29 



an American beekeeper, thus Indicating 

 as much that we had not talent enough 

 among the whole of our beekeepers to 

 produce an original one. I sincerely hope, 

 for the credit of our New Zealand bee- 

 keepers, that such a thing will never 

 occur again. The title of the original 

 pamphlet was: "Honey, the Natural 

 Sweet for Human Food; Its General Use 

 Conducive to Health and Economy." It 

 was published in Murch, 1888. 



BEEKEEPERS' PROTECTION FUND. 

 In the eairly days of our commercial 

 heekeep.ing on modern lines there was 

 a good deal of passive opposition on the 

 part of farmers against the establish- 

 ment of apiaries in their neighbourhood, 

 and in two or three instances, to my 

 knowledge, in the Auckland province, it 

 threatened to become active. The farm- 

 ers' complaint was that the bees, in 

 gathering nectar from their clover pas- 

 tures, were depriving their cattle of a 

 considerable amount of fattening mat- 

 ter, and giving nothing in return. On 

 the face of it this seemed feasible to' the 

 ordinary farmer, and as the 

 same complaint had been made 

 in America we were in dan- 

 ger of having to contest a lawsuit, 

 which, if it turned out unsuccessful to 

 the beekeeping interests, might have 

 ruined the industry at the time, and its 

 effects would probably have been felt at 

 the present day. 



The threatened action against a bee- 

 keeper in the Te Awamutu district on 

 account of his "trespassing bees" by a 

 neighbouring farmer ibrought the matter 

 to a climax. The complaint of the bee- 

 keeper was first made known to' me as 

 editor of our bee journal, and 

 I brought it at once before 



the executive of the New Zea- 

 land Beekeepers' Association, when it 

 was decided that if an action took placa 

 the aiblest lawyer we could get should be 

 engaged by the jVsso'ciation to fight the 

 case; it was decided also to form a de- 

 fence fund by a levy of one shilling an- 

 nually from all members of the parent 

 and affiliated associatio'ns, to be solely 

 devoted to defend beekeepers against 

 such actions. 



Realising the gravity of the situation 

 from what had already occurred in 

 America, I saw it was necessary to' bring 

 some kind of proof forward that the so- 

 called trespassing bees did incaleulaible 



good instead of harm to pastures. After 

 consulting my friend, Mr. T. J. Mulvany, 

 who owned an extensive library on agri- 

 culture, and agricultural chemistry, 1 

 published in the "New Zealand and 

 Australian Bee Journal" for August, 

 1884, and following numbers, an article 

 on "Apiculture in Relation to Agricul- 

 ture," which had more than a local in- 

 fluence in convincing farmer's that it was 

 toi their interest.s to encourage beekeep- 

 ing rather than oppose it. The question 

 is now better understood among the 

 farming co-mniunity, so that it is hardly 

 likely that any one of o'ur settlers would 

 be so foolish as to oppose the keeping 

 of bees now or in the future. Still, 

 there are other questions which make it 

 desiralble to have a general defence fund 

 in hand. I was sorry our National Bee- 

 keepers' Association at the laat confer- 

 ence (1914) po'stponed consideration of 

 the question when tire motion to form 

 a defence fund was brought forward, the 

 matter is of so much importance and the 

 expense per member so trifling. 



RAILWAY FREIGHT ON HONEY 

 AND HIVES. 



The executive committee of the New 

 Zealand Beekeepers' Association was 

 fully alive to the fact that in compari- 

 son with other agricultural implements 

 and produce, the freight over the railway 

 lines of the country for hives and other 

 beekeeping implements, and also for 

 honey and beeswax, was exceedingly 

 high. Consequently, in June, 1888, a 

 sub-committee was appointed to go into 

 the matter and report to the executive 

 at the next meeting. On July 6, 1888,_at 

 the usual monthly meeting the following 

 report was read: — 



"ilr. Chairman and Gentlemen,— Your 

 sub-committee, on going through the 

 supplement to the 'Government Ga- 

 zette,' dated January 30th, 1888, con- 

 taining the scale of rates and charges 

 on the New Zealand railways, we found: 

 1st.— That extracted honey of local pro- 

 duction, packed, is rated under class C, 

 and the charge per ton for 100 miles 

 is £1 13/7. 



"and.— The same as above for export 

 in not less 'than lOcvvt. lots, is rated 

 under class D, and the charge per ton 

 for 100 miles is £1 6/6. 



"3rd. — ^The same in kegs or caeks is 

 rated under class B, and the charge per 

 ton for 100 miles is £2 1/6. 



