22 



of 1887-8, I increased my colonies to 40, 

 and was fairly suceessfiil in Iraising 

 purely mated queens. When the follow- 

 ing season set in, I was horrified to find 

 symptoms of foul brood in several colon- 

 ies. Being anxious to find out where the 

 disease had come from, as this was my 

 first experience of it, I went all round 

 the district extending to a radius of 

 two miles or more, hunting for bee- 

 keepers, spending two or three days on 

 the job. The result was I found quite 

 a number of box-hive beekeepers with 

 from five to a, dozen boxes each, which 

 had been occupied by bees at some time 

 but in most cases were now more than 

 half unoccupied — the bees had died. On 

 examination I found all the combs dis- 

 eased, and the owners ignorant of the 

 cause of their bees dying. The diseased 

 boxes and combs were left on their old 

 stands and free for other bees to enter 

 and carry the germs away. 



Under such circumstances I concluded 

 it was impossible to carry on queen 

 rearing, and gave it up, much to my lose. 

 Three years after I arranged with ilr. 

 Thomas Blackwell, of the Great Barrier 

 Island, to raise all my queens, there 

 being no disease there. I found Mr. Black- 

 well a very conscientious queen breeder 

 and he supplied me with all my queens 

 while I was in business. I did not go 

 out of beekeeping, but just kept a, few 

 colonies to experiment with. 



In the meantime I had joined Mr. H. 

 H. Hayr, who had been acting as agent 

 for Bagnall Bros, and Co., and myself, 

 and OUT firm was registered as, " Hop- 

 kins, Hayr and Co." In November, 1888. 

 by mutual arrangement, the business 

 came into my hands, and the firm was 

 henceforward known as " I, Hopkins 

 and Co." 



THE AUCKLAXD HOXEY ilARKET 

 ly 1887. 

 I was well aware before leaving Mata- 

 mata of the terrible condition of the 

 Auckland honey market, that after the 

 failure of the New Zealand Beekeepers' 

 Association to establish it on something 

 like a sound commercial basis the mar- 

 ket had gone from bad to worse, but I 

 was hardly prepared to find it so bad as 

 it was. After one or two preliminary 

 inquiries, I realised that it was necessary 

 to spend two or three days in visiting 

 places of business in and around Auck- 

 land where honey was sold, and also 



the beekeepers producing it, before T 

 could formulate a scheme for improviag. 

 the market. 



I found at the start that every auction 

 mart where produce was sold had more- 

 or less pressed honey in all kinds of sec- 

 ond-hand tins, most of them rusty and_ 

 covered with paper (torn), and bits of 

 sacking, in place of lids. Much of the 

 honey had been in tire marts for 

 months, unsaleable, and no small amount 

 of it was fermenting. None that I saw 

 was fit for consumption. On my sugges- 

 tion several of the auctioneers had the 

 stuff carted away as rubbish. I learned 

 that a good deal of comb honey, when 

 in season, came into Auckland, and that 

 most of it was sold by auction. Pressed 

 honey averaged IJd. per pound in biscuit 

 a,nd kerosene tins; comb honey in sec- 

 tions (fcAv more than three parts full) 

 from 2/ to 2/6 per dozen, and good ex- 

 tracted honey in 2Ib. tins ranged from 

 6/6 to 8/ per dozen. 



These prices were ruinous, and the 

 most careful beekeepers who sent the 

 best honey into Auckland, were ready 

 to support any scheme for the better- 

 ment of the business. Although the re- 

 turns did not pay, having more or less 

 capital expended in hives and plant, they 

 had to make what they could out of 

 their bees, always hoping things would 

 improve. 



IMPROVING THE ilARKET. 



Amidst this unsatisfactory condition 

 of things there was one reassuring fea- 

 ture. Quite a large number of those 

 who a few years before had rushed into 

 beekeeping, thinking that a small for- 

 tune could be made easily at honey-rais- 

 ing, finding their expectations unrealised, 

 and that they were likely to lose instead 

 of gain by their venture, had dropped 

 out of the business during the last two 

 years. The chief drawback still remain- 

 ing was the box-hive men, of which I 

 shall have more to say later. 



After my investigations I saw there 

 was only one way of improving matters, 

 and that was to get control of the honey 

 mai-ket if possible, supply a good article 

 for a fair price, and so gain the con- 

 fidence of the retail suppliers and con- 

 sumers. It would cost money to carry 

 out the scheme, and would take some 

 time to accomplish, but it had to be 

 done. 



