12 



There were immense quantities sold 

 throughout the Dominion. Nearly every 

 grocer, oil and colour man, merchant, 

 and cliemist in Auckland was taken in. 



The first to come round with the stuff 

 was a German traveller. He found out 

 I was a big huyer of wax, and intro- 

 duced himself and tlie composition to 

 me. I will give him credit for not trying 

 to take me in, but he wanted me to 

 take others in. The stuff he offered 

 deceived several who considered them- 

 selves experts in wax. It was offered 

 to me in lots of one ton or more, landed 

 in Auckland from Germany, at £46 

 13/4 per ton (flvepence per lb), beeswax 

 at the time being wortli over £100 per 

 ton. Needless to say he made no deal 

 with me, and I never heard any more 

 of him. 



Some time after, however, a tall, 

 smart-looking man, with all the appear- 

 ance of an experienced commercial travel- 

 ler, came to me and said: "You are a 

 large huyer of beeswax, I understand." 

 "Yes," I answered. "Have you any for 

 sale?" "Yes," he replied; "I can sell 

 you several cwt at a price." "Have you 

 a sample?" — upon which he opened his 

 gladstone bag and handed me a sample. 

 I was so used to handling wax at the 

 time that at the first touch of the 

 sample I handed it back to him with- 

 out examining it, and said, "That is not 

 beeswax." "No?" he queried, as inno- 

 cently as possible. He then told me he 

 was travelling for a firm who was sell- 

 ing it as genuine wax. I could not 

 contradict him, but told him not to offer 

 it as beeswax or he would get into 

 trouble. Notwithstanding this warning, 

 however, he must have sold some tons 

 of it in Auckland. He was getting lOd 

 per pound for it, and I have reason to 

 believe it was the same stuff that was 

 offered me at 5d. 



It was such an excellent imitation of 

 the genuine article that it deceived old 

 buyers. On one occasion a leading Auck- 

 land merchant, with whom I had had 

 many transactions in wax, came to me 

 and said he had arranged to buy five 

 cwt of wax. Would I come and look at 

 it? He was a bit suspicious about it 

 owing to the quantity sent to him. He 

 had submitted a sample to the expert 

 buyer of a leading fii-m, who declared 

 it genuine, and would take it himself if 

 the merchant did not want it. "Oh, 

 but I do want it, if it is genuine," re- 



plied the merchant. But this did not 

 satisfy the inquirer, and he came to me. / 

 As soon as I saw it I told him who 

 he had bought it from, which he said ' 

 was correct, and I condemned it. When 

 the party came for his cheque he was 

 told to take the stuff away, and was 

 threatened with prosecution — ^he quickly 

 cleared out. 



About two years after this an Auck- 

 land man commenced to manufacture a 

 fraudulent imitation of beeswax, and 

 must have made a very good thing out 

 of it before he was eventually trapped 

 Although I knew my man, and what 

 was going on very well, the law at that 

 time was such that it was a. very risky 

 thing to accuse a man of fraud without 

 you could bring overwhelming evidence 

 to prove your case. It is different now, 

 when one can invoice the health and 

 food laws in all such cases. Eventually, 

 the culprit was punished by receiving 

 six months in gaol. This, I think, put 

 a stop to the fraud, for I have not since 

 heard of any adulterated beeswax being 

 sold. 



THE FIRST BEE JOURNAL IN THE 

 SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE. 



Previous to leaving the Thames I had 

 it in mind that a monthly bee journal 

 would soon be needed to push the in- 

 dustry ahead. When I broached the 

 subject to ilr Firth, shortly after get- 

 ting everything into working order at 

 Mataraata, he fell in with the idea, with 

 the result that the first number of "The 

 New Zealand and Australian Bee Jour- 

 nal" was published in July, 1883, under 

 my editorship, the annual subscription 

 being 6/, post free. I was most fortu- 

 nate in securing some very able contri- 

 butors; in fact, I do not think any bee 

 journal in the world, before or since, 

 has had better. They came forward 

 voluntarily in the interest of the indus- 

 try, and without fee or reward. 



Although the journal had a fairly 

 large circulation for a magazine devoted 

 entirely to bees, it barely paid its way, 

 and gave nothing for the work entailed 

 in editing and publishing it. As regards 

 myself, it was a labour of love, and I 

 looked for no remuneration. It had, 

 however, done a vast amount of good 

 during its two years' life, and would 

 not have then been given up had not 

 another journal taken it over to con- 

 tinue the bee matter. Mr Henry Brett 



