34 



ing of cadets every year since it started, 

 then there can be no question as to its 

 having fulfilled an important function in 

 the progress of advanced bee culture in 

 New Zealand. Nearly forty young 

 women and several young men have been 

 trained, one having come specially from 

 England, and another young lady from 

 the same country is about to leave to 

 take up a eadetship at the apiary for 

 next season. Three young women came 

 from Australia, two of whom are now 

 working in partnership as commercial 

 beekeepers near Drury, in the Auckland 

 province. All the former cadets I have 

 heard from have been successful as 

 apiarists. 



It may here be mentioned that all 

 cadets are required to go through a full 

 season from September to end of follow- 

 ing April, and are at the end of their 

 term put through a thorough examina- 

 tion before being entitled to a Govern- 

 ment certificate; if unsviccessful in their 

 examination, no certificate is issued. It 

 may he worthy of note that only one 

 cadet has failed, chiefly through sick- 

 ness. 



LEGISLATION. 



Early in 1906 I was requested by my 

 chief to draft an Apiaries Act in time 

 for it to be prepared for the ensuing 

 session of Parliament. This was done, 

 and I had the satisfaction of learning 

 (as my chief has since declared) that the 

 draft, after passing through the law 

 officer's hands, came back practically un- 

 altered. It was duly submitted to Par- 

 liament as a Government measure, and 

 passed into law, but unfortunately three 

 words had been added to one of the 

 sections while in committee, that com- 

 pletely frustrated the chief feature of 

 the whole Act — the absolute exclusion 

 of all else but movable comb hives as 

 domiciles for bees. 



It was a great disappointment, but as 

 the Minister for Agriculture subse- 

 quently explained, there was only a few 

 minutes left to get the bill through, and 

 he (Hon. Mr. MeNab) had either to ac- 

 cept the amendment or lose the oppor- 

 tunity of getting it through that 

 session. He, however, promised to bring 

 the Act before Parliament next session 

 to have the three objectionable words 

 struck out. In the amended draft, the 

 word "honey" had been inserted in sec- 

 tion 8, sub-section b, which would have 



made it illegal for honey to be sold or 

 given away from any apiary affected 

 with foul brood. 



Fortunately, my chief and myself were 

 called before the Pai'liamentary Commit- 

 tee when the new bill was being con- 

 sidered, and we got the word "honey" 

 expunged; otherwise, as nearly all our 

 apiaries had more or less foul brood in 

 them, they would have had to close 

 down. The amended bill went through, 

 and was made law exactly in the form 

 we wanted it in the session of 1907, 

 thanks to the assistance given 'by our 

 Beekeepers' Associations. 



NEW REGULATIONS UNDER THE 

 APIARIES ACT. 



In my annual report for 1909, I sug- 

 gested the compulsory registration of 

 all apiaries in order to assist and save 

 the time of the inspectors, and also that 

 strict supervision should be exercised 

 over all imported bees to prevent 

 disease being introduced from other 

 countries. Both these suggestions, with 

 rpfulations connected with the export of 

 honey added by the chief of the division 

 (Mr. T. W. Kirk), have since received 

 the sanction of Parliament, been Gazetted 

 and become law. 



The Apiaries Act, as it now stands, is 

 without doubt the best of its kind now 

 in force in any part of the world for pro- 

 tecting the interests of commercial bee- 

 keeping. 



STATE APIARY AT THE CHRIST- 

 CHURCH EXHIBITION. 



As one of the Department's working 

 exhibits at the Christchurfih Inter- 

 national Exhibition, 1906-7, the Govern- 

 ment decided to have a model apiary. It 

 was thoroughly equipped with honey 

 house and every modern appliance, and 

 was run as a model bee farm, the honey 

 secured being exhibited in the Depart- 

 ment's quarters. The apiary occupied 

 about half-an-acre, surrounded by a. six- 

 foot fence of wire-netting, over which 

 sweet peas were grown; it was a, most 

 ■attractive and popular exhibit, and did 

 an immense amount of good in making 

 the modern system of heekeeping known, 

 as well as being instrumental in creating 

 a greater demand for honey. In this 

 connection a vote of thanks was for- 

 warded to me passed at the first meet- 

 ing of the Canterbury Beekeepers' Asso- 

 ciation (which was formed shortly after. 



