13 



(the present head of the Brett Printing 

 and Publishing Co., Ltd.), who had just 

 started the "New Zealand Farmer, Bee 

 and Poultry Journal," now "The 

 Zealand Farmer, Stock and Sta- 

 tion Journal," made arrangements 

 with Mr J. C. Firth to take over 

 the "Bee Journal," provided I would 

 edit the bee section. This I agreed to 

 do, and have been in that position ever 

 since — just .32 years. The "Bee Journal" 

 ceased publication after June, 1885 — 

 greatly regretted by both New Zealand 

 and Australian beekeepers. 



In this connection it may be of in- 

 terest to state that I have before me the 

 reply of the Chief Postmaster, Auckland, 

 to the request of the publisher that the 

 "Bee Journal" be registered as a maga- 

 zine for postal rates. It runs as fol- 

 lows: — 



"Auckland, 5th July, 1883.— I beg to 

 inform you I have received provisional 

 authority to pass the 'Bee Journal' 

 through the post offices as a magazine. 

 Copie-s maj' now be posted at magazine 

 rates.— (Signed) S. Biss, C.P.M." 



IMPORTING QUEENS DIRECT FROM 

 ITALY. 



Taking matters as they happened as 

 near as may be in their chronological 

 order, the ne.Kt item of importance was 

 the successful importation of Italian 

 queens direct from Italy, which was then 

 considered a great feat. In July, 1883, I 

 communicated with the late well-known 

 queen, breeder, Chas. Bianconcini, of 

 Bologna, and subsequently sent him an 

 order for eight of his., best queens at £ 1 

 each. In due time I received advice 

 that they would leave Naples on the 

 10th November, 1883. . They reached me 

 at Matamata on January 9, 1884 — a long 

 trip. Four of the eight queens came 

 safely, the rest dead. These were, of 

 course, the first queens to come to New 

 Zealand direct from Italy. Mr Full- 

 wood had previously sent me one from 

 Brisbane — one of some he had imported 

 direct. I had several transactions with 

 Chas. Bianconeini afterwards, and always 

 found him a very decent fellow. He 

 died some years ago. My orders after 

 the first «'ere always for twelve queens 

 ( £12) , and I usually got six through 

 alive. On one occasion, however, I lost 

 the whole twelve, so that the queen 

 trade was not all profit in those days. 



IMPORTING SYRIAN, CYPRIAN, 



HOLY LAND, CARNIOLAN, AND 



SWISS ALPINE QUEENS DIRECT. 



I was determined on my own account, 

 and in the interests of New Zealand bee- 

 keeping, to test all the Eastern bees, 

 which were in vogue at the time. The 

 craze for them had got hold of me, and 

 I felt I must have them; consequently, 

 in May, 1884, I sent an order to Mr T. 

 B. Blow, of Welwyn, Herts, England, 

 who was doing a considerable business 

 with Mr Frank Benton, to arrange with 

 the latter to send me queens of each 

 of the above races or varieties. The 

 "British Bee Journal" of June 15, 1884, 

 had the following paragraph in its 

 columns in connection with my order: — 



"We are informed that Mr T. B. Blow 

 has a commission to forward Syrian, 

 Cyprian, Holy Land, Carniolan, and 

 Italian bees to New Zealand. We under- 

 stand from Mr Blow that he has com- 

 missioned Mr Frank Benton — of whose 

 connection with Eastern bees our readers 

 will be well aware — to execute the 

 order." 



Mr Benton at that time had queen- 

 rearing apiaries in Cyprus, Palestine, in 

 the Carniolan Alps, and other places. 

 The Italians mentioned above came from 

 the Swiss Alps, on the bordering line 

 of Italy, where it was understood the 

 best Italian bees came from. 



The queens reached me after some 

 little unavoidable delay. The Carniolan 

 queens were dead, but the others ar- 

 rived in fair condition. In the meantime 

 another shipment of twelve queens ar- 

 rived from Chas Bianconeini on Sep- 

 tember 26th, 1884, six being alive. 



Taking into account the great expense 

 attached to importing queens, and the 

 losses, my charge of 15/ for a tested 

 queen of either variety was not all profit. 

 I was calculating as near as I could 

 some little time ago ray total outlay for 

 imported queens, and I made it about 

 £200. It is recorded in the "New Zea- 

 land and Australian Bee Journal" for 

 December, 1883, when mentioning the fact 

 that a shipment of queens from Italy 

 was expected shortly, that: "We had 

 imported previously 22 colonies from 

 America." — "We," that is, myself. 



THE CHARAOTFJRISTIOS OF EAST- 

 ERN BEES COMPARED. 

 It may be well here, as I had all these 

 bees in their purity, including Carniolans 



