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of New Caledonia; is nominally a possession of Britain, and inhabited by cannibals of the Melanesian race. Missionary enterprise has had some effect in the southern islands; Espiritu Santo (70 m. by 40) is the largest.
NEW HOLLAND. See AUSTRALIA.
NEW JERSEY (1,444), one of the 13 original States of the American Union, faces the Atlantic between New York State on the N. and Delaware Bay on the S., with Pennsylvania on its western border; the well-watered and fertile central plains favour a prosperous fruit and agricultural industry, tracts of pine and cedar wood cover the sandy S., while the N., traversed by ranges of the Appalachians, abounds in valuable forests of oak, hickory, chestnut, sa.s.safras, &c.; minerals are plentiful, especially iron ores. New Jersey is thickly populated, well provided with railway and water transit, and busily engaged in manufactures--e. g.
gla.s.s, machinery, silk, sugar. Newark (capital) and Jersey City are by far the largest cities; was sold to Penn in 1682, and settled chiefly by immigrant Quakers.
NEW JERUSALEM CHURCH, a church consisting of the disciples of Emanuel Swedenborg, formed into a separate organisation for wors.h.i.+p about 1788. See SWEDENBORGIANISM.
NEW MEXICO (154), an extensive territory embracing the SW. end of North America and the larger part of the great isthmus which unites the two Americas; was in 1848 detached from MEXICO (q. v.), and const.i.tuted a part of the American Union; consists mainly of elevated plateau, sloping to the S., and traversed by ranges of the Rocky Mountains; the precious metals are widely distributed, especially silver; good deposits of coal and copper are also found. In the broad river valleys excellent crops are raised, and stock-raising is an important industry. The territory is divided into 14 counties; Santa Fe is the capital; a State university exists at Albuquerque.
NEW ORLEANS (287), the capital and largest city of Louisiana, is beautifully situated on both sides of the Mississippi, 107 m. from its mouth, with a curved river-frontage of 10 m.; is the second cotton port of the world, and the greatest sugar-market in the United States; is the chief trade emporium of the surrounding States, and the main outlet for the produce of the Mississippi Valley, which includes cotton, sugar, tobacco, wheat, and salt.
NEW SOUTH WALES (1,132), the ”mother colony” of Australia, fronts the Pacific for 700 m. on the E. between Queensland (N.) and Victoria (S.), is 2 times the size of Great Britain and Ireland; mountain ranges (including the Australian Alps) running parallel with, and from 20 to 100 m. distant from, the coast, divide the narrow littoral plains from the great plains of the W. and the interior, and are the source of many large rivers (e. g. the Darling) flowing E. and W.; the climate is warm and everywhere healthy; rain falls plentifully on the coast lands and mountains, but is scarce in the W. The mineral wealth of the colony is very great--gold and silver are found in large quant.i.ties, as also copper, tin, iron, &c., but coal is the most abundant and valuable mineral product. Cereals, fruits, sugar, tobacco, &c., are cultivated, but in small quant.i.ties compared with the immense output of wool, the chief product of the country. SYDNEY (q. v.) is the capital and chief port of the colony. Government is vested in a Crown appointed Governor and two Houses of Parliament (triennial and paid). Education is free and compulsory. Established in 1788, the colony was, up to 1840, used as a settlement for transported criminals. In 1851 the great gold discoveries started the colony on its prosperous career.
NEW YORK (5,997), the foremost State in the American Union in population, wealth, commerce, and manufactures, the twenty-fifth in area, and is about the size of England; is triangular in shape, with a north-western base on Lakes Erie and Ontario, and an eastern apex reaching the Atlantic between Connecticut (N.) and New Jersey (S.).
Manhattan, Staten, and Long Island are the most important of many islands belonging to the State. The land slopes from the mountainous E. to the sh.o.r.es of the great western lakes, and is pleasantly diversified with mountain, valley and plain, forest and river. The Hudson, Oswego, Genesee, and Niagara (with its famous waterfall) are the princ.i.p.al rivers, while the St. Lawrence forms part of the northern boundary.
One-half of the area is under cultivation; the vine flourishes, hops and tobacco are grown, and market-gardening prospers near the large cities; but manufacturing is the chief industry, and the transit of goods is greatly facilitated by the many waterways and network of railways. Was finally occupied by the English in 1664, after the expulsion of the Dutch.
