28o INSECTS 



Miss Burnby brought with her the first bees introduced in two straw 

 hives. These came from New South Wales. In 1840 Lady Hobson, 

 wife of the first Governor of New Zealand, brought bees with her 

 from New South Wales. In 1842 Mrs AUum arrived at Nelson in 

 the 'Clifford' with the first shipment of bees from England; and in 

 the same year the Rev. W. Cotton arrived in the Bay of Islands with 

 another lot of bees from England. 



It is probable that the bees referred to by Dieffenbach (in 1839) 

 had swarmed from those brought over in the autumn by Miss Burnby, 

 unless, indeed, they were an independent importation. He says: 

 "Bees have been introduced into New Zealand from New South 

 Wales; my excellent friend, the Rev. Richard Taylor at Waimate, 

 had a hive, and they were thriving remarkably well." 



As settlement proceeded throughout the country — most of it on 

 the skirt of bushland— great numbers of swarms were lost in the 

 forests, where they quickly established themselves in hollow trees. 

 Lady Barker in Station Life in New Zealand says she ate bush-honey 

 in Canterbury in 1866. Wild bees were very common in Southland 

 in 1868. 



The Hon. Herbert Meade writing in 1871 says: 



New Zealand is par excellence the land of honey, and although the bees 

 have only been introduced for, I believe, about twenty-five years, the woods 

 are already full of wild honey. A friend assured me that he had taken as 

 much as 70 lbs. from a single tree, and known others to get 200 and 300 lbs. 

 at one haul; another man collected a ton and a half in a few weeks. 



The greatest enemies to the bees here are the dragon-fUes, which grow 

 to an enormous size. They waylay the luckless bees when homeward 

 bound and laden with honey, and after nipping off the part containing 

 the sting, devour the remainder with the honey, at leisure. 



Dragon-flies do occasionally eat bees, but they are not really for- 

 midable enemies ; their numbers are too few. 



Honey-bees were sent over to the Chatham Islands in October, 

 1890. They had been imported previously, though I have not got a 

 date for their introduction, but were supposed to have been destroyed 

 by spiders, which were particularly abundant. 



Numbers of various kinds of bees have been introduced into the 

 country from time to time, such as Italian, Syrian, Cyprian, Holy- 

 land, Carniolian and Swiss-alpine; but only the first-named is 

 cultivated. 



The first Italian bees introduced were landed in 1879 by Mr J. H. 

 Harrison of Coromandel (one hive) and the Canterbury AccHmatisa- 

 tion (one hive). 



Then the Canterbury Society imported four hives of Ligurians 



