NEW ZEALAND MISSION.

55

crew of that gallant vessel-and not least of that number, the chief Shepherd himself, and our author Bee-master-men of the highest mental attainments, of the gentlest blood, on whom our Public Schools and Universities had showered their most honourable rewards, and to whom, had they remained in this country, the most splendid prospects opened—who have yet borne to give up all these prospects and sever all the ties of blood and old affection, to cross at the call of the Church, in the service of their Master, half a world of ocean to an island unfrequented and barbarous, and where, for at least many years to come, they must give up all idea, not of luxury and comfort, but of what they have hitherto deemed the very necessaries of existence; and, what is more to such men, the refinements of intellectual intercourse and the charities of polished life. God forbid that we should not have a heart to sympathise also in the struggles of those uneducated and enthusiastic, but often misguided men, who are sent out with the Bible in their hand by voluntary associations on a pitiable payment barely greater than what they might have earned with their hands in their own parish! it is the system and the comfortable committee at home with which we quarrel, not with the painful missionaries themselves; but while we grieve over the martyred Williams, we have nothing in common with that sympathy which is monopolised by the exertions of missionary artizans, enured from their cradle to a life of hardship, and which can feel nothing for the tenfold deprivations,

mental and bodily, both in what they encounter and what they leave behind, which the rich and the educated endure, who are authoritatively commissioned to plant the standard of the Cross within the ark of Christ's Church in our distant colonies. It becomes us who sit luxuriously in our drawing-rooms at home, reading the last new volume in our easy chairs, to cast a thought from time to time on the labours of these men, of like tastes and habits with ourselves, and encourage them in their noble work, be it in New Zealand or elsewhere, not only in good wishes and easily-uttered "Godspeeds," but in denying ourselves somewhat of our many daily comforts in forwarding that cause which they have "left all" to follow.*

But the connection which all this has with our present subject is, that in the same ship with this "glorious company," Mr. Cotton has taken out with him four stocks of bees: the different methods of storing away may be seen in page 357. Seizing, and, we are sure, gladly seizing, a hint thrown out in Mr. Petre's book on New Zealand, of the great

A

* Great credit is due to the New Zealand Company, who have consulted their interest as well as their duty in the liberality of their Episcopal endowment. There can be no doubt that the establishment there of a regular clergy will be a great inducement to the best class of settlers to fix on such a spot for the port of their destination. large though inadequate sum having been already collected for the general purposes of founding colonial bishoprics, we would now suggest to our ecclesiastical rulers that separate committees should be forthwith formed of persons interested in the several colonies, for increasing to something like a proper sum Episcopal endowment for furthering the cause of the Church in each particular See.-[This suggestion has not been thrown away.-Second Edition.]

COMMERCIAL VALUE.

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honey-harvest in the native flowers, with no labourers to gather it, he is carrying out the first bees which have ever visited those islands. "I hope," he saysand who does not join in this hope of Bishop Selwyn's chaplain?" that many a busy bee of mine will

Gather honey all the day

From every opening flower,

of Phormium tenax in New Zealand. . . . . I hope," he adds, 66 a bee will never be killed in New Zealand, for I shall start the native bee-keeper in the no-killing way; and when they have learned to be kind to them, they will learn to be more kind one to another."

It is probable that the produce of the bees may be made useful to the inhabitants themselves; but we much question whether any exportation can be made of wax or honey. It is too far to send the latter; and, in wax-gathering, the domesticated hives can never compete with the wild bees' nests of Africa, which furnish much the largest amount for our markets. Sierra Leone, Morocco, and other parts of Africa, produce four times as much wax for our home consumption as all the rest of the world together. The only other country from which our supply has been gradually increasing is the United States, and that is but small. The import of wax altogether has been steadily declining: in 1839 it came to 6314 cwts. ; in 1842 it was but 4483. The importation, however, of honey has, in the last few years, increased in an extraordinary degree; 675 cwts. being entered in the year ending January,

1838, and 3761 cwts. in 1842: the foreign, West Indies, Germany, and Portugal, having furnished the greater part of this increased supply. The honeys of Minorca, Narbonne, and Normandy are the most esteemed in the markets for their whiteness. We wish we could believe the decreased importation of wax arose from the more extensive cultivation of the bee in this country; but we fear that the daily rather, nightly-diminishing show of wax-candles on our neighbours' tables, and the murderous system of our honey-farmers, combined with the increased consumption of foreign honeytell a different tale. It would be a better sign of bee-prosperity in England if the increase in the importation were removed from the honey to the wax; for the staple of the wax of commerce is the produce of the wild bee—of the honey of commerce that of the domesticated bee; and it is a singular fact, illustrating the history of these two species in relation to civilised and uncivilised man, that, while the bushmen of the Cape look with jealousy on the inroads of cultivation, as destroying the haunts of the only live-stock they possess, the Indians of America consider the same insect as the harbinger of the white man, and say that, in proportion as the bee advances, the red man and the buffalo retire.

Washington Irving, in his Tour in the Prairies,'

says,―

They have been the heralds of civilization, steadfastly preceding it as it advanced from the Atlantic borders: and some of the ancient settlers of the West pretend to give the

very year when the honey-bee first crossed the Mississippi. The Indians, with surprise, found the mouldering trees of their forests suddenly teeming with ambrosial sweets: and nothing, I am told, can exceed the greedy relish with which they banquet for the first time upon this unbought luxury of the wilderness."

We have spoken of the possibility of bee-pasturage being over-stocked, and such may be the case in certain localities in England; but we are very confident that this is not the general state of the country. We are assured that hives might be multiplied in England tenfold, and yet there would be room: certainly, more than five times the quantity of honey might be taken. But then it will require an improved system of management, more constant attention paid to the hive, more liberal feeding in spring and autumn, and more active measures against their chief enemies. In all these matters we must look to the higher classes to take the lead. We know many, both rich and poor, who do not keep bees, on account of the murder they think themselves forced to commit: let such be assured that this slaughter is not only unnecessary, but unprofitable too. But, on the other hand, let no one fancy that all he has to do is to procure a swarm and a hive, and set it down in the garden, and that streams of honey and money will forthwith flow. Bees, like everything else that is worth possessing, require attention and care. "They need," said a poor friend of ours, "a deal of shepherding:" and thus, to the cottager who can afford to give them his