area than 3200 acres, nor more than 16,000 acres, at £1 per acre for all within 1 mile of a river frontage, and 5s. for the remainder, the frontage being 1 mile of length to 5 miles of depth, to be paid for in ten annual instalments, one-fourth forming the first annual instalment. Residence is enforced, and the expenditure of 78. Gd. per acre in improvements within the first three years.

Wool is the staple product of the colony, and sheepfarming is the interest which has attained the most remarkable development. In 1885 New South Wales had 35,000,000 sheep, 170,000 horned cattle, 330,000 horses, and 200,000 pigs. The export of wool now exceeds 100,000,000 lbs. per annum, valued at between £5,000,000 and £6,000,000. As the produce of the pastoral interests, there must be added to wool the value of the live stock, preserved meats, hides and skins, and tallow.

Wheat, maize, barley, oats, and potatoes are the articles most largely grown, but it is found that tobacco and sugar flourish as well as in any part of the globe. Fruit of all kinds, including oranges, lemons, figs, bananas, and pine apples, are grown in abundance. Considerable attention is given to the cultivation of the vine for wine-making purposes, there having been 590,000 gallons of wine made in 1884. Sugar-growing is a thriving occupation, the product of which has sprung from 17,000 lbs. in 1867 to 35,220,640 Ibs, in 1884. The total area leased for pastoral purposes in 1885 was 240,000 square miles. The extent of agricultural holdings was 33,000,000 acres, and the land in cultivation 800,000 acres.

The mineral resources of New South Wales are inconerivably great. Competent authorities pronounce the auriferous districts far larger than those of any other Australian colony and as rich. Gold mining on a large scale may really be said to have only commenced since 1871 in New South Wales, though it was here that gold was first discovered in Australia. Most of the fields, however, were forsaken for the more shallow and easily-worked diggings elsewhere. The country is, however, in many regions literally covered with auriferous quartz reefs. The proclaimed gold-fields are more than eighty in number, and comprise about 13,700 square miles. The gold produce of the colony averages between £300,000 and £400,000 per annum. In 1885 about 450,000 acres had been taken up under mineral lease for tin alone, which is found in almost limitless quantity and of remarkably fine quality in the beds of rivers and creeks, and is known as stream tin; it is also found in veins and lodes. Copper is widely distributed, and the industry is becoming very important and valuable. Silver, lead, cinnabar, antimony, and plumbago are also found. Coal exists in the colony in supplies practically inexhaustible, and is exported in great quantities. Side by side with the bituminous coal are rich hematite iron ores. Oil mines of great extent have also been discovered, and are extensively worked.

NEW STYLE.

ported are apparel and haberdashery, beer and ale, cotton manufactures, leather, iron, and woollen goods.

The constitution of New South Wales was proclaimed in 1856. It vests the legislative power in a l'arliament of two houses, the first called the Legislative Council and the second the Legislative Assembly. The Legislative Council consists of twenty-one members nominated by the Crown for the term of five years; and the Assembly of one hundred and nineteen members, elected by seventy-two constituencies. A voter must be of age, a natural-born subject of the queen, or if an alien must have been naturalized for five years and resident for two years. There is no property qualification for electors, and the votes are taken by secret ballot. The executive is in the hands of a governor nominated by the crown, who by virtue of his office is commander-in-chief of all the troops in the colony. His official salary is £7000 per annum. He is assisted by a cabinet of nine ministers, who are responsible to the Legislative Assembly. The colonial naval defence force is represented by the Naval Brigade, a volunteer body stationed partly at Sydney and partly at Newcastle.

Nearly one-half of the public revenue is derived from customs duties, chief among them being the duties on spirits. The other sources of income consist of miscellaneous receipts and a stamp duty. The revenue for 1884 was estimated at £7,466,567, and expenditure, £7,278,538; for 1885, revenue £8,695,929, expenditure, £8,420,575. The public debt of the colony amounted to £30,132,459 in 1885. The debt was chiefly incurred for railways, telegraphs, and other reproductive public works. In 1885 there were 1500 miles of railway open for traffic, and 400 miles under construction. The whole of the lines open were built by the government.

