special legislation rendering the enrolment and maintenance of the
reserves in Newfoundland a special imperial undertaking.
Several efforts had been and continued to be Projects for union with Canada.made to
induce Newfoundland to confederate with the Dominion
of Canada, but the project never met with any degree of
favour with the electorate. Much of the disfavour
with which confederation was regarded in the colony was said to
be due to Sir John Macdonald’s opposition on behalf of Canada
to the Bond-Blaine commercial treaty, which was negotiated
between an emissary from the government of Newfoundland and
Mr Blaine, then secretary of state of the United States of America,
in 1890, but was subsequently disallowed at his request by the
imperial government. It is, however, probable that the treaty
would never have received the sanction of the American Senate.
After the insolvency of the colony in 1894–1895, a delegation was
sent to Ottawa to ascertain if it were possible to arrange terms of
confederation; but Sir Mackenzie Bowell’s government objected
to the assumption by the Dominion of the entire amount of Newfoundland’s
debt ($16,000,000), and the negotiations were abandoned.
Bibliography.—C. Pedley, History of Newfoundland (London, 1863); J. Hatton and M. Harvey, Newfoundland: its History and Present Condition (London, 1883); M. Harvey, Newfoundland, England’s Oldest Colony (London, 1897); Newfoundland in 1897 (London, 1897); Newfoundland in 1900 (London, 1900); D. W. Prowse, History of Newfoundland (2nd ed., London, 1897); Newfoundland Guide-book (London, 1905): F. E. Smith, The Story of Newfoundland (London, 1901); B. Willson, The Truth about Newfoundland: the Tenth Island (2nd ed., London, 1901); A. Bellet, La Grande Pêche de la morue à la Terre-Neuve (Paris, 1902); J. G. Millais, Newfoundland and its Untrodden Ways (London, 1908); Colonial and Foreign Office Reports. (B. W.*)
NEW GLARUS, a town and a village of Green county, Wisconsin,
U.S.A., about 22 m. S.W. of Madison, on the Little Sugar
river, a branch of the Rock river. Pop. of the tovm (1890)
1180; (1900) 1245; (1905) 685; (1910) 627; of the village,
which was separated from the town in 1901 (1905) 665; (1910)
708. New Glarus is served by a branch of the Chicago, Milwaukee
& St Paul railway. It has agricultural and dairying
industries, but little or no manufacturing interests. It had its
origin in a colonizing experiment made by the canton of Glarus,
Switzerland in 1845. Agents sent by the canton chose the site
of New Glarus largely because the rocky slopes of the valley
suggested their Alpine home. The advance party then set about
constructing houses and sent for the colonists; and some two
hundred men, women and children started from Glarus in April
1845 under two leaders chosen by popular vote; misreading
their directions the party got by mistake to St Louis, whence
they proceeded up the Mississippi to Galena and thence overland
to their new home. To all intents and purposes they were an
independent people. They expected to be and were self sustaining,
and for a generation or more retained their exclusiveness
to a remarkable degree. They brought with them a “form
of government” drawn up by the Cantonal Council of Glarus and
providing in great detail for a system of schools, for what was
practically a state church (Reformed Lutheran) supported by
tithes, for a system of poor relief, for a system of courts, and for
a set of town officers elected on a limited property franchise.
This “form” was to be amended and new laws were to be added,
as circumstances should require, in a town-meeting in which
the essential features of the referendum were observed. The
original plan provided also for an equitable distribution of land
so as to give to each head of a family pasture, timber and farm
lands. With such adjustments as were found necessary for coordination
with the town and county governments of Wisconsin,
it remains practically the same to this day. The village and
town still have an Old World aspect, and the architecture,
customs, style of dress and language of the pioneers still persist
to a great degree. A famous organization is the New Glarus
William Tell Club of sharpshooters. The village owns its waterworks
and its electric lighting plant.
NEW GLASGOW, a manufacturing and mining town of Pictou
county, Nova Scotia, Canada, on the East river, near its entrance
into Pictou Harbour, and the Intercolonial railway, 104 m. N.E.
of Halifax. Pop. (1901) 4447. Extensive coal mines are in
the vicinity, and there are manufactures of iron and steel, mill
machinery, door and sash factories, &c., as well as several shipbuilding
yards.
