10 



sending live animals by post — to get per- 

 mission to send queen bees by mail. I 

 therefore prepared a specimen shipping 

 cage, which was sent through Mr. J. C. 

 Firth to the Postmaster-General, Wel- 

 lington, on October 9th, 1882, together 

 with a request that queen bees, with 

 their aceoimpanying worker bees, be 

 .allowed to go^ by post. To this request 

 the following reply was received — the 

 •original of which I have before me: — 



Post Office and Telegraph Dapartment, 



Wellington, October 20, 1S82. 

 Sir, — The JPostmasterHGeneral has very 

 much pleasure la authorising you to send 

 queen beee througli the post in the boxes 

 (shipping cages), of which you sent a speci- 

 men with your application of the 9th inst. 

 Postmasters will be instructed to take every 

 care of the packages. — I have the honour 

 to be, Sir, your obedient servant, 



(Signed), W. GRAY, Secretary. 



THE FIRST OOMMEEiGIAL QUEEN- 

 REARING APIARY IN AUSTRALASIA. 



Before leaving the Thames I had sup- 

 plied Italian queens, but chiefly locally. 

 Orders, however, were coming in from 

 distant parts during the winter of 1882. 

 These I took with me to Matamata to 

 execute from there. As soon as the 

 season set in I raised both Holy Land 

 and Italian queens for sale, and issued a 

 price list. During the season of 1882-3, 

 and subsequently, queens were sent to 

 all parts of New Zealand as well as to 

 South Australia, Victoria, New South 

 Wales, Queensland, Tasmania, and later 

 on to several of the South Sea Islands. 

 With the exception of Queensland, those 

 queens I sent were the first of the kind 

 seen in the several colonies. 



Considering the difficulty encountered 

 of late years in queens travelling safely 

 -when caged for some days, it may be 

 well to mention that I do not remember 

 one loss in the mails, even when sent 

 to Australia, although in those days the 

 queens had to take their chance in the 

 closed sacks with letters, etc. On one 

 occ-asion a queen sent to South Aus- 

 tralia was 22 days on the trip, caused 

 by some unaccountable delay of the 

 package in Sydney. Two letters arrived 

 from the beekeeper — ime complaining of 

 the delay and the other stating he had 

 received the queen and two or three 

 bees alive. I wrote him at once that 

 if she did not turn out satisfactory 

 after her long confinement I would send 

 him another. Subsequently he wrote 



me that she quickly recovered, and was 

 doing well. 



My queen trade developed very 

 rapidly, and for a considerable time the 

 home apiary of about 60 colonies, and 

 (in the season) some 75 nuclei, was 

 chiefly devoted to the breeding and test- 

 ing of Italian queens for home use and 

 for sale. 



THE TRADE IX COMB FOUNDATION. 



The demand for Langstroth hives and 

 all the new bee appliances increased 

 enormously after passing over my busi- 

 ness to Messrs. Bagnall Bros, and Co. 

 Large orders came by every mail from 

 Australia and all parts of New Zealand. 

 There was an extraordinary rush into 

 the new beekeeping during the next few 

 years. As comib-foundation was one of 

 the chief requisites with the hives, and 

 I wias then the only person making it 

 in the whole of Australasia, it may be 

 readily understood that I was kept very 

 busy imanufacturing it. My difficulty 

 was in getting beeswax fast enough for 

 the purpose. An open order was given 

 to the New Zealand Loan and Mercan- 

 tile Agency to get every scrap of wax 

 P'OSsible from their Australian and New 

 Zealand branches, and to send it along 

 as soon as their parcels reached from 

 a half to one-ton lots. On one occasion 

 I had to send to England for two tons 

 to keep me going. Agents in Melbourne 

 and Sydney were appointed for the sale 

 of comb-foundation, and several hundred- 

 weights were sent to them by each 

 steamer during the spring and summer 

 seasons. The first ewt that went to 

 Australia was to the order of my oJrl 

 friend, Mr. Chas. FuUwood, already men- 

 tioned. 



Soime of the New Zealand agents, be- 

 side tihe branches of the Loan and iler- 

 cantile Agency, were F. W. Isitt, Christ- 

 church; J. Adamson, Hastings; R. Cock, 

 New Plymouth; W. Tyree, Nelson; J. 

 Barkley, Westport, and others. 



COMiB-FOUNDATION MA(3HIiN'ES. 



Soon after A. I. Root placed his origi- 

 nal 10-inch roller machine on the market 

 several others came forward, all differ- 

 ing a little in some respect. There were 

 the "Dunham," "Vandervort," "Given- 

 press," "Van Deusen Plat-bottom Ma- 

 chine," "Pelham" — all American — and a 

 very expensive English machine made 