A considerable sum is annually voted for the encouragement of immigration to New South Wales by means of assisted passages, and the advantages which the capabilities of the colony offer to the immigrant are very numerous and highly important, while the necessaries and comforts of life are much cheaper, and the climate is fine and healthy. The first telegraphic post in the colony was erected in 1857, and it is now well provided with telegraphic communication in various districts.

As regards religion, all sects are on a footing of equality. According to the latest returns, the number of registered ministers in the colony is about 600, and of places of worship 1000. One-third of the attendance on religious services was at the Protestant Episcopal churches (Church of England), above a fifth at Roman Catholic churches, the residue being shared among the Wesleyans, Presbyterians, and other nonconformists. The colony has an excellent system of public education, supported from the public funds. There is a university at Sydney. The necessity of national arming is recognized by training the school children to the use of the rifle and concerted movement. Many large schools have a volunteer force of their own for drilling purposes, and five years' attention to drill in an adult corps earns the reward of 20 acres of land. Even in remote country villages there is a school of art or mutual improvement society; while in 1870, in Sydney, a free library was established, to the increase and maintenance of which the legislature votes every year about £6000. It is less than ninety years since colonization first took place, and it was then under the unpromising conditions of a penal settlement. Captain Philip, the first governor of the colony, landed at Port Jackson on 26th January, 1788, his fleet consisting of H.M.S. Sirius, three store ships, and six transports, conveying 1030 persons, of whom 775 were convicts, and 431 head of cattle, poultry, and other live stock; and most of the remarkable progress of the colony has been attained since 1851, when the pcpulation was only about 180,000. │NEW STYLE. See CALENDAR.

NEW TESTAMENT.

NEW TESTAMENT. See BIBLE.

NEW YEAR'S DAY (in French le Jour de l'An), the first day of the year, seems to have been celebrated by the most ancient nations as a solemn religious festival. By the Jew as well as the Mohammedan, by the Chinese, the Roman, and the Egyptian, it was marked by the observance of particular ceremonies. The early fathers, Chrysostom, Ambrose, and others, forbade the celebration of any festivities on this anniversary as a relic of paganism; but the joyous character of the day could not wholly be ignored, and while marking its occurrence by prayer and worship, Christians have also agreed to perpetuate those lively and innocent pastimes which have descended from their forefathers.

"The birth of a new year," says Charles Lamb, "is of an interest too wide to be pretermitted by king or cobbler. No one ever regarded the 1st of January with indifference. It is that from which all date their time and count upon what is left. It is the nativity of our common Adam."

But there has not been till comparatively recent times an agreement as to when the new year commences. The Gregorian reformation of the calendar was accepted by Catholic countries, but was long rejected by Protestants. It was adopted by England in 1752, when it was provided that the legal year should commence in future on the 1st of January, and not, as heretofore, on the 25th of March, and that, to correct the accumulated errors of the Old Style, eleven nominal days should be suppressed in September, 1752, so that the day following the second of that month should be styled the 14th. But it was long ere the London populace were pacified; crowds assembled, demanding back their eleven days. The Old Style, however, still practically prevails in the accounts of our English Treasury. Christmas dividends are not considered due till Twelfth Day. The first day of the chancellor of the exchequer's financial year is the 5th of April, old Lady Day, and with that day the reckonings of our annual budgets begin and end. It should be mentioned, also, that the ancient Jewish year opened, with variations due to their imperfect calendar, at some point near the 25th of March; but in the course of years errors have so accumulated that it now opens very nearly at the opposite equinox. Thus in 1885 the Jewish New Year's Day (the first day of the Jewish year 5646) fell on 10th September. Similar causes have operated on the Mohammedan calendar, so that the year, once beginning on the 16th July (the Hegira occurred 16th July, 622, and marks the Mohammedan era), began in 1885 on 10th October.

