factory. Converting wheat.into flour under intelligent 
e 
