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[Page 13] 13
- Honey getting -
The introduction of the English honey bee proved
a great boon to the blacks - swarms escaped to the
bush and increased wonderfully fast - as we
rode through the bush we kept a sharp lookout
for bees' nests, making a mental note of them
for future use, and it indicates how numerous
plentiful they had become when I explain
that at the time I left Port Stephens for Queensland
in 1873 I knew of over a hundred trees with bees nests
in them in some two nests in one tree - The blacks
seldom troubled to cut the tree down, preferring
to climb it and cut a hole to
reach the combs these were caught by
the women very
deftly in a bark vessel or a tin bucket, as they
were dropped by the man up the tree he calling
muli (now) every time he dropped a comb
he never seemed to mind the stings he got -
The blacks ate very sparingly of the honey
but very freely of the young brood comb -
After the government had supplied them with
a good stout boat they did quite a good trade
collecting honey for the whites - For a pound
they would take away an empty quarter cask and
in a couple of weeks or so bring it back full of
drained honey with the corresponding wax nicely
(in LHS side margin) rendered down into a good big cake-