Among the old Romans the year in the earliest times began in March; and it was the second king of Rome, Numa Pompilius, who altered it to the 1st January. Janus, the god of the month, had two faces, one looking back over the year just closed, one looking forward into the future. The calends of January (1st January) were solemnized with public shows in honour of Janus and the goddess Strenia; and the festivities of New Year's Day, Twelfth Night, and Shrovetide appear to be chiefly based on the ancient diversions. On New Year's Day Titus Tatius, king of the Sabines, once received, so say the Romans, a garland cut in a grove by the temple of the goddess Strenia, whose festival was on that day. Strenia was Sabine for strength," and evidently is the same word as the Latin strenuus. Titus Tatius attributed much good fortune to the strena thus received, and it became an annual custom. When the nations were united the Romans adopted the custom of presenting strena, on their corresponding festival, the day of the god Janus. (The French derive their jour d'étrennes from the strena of the Romans, and have extended the practice till the expensiveness of the gifts expected, as well as the large number of them to be given, has grown to be a serious tax.) On the 1st of January the Druids were wont to go into the forests to gather mistletoe from the oaks. A survival of this

NEW YORK.

ceremony is seen in the old Poitevin "Auguislanneuf," i.e., to the mistletoe on the New Year. In olden times sending round the wassail bowl (spiced ale) by a band of young girls was a recognized way of collecting small sums on New Year's Eve among the poor wherewith to find funds for the good cheer suitable to the time. New Year's Day was the season during nearly two and a half centuries for the Feast of Fools in mediæval France, when (and especially at Paris) all kinds of absurdities and even indecency were tolerated-a very saturnalia.

New Year's Day has always been memorable for presents. Sir John Harrington, of Bath, in 1602, sent to James L (then James VI. of Scotland only) a curious lantern, beautifully embossed and engraved, and bearing the meaning legend, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom." Honest old Latimer, afterwards burned with Ridley at Oxford, instead of presenting Henry VIII. with a purse of gold, as was customary on the New Year's Day, presented him with a New Testament, having the leaf conspicuously doubled down at the highly inconvenient passage, Hebrews xiii. 4! In the reign of Elizabeth the greater part of the peers and peeresses, all the bishops, the chief officers of state, and several of the household servants gave New Year's gifts to her Majesty, consisting of a sum of money, or jewels, or trinkets, or rich apparel (see Nichols, the antiquary, on Queen Elizabeth's Progresses.") The queen, indeed, is known to have quite relied on her étrenues as a substantial item in her wardrobe. The Archbishop of Canterbury generally gave her £40, and his Grace of York £30; the other bishops and most peers at least £20. The tradesmen all sent her gifts in kind, and were given to understand that they must be "right royal." The queen gave gifts also on her side, but the balance was always carefully made much in her favour. Pins (then very dear) were acceptable New Year's gifts to the ladies, and these, when compounded for in money, gave rise to our phrase "pin-money." Gloves, then very costly, were also general gifts. New Year's Day has, in popular estimation, long quite superseded Christmas in Scotland, from the national antipathy to prelacy and its institutions.

NEW YORK, one of the United States of North America, bounded N. by Lake Ontario, the river St. Lawrence, and Lower Canada; S. by the Atlantic Ocean, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania; E. by Vermont, Massachusetts, and Connecticut; and W. by Pennsylvania, Lake Erie, and the river Niagara. Its length N. to S. is 300 miles, its breadth E. to W. is 326 miles. The area is 49,170 square miles. The population in 1880 was 5,083,173.

The state resembles an irregular triangle in shape, and though the apex alone reaches the ocean, yet still the coast-line is considerable, as Long Island is included, extending upwards of 100 miles from east to west. New England forms one side of the triangle; New Jersey and Pennsylvania supply the second; and the St. Lawrence with Lake Ontario and part of Lake Erie, the third. The territory shares the Falls of Niagara with Canada, and has several magnificent waterfalls on its own streams in the highland gorges. Besides the great frontier lakes narred, with that of Champlain, also on the border, a large number are wholly interior and much admired, as Lake George, remarkable for its transparency and picturesque shores, a Loch Katrine on a larger scale. It is traversed by two ranges of the Appalachian Mountains, through one of which the Hudson River flows 50 miles from its mouth, forming the celebrated highlands, remarkable for their picturesque scenery, though the elevation nowhere exceeds 1700 feet. Other groups north of this rise much higher, especially in the Adirondack Mountains, between Lakes Ontario on the west and Champlain on the cast. Here is Mount Marcy or Tahawus, 5403 feet, the highest in the state, the mean height of which is 800 feet above sea-level. Low table-lands border Lake Ontario; and the interior of

