This series consists of approximately 365 short historical features that detail an important moment in New Zealand history; one for each day of the year. The instalment for March 13th is titled "The First Bees in New Zealand". It focuses on the introduction of bees to New Zealand.
They were first brought to the Hokianga River on the 13th of March, 1839 by Miss Mary Bumby. She was the sister of a Wesleyan Missionary [John Bumby]. The bees were brought over from England in the schooner 'James' in two straw hives. There follows information about the missionary career of James Bumby, and his arrival in New Zealand.
Mary Bumby first arrived at the Mangungu Mission Station on the Hokianga, which was well established in 1839. The bees she brought with her were established in hives at once, and were soon thriving. Meanwhile, others were also bringing bees to New Zealand at a similar time, including Lady Hobson (wife of the first Governor) who brought some bees over from Sydney in about April 1840. Richard Taylor, who was placed in charge of the mission farm in Waimate in 1840, introduced bees there too. Bees were soon introduced to both Wellington and Nelson also.
Soon the honeybee was well acclimatised, and honey was a recognised delicacy on the tables of the pioneers. Within a century of the introduction of bees there were 9,000 apiaries in New Zealand, with nearly 150,000 colonies of bees. The export of honey amounted to over one million pounds weight per annum before the war.