NEW YORK CITY (3,437), but including Brooklyn, Jersey City, and other suburban places, nearly three millions, the premier city of the American continent, and third wealthiest in the world; occupies Manhattan Island (13 m. long) and several smaller islands at the terminal confluence of the Hudson with East River, which opens into Long Island Sound; 18 m. S. of the city is Sandy Hook, where two s.h.i.+p channels cross the bar, and lead into the outer or lower bay, which in turn is joined by a strait to the magnificent harbour or inner bay; all approaches are strongly fortified; a suspension bridge spans East River, uniting the city with Brooklyn; the rivers and the many wharves are crowded with s.h.i.+pping. The old town is a busy hive of industry, with its great centres of banking and mercantile enterprise--Wall, New, and Broad Streets. The modern part of the city is a model of regularity, is traversed by great avenues 8 m. in length and 100 ft. wide, the finest being Fifth Avenue.
The City Hall and the Court House are of white marble; the hotels are the largest in the world; Astor library (250,000 vols.), academy of design, university, museums, art-galleries, and many other handsome buildings adorn the streets; carries on industries of almost every description.
NEW ZEALAND (669, of which 42 are Maories), a British island colony in the South Pacific, lying wholly within the temperate zone, 1200 m. E.
of Australia; comprises North Island (45,000 sq. m.), South or Middle Island (58,000 sq. m.), Stewart Island (much smaller), and a number of islets; total area considerably more than that of Great Britain. The two main islands, separated by Cook Strait, are in no part broader than 150 m., and are traversed from end to end by a great and partly volcanic mountain chain, the range in South Island being known as the Southern Alps (highest peak Mount Cook, 12,350 ft), and that in North Island as the Ruahine Range and the Tararua Mountains; everywhere rivers abound, Waikato (North Island) and Clutha (South Island) being the largest; numerous lakes (Lake Taupo, six times the size of Loch Lomond), fertile valleys, and well-gra.s.sed plains, together with the mountains, make up a beautiful and diversified surface, which much resembles that of Scotland, while the climate, temperate and healthy, is warmer and more equable than in Great Britain; almost all the animals have been imported, as well as the grains and fruits; great forests of indigenous kauri pines, however, exist; sheep-farming, agriculture, and mining (gold and coal) are the chief industries, wool being the chief export; Auckland, the largest, and Wellington, the capital, in North Island, and Dunedin and Christchurch in South Island, are the chief towns; Government is vested in a Crown-appointed Governor, an Executive Ministry, and a Parliament of two Chambers; education is free, secular, and compulsory, but no State aid is given to any form of religion; discovered in 1642 by Tasman, the islands were first surveyed by Cook in 1769; their formal cession to the British crown took place in 1840.
NEWARK (246), city of U.S., New Jersey, 7 miles W. by New Jersey City. It has extensive tanneries, and manufactories of hats, thread, and celluloid.
NEWCASTLE-UNDER-LYME (18), a borough and old market-town of Staffords.h.i.+re, 40 m. S. of Manchester; is a well-built town, actively engaged in brewing, malting, and paper-making.
NEWCASTLE-UPON-TYNE (186), a city and county of itself, and chief town of Northumberland; situated on the N. bank, and 10 m. from the mouth, of the Tyne, 275 m. N. of London. The old town extends some two miles along the river bank, and with its crowded quays, narrow winding streets, and dingy warehouses, presents a striking contrast to the handsome modern portion, which stretches back on gently rising ground.
The cathedral is an imposing and interesting architectural structure, while the public buildings are more than usually ornate. The Colleges of Medicine and of Science are affiliated to Durham University. There are several fine libraries, theatres, hospitals, and charitable inst.i.tutions, and the city is especially well off in the matter of public parks and pleasure grounds. Three bridges (including Robert Stephenson's famous High Level Bridge) span the river and connect Newcastle with Gateshead.
It is the chief centre of the English coal trade, and is a busy hive of all kinds of metallic, chemical, machinery, and kindred works, which give rise to an immense and ever-increasing s.h.i.+pping trade. As a centre of s.h.i.+pbuilding the Tyne is second only to the Clyde.
NEWCOMEN, THOMAS, blacksmith, born at Dartmouth; invented a steam-engine in which the piston was raised by steam and driven down by the atmosphere after the injection into the cylinder of a squirt of cold water, which cooled it, so that the steam when injected did not raise the piston at once up. By James Watt's invention of a separate condenser it was superseded, and employed afterwards princ.i.p.ally for pumping water.