the state is generally undulating, in the north-east covered with dense forest. The geology is very varied: the older groups of rocks generally prevail-those, namely, which are inferior to coal, of which there are no mines in the state. There are, however, abundant supplies of petroleum rock oil in the western part. Iron, limestone, gypsum, lead, copper, zinc, titanium, and salt are plentiful. The state has a larger extent of navigable waters than any other in the Union, and contains a great number of small lakes. Great anxiety is felt on account of the destruction of the timber in the Adirondack Mountains in the northern part of New York State, and the serious injury consequent thereupon to the great waterways leading to New York. The Hudson River is almost entirely fed by the small streams and lakes of the southern plateau of the Adirondack Wilderness. The Mohawk River finds its source in the same region, as does the Black River, which, by way of the Black River Canal, supplies the Erie Canal with water. The watershed of these streams is comparatively small, and that they are large and important streams is due to the fact that they rise in high mountains densely crowded with forests. These mountains attract a large precipitation of rain, and particularly snow; and the forests store up and protect the water from the evaporation and the kiss which all regions stripped of their forests have experienced from the running off of water over the frozen surface of the ground.

Islands.-Long Island, Staten Island, and Manhattan Island are included in the state of New York. Long Island is 120 miles long, and the average width is about 20 miles. It is separated from Connecticut and the mainland of New York by Long Island Sound. The surface is generally level, and it contains Brooklyn and other important suburbs of New York. Staten Island, east of Long Island, is 14 miles long and 8 miles wide. Manhattan Island, on which the city of New York is built, is 15 miles long, and the average width is about 1 mile.

Climate.-The mean annual temperature of the city of New York is between 51° and 52°, which is only 2° or 3° higher than that of London, though it is more than 10° nearer to the equator. But this is milder than in any other part of the state, except Long Island. In the vale of the Hudson River in January and February the thermometer sometimes sinks to 2° Fahr., and the river is frozen; the ice usually does not break up before the end of March. In summer the thermometer ranges between 60 and 80°; it sometimes rises to 85°, and for a few days to 90°, but rarely higher. The cold is much more severe towards the northern part of the vale of the Hudson. The Lake country, on the contrary, enjoys a milder climate, its temperature being generally at least 3 degrees higher than that of the valley of the Mohawk.

Productions, &c.-Maize, wheat, rye, barley, oats, potatoes, and turnips are generally cultivated. Immense quantities of melons are raised. Pease and beans succeed very well. Apples, peaches, and cherries are plentiful. In some parts flax and hemp are grown, especially in the Lake country. All the domestic animals of England are reared in New York with success. Indeed, horses and cattle are more numerous than in any other state. In the west and south-east there are still extensive forests, which consist of oak of different species, ash, walnut, pine, maple, beech, chestnut, birch, poplar, elm, eedar, hemlock, and hickory. Deer are still common in the western districts and northern region. Other wild animals are-gray and red foxes, racoons, skunks, minks, beavers, otters, squirrels, and hares. Swans, wild geese, ducks, and pigeons are abundant. The canals and railways are numerous. The manufactures carried on comprise an immense variety of articles; and the foreign commerce is greater than that of any other state. The exports exceed in amount one-half of the total of the United States.

NEW YORK.

ALBANY is the legal capital. Names of places have been liberally culled from sources ancient and modern, sacred and secular. The state has a Troy, Attica, Ithaca, and Marathon; a Rome, Carthage, Syracuse, and Utica; a Carmel, Gilboa, Salem, and Zoar; a Peru and Lima, China and Pekin, Russia and Warsaw, Cairo and Delhi; and even a Paradox.

History.-The Hudson River was discovered by Henry Hudson, an Englishman in the service of the Dutch, in 1609. The first permanent settlement, called New Amsterdam, was made by the Dutch on Manhattan Island in 1621. In 1664 the English took the country, and by the treaty of Breda the Dutch confirmed the colony to them. In 1673 the Dutch retook the city of New York, but it was restored to the English by the treaty of Westminster in the following year. In 1777 New York adopted the constitution of the United States. The present constitution was framed in 1821.

