1936
Shareholders of the HPA faced legal actions brought by the liquidator of the company. Messrs E and E Morton Ltd, the HPA’s agents in England, still had a claim of £17,000 against the company for overpayment of advances, which the shareholders were liable for. The Government agreed to loan the industry the sum of £10,000 to reduce this debt, the remainder to be paid off by the shareholders over several years.
In early and middle February gales and floods caused extensive damage to apiaries in both Hawke’s Bay and Canterbury, with one beekeeper losing 200 colonies of bees and another losing 150.
The 1935/36 crop was again a disappointing one.
In February 1936 the Commission of Agriculture held an open enquiry in Auckland and Christchurch. Representations to this commission agreed that there should be a single authority to supervise the whole of marketing, local and export, with the proceeds ‘pooled’ and payments made according to grade, irrespective of where the honey was sold.
The annual conference was held in Wellington in the Chamber of Commerce meeting hall from 24 to 26 June. Mr A Ecroyd was in the chair, as the President Mr W Nelson was overseas.
Again, the issue of control of the local market dominated conference discussions. The conference agreed to the necessity of control of honey prices and grading for the local market, but was not fully agreed on how to best put this into practice.
Another item discussed by conference was the losses of beekeepers due to lead arsenate sprays in the Hawke’s Bay area. While conference felt that legislation might be going “too far” they hoped to achieve a reduction through persuation.
Mr LF Robins (Temuka) was elected President, with Mr PA Hillary (Remuera, Auckland) as Vice President. Mr EA Field (Foxton), Mr WG Short (Fielding), Mr L Irwin (Winton) and Mr Watson (Geraldine) were elected to the Executive.
Mr JRP Madoc (Timaru) became the General Secretary of the NBA.
In a new move, the NBA also appointed (upon the suggestion of Mr Hillary) a series of committees to work on specific interest areas.