3m. Bees For Niue Island

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31315, 10 March 1967, Page 3

3m. Bees For Niue Island

(N.Z. Press Association) AUCKLAND, Mar. 9. A Waikato apiarist will leave Auckland today in the Tofua with more than three million bees and the good will of the Island Territories Department to begin the first largescale bee-farming industry on Niue Island.

Mr J. B. Mackisack, of Waitoa, hopes to begin a bee-

farming industry that will produce double the quantity of honey that many New Zealand hives produced. He will tap untouched potential that apiculturists in Auckland say is enormous.

Mr A. J. Neil, of the Island Territories Department, said this was a joint venture between Mr Mackisack and the newly-formed Niue Development Board.

It would be one of the first undertakings of the board, which would provide some of the equipment.

When the project got under way it could provide honey for export to Britain and earn overseas funds. It could also help in the pollination of the coconut crops and greatly increase coconut production. Mr Mackisack said the trip would be a trial run. In June next he hoped to take 545 hives to begin bee-keeping on a large scale. He got the idea several years ago when he saw honey being brought into the Honey Marketing Authority from Niue Island.

He found the quantity from 15 hives on the island was greater than was produced anywhere in New Zealand.