MA TURK .VOTES I 17 



India, as well as through Australia. The honev gathered by these native 

 bees is variable in quality, but never equal to that of the hive-bee. 



It is not so very long ago, however, since " wild " honev was much sought 

 after in our Australian bush as one of the greatest of luxuries. The fact 

 that the Trigona has no sting induced many people — who would, in those 

 days of crude, ruthless methods, have shrunk from an adventure with social 

 honey-bees — to wage war against the stores of the " native bee." In 1822 

 the first hive-bees were brought to this part of the world, and from the bees 

 thus introduced colonies were propagated and distributed inland among the 

 colonists. The descendants of these bees soon spread themselves fairly well 

 over New South Wales. Of course these bees were kept in hives or boxes 

 of any or every shape or stvle. The bar-frame hive was then unknown. 

 Under the old system anyone could have bees who had the courage to rob 

 them. The stray or escaped swarm of bees took to the bush. The aborigi- 

 nals soon learned from their white brothers how to subdue bees by means of 

 smoke, and with tomahawk and firestick, aided by strong vines, would ascend 

 the loftiest and smoothest of trees to obtain the " white- fellow's sugar bag." 

 The aboriginals have no word in their own language for the introduced bee. 

 The flavor of the honey from the little native bee was no stranger to them, 

 but they were not long in discovering that both in quality and quantity "white- 

 fellow's sugar-bag" was far superior. 



In the early seventies, so plentiful had bees become in the bush that in 

 the markets, dishes and buckets full of honey, mixed uith dead and dving 

 bees, dead \zr\x in all stages, broken comb, and rotten wood, were exposed 

 for sale under the cognomen of bush honey. To look at it was anything 

 but appetising. Better samples were bottled and sold under the name or 

 " prime garden honey." 



About 1872, our bees met with an enemy that bid fair to almost extermi- 

 nate them — the bee moth put in an appearance, from whence we know not. 

 Hitherto no skill was required in the management of bees that were kept at 

 that time. New swarms were put into a piece of a hollow log, sawn off 

 evenly at both ends, with pieces of stringy-bark nailed over the openings, 

 and the bees had to obtain ingress or egress as best they could. Gin cases, 

 tea chests, or boxes of other descriptions, were preferred, but in the bush at 

 that time these were not always to be obtained. Manipulation of these hives 

 was as crude as the grotesquely-made hives. There was no consideration 

 given for the lives of the bees. These early bee-keepers knew little or noth- 

 ing of the importance of the queen bee; they did not understand " no queen, 

 no bees," therefore no honey. It was a general destruction. When the 

 bees were robbed, wax, brood, comb, and queen were all sacrificed for the 



