THE APIARY,

Otago Witness, Issue 3555, 2 May 1922, Page 7

THE APIARY,

By

J. A.

the H.f.a. moves forward. By the purchase of the Alliance Box Company’s factory and plant the H.P.A. has taken a step forward. V e know nothing of the terms of purchase, and can therefore only look at it from a policy point of view. The H.P.A.’s work has been lop-sided, being centred in a village called Auckland, away in the extreme north. It was out of touch with a great many of the best beekeepers, and certainly with the best honey. The very brown light amber “Imperial Bee” honey with which our southern markets were supplied had the effect of making the supply far greater than the demand, and certainly made it extremely difficult for the agent who had to sell it. This new purchase should restore the equilibrium and make the H.P.A. representative of the Dominion. The directors have promised, at the adjourned annual meeting to be held in Dunedin towards the end of Alay, to go into particulars as to their policy in this new venture, so that we must wait; but as they have already determined on a packing plant for Dunedin, we may take it as a foregone conclusion that this will be established in connection with lhe box factory, and that the whole of the H.P.A. interests in Dunedin will be centred there. This will enable a pack to be made more suitable to the southern markets, and bring it more into touch with the distributors there. We should now like to see the directorate strengthened in the south so as to admit of more direct control. A widely-scattered directorate gives an unwieldy control. This was overcome to some extent while all business centred in Auckland by strengthening the directorate there and by delegating power to a committee. We will not say more under this head, but we feel sure that the directors will realise that, with a _ factory such as they now possess, and with a larger packing plant, the control will need to be conversant with local conditions. Aucklanders are accustomed to darker shades, and we certainly would not like to spoil .their market by sending anything lighter. We hope that at the coming conference that beekeepers from Canterbury southwards will take a keen interest in this new departure, and that it will .be the means of adding confidence with regard to the working of the H.P.A. The beekeepers of the Dominion hold a unique position in the control of iheir industry and in the marketing of their product. We are waiting with a good deal of interest to hear of the results from the establishment of a packing house in London. This, we understand, has been at work for some two months now, and the picture shown of “Imperial Bee,-” honey, in a dressed window in the High Commissioner’s office, must appeal to every beekeeper interested. If we can establish ourselves in a retail way on the English market, and there seems every prospect from the high favour in which our honey is held there, that we can do this, then our problem of marketing our honey crops at a payable price seems to be provided for Compare this position with that of individualism, each beekeeper working to his own hand, at the mercy of the local merchant, with an over-supply of honey for the local market and no outlet, and we get at the advantage that our Co-op. has teen to us. It has, in spile of all our difficulties, and they have not been few, saved the position. With regard to the supply business to which this purchase of the Alliance Box Company’s factory absolutely commits us, and into which we had largely entered, we are absolutely in favour of it. if conducted on a cash basis. This, we know, is hard to do, and the tendeiney to wait for ibe crop of honey to pay for supplies obtained will always be there: but we must not forget that the crop is uncertain—in many districts very uncertain, and that a failure often leads the^ beekeeper to go into something else. Ye should sell as low as possible, but only on a cash basis.