NEW GRANADA (Span. Nueva Granada), the title under Spanish colonial administration of that part of South America
now known as the republic of Colombia, which at one time was
extended to include Venezuela and Ecuador. It also was for
a time the title of the united territories of Panama and Colombia
under republican auspices. The Bogota plateau, then inhabited
by a partly civilized Indian nation known to the Spaniards as
Chibchas, or Muyscas (the second name seems to have been
applied to them through a misunderstanding, the word meaning
“men”), was invaded from the Caribbean coast and conquered
in 1537 by Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada, who, in honour of his
native province, called it the “Nuevo Reino de Granada.”
The title at first applied only to the plateau regions of Colombia,
as the coast provinces had been previously occupied and named.
In 1550 an audiencia real under the viceroyalty of Peru was
established at Santa Fé (Bogotà), but in 1564 this isolated group
of Spanish settlements was transformed into a presidency. In
1718, owing to the unmanageable size of the viceroyalty of
Peru, it was divided and a new viceroyalty was created from
the various provinces lying in the north-western angle of the
continent, extending from Tumbez northward to the northern
limits of Panama, and eastward to the Orinoco, to which
the name of Nueva Granada was given. The first viceroy was
Pedroza y Guerrero, but his successor, Jorge Villalonga, resumed
the title of president, and it was not until 1739 that the title
of viceroy was definitely established. The new viceroyalty
included the provinces of Tierra Firma (now the republic of
Panama); Maracaibo, Caracas, Cumana and Guyana (now
included in Venezuela); Cartagena, Santa Marta, Rio Hacha,
Antioquia, Pamplona, Socorro, Tunja, Santa Fé, Neiva, Mariquita,
Popayan and Pasto (now included in Colombia); and
Quito, Cuenca and Guayaquil (now included in Ecuador). In
1777 the provinces of Maracaibo, Caracas, Cumana and Guyana
were detached from the viceroyalty to form the captaincy general
of Caracas; otherwise it remained as above until the
termination of Spanish rule in South America.
For the republic of Colombia (1819–1830), the republic of New Granada (1831–1861), the United States of Colombia (1861–1886), and the republic of Colombia (1886 to date), see Colombia.
NEW GUINEA, the largest island (excluding Greenland) in the world, lying between the equator and 12° S. and 130° 50′ and 151° 30′ E., separated from Australia by Torres (Strait and
having the Arafura Sea on the south-west. It is divided politically between, Britain (south-east), Germany (north-east) and Holland (west), the Dutch territory occupying about 48·6% of
the whole area, the German 28·3% and the British Territory
of Papua 23·1 %. The total area is estimated to be 312,329 sq. m.
New Guinea was probably in Miocene times, if not later, united to the northern part of Queensland. The deeply indented shore of the Gulf of Papua forms the boundary of the subsided area between the two countries, and from it the land stretches out for 200 to 300 m. north and west on both sides of the Fly river in vast plains, little elevated above sea-level. From Cape Buru westwards precipitous limestone cliffs, several hundred feet high, face the sea and rise into forest-clad mountains behind. The northern extremity of New Guinea is all but severed from the mainland by the deep MacCluer Inlet, running eastwards towards Geelvink Bay which deeply indents the northern coast. Southwards from Geelvink Bay the north-east coast is more regular than the south-western. Off its coast-line, on the parallel of 6° S., lies the vast Bismarck Archipelago, of which New Pomerania (Neu Pommern) is the most important member; and, on the parallel of 10°, the d’Entrecasteaux Islands, with the Marshall Bennett group to their north-east; while stretching out from the south-east promontory of the mainland is the Louisiade Archipelago. The Great Barrier Reef of Australia can be traced more or less continuously round the Gulf of Papua and along the south-east coast to the extremity of the Louisiades. In a general way it may be said that on the west coast of New Guinea, from Cape Buru to the Louisiades, the sea is shallow, while on its steeper eastern side the water close in-shore is often too deep
