box containing the bees placed over the 

 hole, covered by a sack. In a short time 

 the sulphur fumes killed the bees, and 

 what honey was in the box could be re- 

 moved with safety to the owner. There 

 were a few individual exceptions to this 

 style of bee-keeping, settlers who had 

 profited by the teaching of the Rev. W. 

 Cotton, and secured the honey without 

 destroying the bees, but the majority 

 used the sulphur pit. 



THE HONEY MARKET IN THOSE 

 DAYS. 

 For some years after I came to New 

 Zealand, 51 years ago, the only honey I 

 saw for sale was what the Maoris 

 hawked about in old kerosene or some 

 other old tins. A conglomeration of honey, 

 wax, and bee grubs (the latter was con- 

 sidered a delicacy by the older Maoris), 

 all mixed together, usually obtained 

 from bee nests in the bush, which were 

 plentiful in those days. Occasionally 

 strained honey, free from wax, etc., 

 would be offered, but as it was generally 

 believed (and with good reason) that the 

 straining cloths used by the Maoris were 

 parts of discarded blankets that had 

 served as body wrappers in the heyday 

 of their usefulness, the_ vendors found 

 very few customers among the older 

 colonists. The first honey 1' remember 

 seeing on the market properly put up in 

 tins, was in 1868. I cannot now say 

 whether it was imported or of New Zea- 

 land production; at all events, it was 

 horrible stuff, wherever it came from. I 

 was no connoisseur of honey at the time, 

 but the nauseous taste made me remark : 

 "If that is honey, I never want any more 

 of the so-called 'Nectar of the Gods,' " 

 — the rest was thrown away. I, how- 

 ever, later on discovered the true flavour 

 of honey after I became a beekeeper and 

 produced it myself, and have been a con- 

 sumer ever since. 



Some time in the '70's I heard of an 

 extensive box-hive apiary established 

 near Gisborne, and was informed that 

 the method of taking honey was to cut 

 out the honeycombs from the boxes and 

 dump them into a large tank (in which, 

 I presume, a strainer had been fixed) to 

 drain. When the drainings had well- 

 nigh ceased, a, man with bared feet 

 tramped about on the combs to press out 

 as much as possible of the remaining 

 honey. It was then put up for market 

 in small tins, and, so far as I am aware. 



this was the only apiary that we may 

 term a commercial bee-farm then in New 

 Zealand. Possibly some honey was im- 

 ported in those days, but if so, it must 

 have been in small quantities, as I never 

 saw any served up at meal times; in 

 fact, the majority of families only used a 

 little occasionally as a medium for 

 children's medicine, such as "borax and 

 honey," etc. 



BEEKEEPING IN OTHER COUNTRIES 



The leading beekeepers in most Euro- 

 pean countries had endeavoured from 

 time to time to improve upon the old and 

 wasteful methods of beekeeping, and had 

 to some extent succeeded, but it is to 

 America we owe acknowledgment for the 

 greatest benefits received in this direc- 

 tion. Many of our best apiary appli- 

 ances were invented by enterprising 

 American beekeepers, and others have 

 been vastly improved in that country. 

 Our popular form of movable-frame 

 hive came from there, and our comb- 

 foundation was brought to its present 

 state of perfection in that country; in 

 fact, there is scarcely one article com- 

 prised in an ujj-to-date apiary outfit but 

 what owes its best features to American 

 ingenuity. It is not necessary to go into 

 particulars of dates, etc., of the different 

 inventions; it will be sufficient to say 

 that the crowning point came with the 

 invention of machinery by A. I. Root and 

 another in 1876-7, that turned out full 

 sheets of comb-foundation with high side- 

 walls, in almost the same condition that 

 we have it now. I have always con- 

 sidered that what is usually termed 

 "Modern beekeeping" commenced at that 

 date, for without such comb-foundation 

 the full benefit of the movable frame- 

 hive could not have been gained. 



THE FIRST STAGE OF PROGRESS 

 IN NEW ZEALAND. 



When I first took a practical interest 

 in l)eekeeping, early in 1874, no one in 

 New Zealand, so far as I could learn, 

 knew anything about the progress of the 

 industry in other countries. I had 

 gathered from scraps I had read that 

 much had been done to get out of the old 

 ruts, but could get no information that 

 would guide me beyond a gin-case hive 

 — the first kind I adopted, at the Thames, 

 where I then lived. I was most anxious 

 to learn the best methods, as I very 