NEW YORK, the principal city of the state of New York, and the commercial capital of the United States, is situated on the south end of Manhattan Island, at the confluence of the Hudson with the strait called East River. The number of inhabitants in 1880 was 1,206,590, the estimated population in 1885 was 1,400,000, the death-rate per 1000 inhabitants 25.81; but if Brooklyn and other adjacent suburbs be included the former would be quite 2,000,000. The harbour of New York, in point of capaciousness and shelter, as well as of the beauty of the surrounding scenery, is not surpassed by any in the world. It is about 8 miles long, and from 1 to 5 miles wide, and affords a safe anchorage for the largest vessels. The entrance, which is by a channel called the Narrows, between Long Island and Staten Island, is no more than a quarter of a mile in width, and is defended by twelve forts. A new maritime approach to the harbour by Long Island Sound and the narrow strait called the East River, has recently been opened for the ocean traffic. It was formerly obstructed by an immense rock, 9 acres in extent, which blocked the channel, known as Hell Gate, but this rock was blown up in 1885-being the greatest engineering feat of the kind ever accomplished. The preparations extended over more than nine years. Tunnels were driven into the rock in every direction (their total length measuring 21,670 feet), at a depth of 50 feet beneath the low-water level. More than 300,000 lbs. of dynamite and other explosives were placed in 14,000 cartridges, which were all connected by electric wires with a battery. The commercial intercourse with the interior and with the western states is provided for by means of the Hudson and the system of canals and railways.

The island on which the city is built occupies a triangular area of 22 square miles, its apex being covered with old, narrow, and crooked streets, though by far the greater part of New York consists of regular and handsome thoroughfares, generally crossing each other at right angles. Many of them are divided into blocks, twenty of which go to the mile, and which are each known by numbers. Of late years the tendency has greatly increased to build lofty and large dwelling-houses, which are let out as flats or apartment houses and immense business offices, and the result has been to greatly improve the appearance of the wealthier portions of the city; but beyond these the bad paving, the defective municipal arrangements for the removal of dirt, and the disgraceful overcrowding of the labouring and immigrant population, render New York one of the most unpleasant great cities in the world. The houses are generally built of brick or brown sandstone, the principal edifices being faced with white marble. Broadway, the principal street, which runs through the centre of the city, is nearly 4 miles long and 80 feet wide, extending from the Battery to the Central Park. It contains several handsome churches, many of the principal hotels, the city hospital, and a great variety of elegant warehouses. Wall

Street, which branches off from Broadway, contains the exchange and most of the city banks, as well as the greater part of the merchants' and brokers' counting-houses, and the insurances offices. Fifth Avenue is the favourite place of residence for the aristocracy of business wealth. Many of the public buildings are pretentious at least, even if there may be a doubt as to their artistic effect. The City Hall, the front of which is of white marble, is 216 feet long, 105 feet wide, and 60 feet high. It contains the courts of law and the places of meeting for the municipal bodies. It is finely situated in the middle of City Hall Park, which covers an area of about 11 acres. The Merchants' Exchange is a splendid building, of blue granite, though the situation does not exhibit it to advantage. The Post-office is a fine building, of white marble. The Custom-house is of white marble somewhat resembling the Parthenon. The other principal buildings are-the Hall of Justice, of light-coloured granite; the Hall of the University of New York, a handsome Gothic building; Columbia College; the Cooper Institute; Trinity Church in the Broadway, a very fine Gothic structure; St. Paul's Episcopal Church, with an Ionic portico, and steeple 224 feet high; St. Patrick's Cathedral; St. John's Church, with a steeple 240 feet high; and the Dutch Church, a handsome Gothic building. Several other churches are fine structures. There are altogether more than 500 churches, belonging to a great variety of religious sects. The hotels are upon a vast scale, magnificently fitted up, and several of them capable of containing upwards of 1000 persons-the system of visitors residing in hotels rather than in private houses being much more common in America than in England.

New York contains about thirty theatres, numerous clubs, and an opera house with seats for 4700 spectators. There are several studios and art exhibitions, and a museum of natural history was founded in 1869. Columbia College is one of the oldest in the country: the University of New York has been more recently established. There is a very large number of grammar and other schools, and also several purely theological seminaries. The Astor Free Library has over 150,000 carefully selected volumes, and there are several other libraries of very respectable proportions. The hospitals and charitable institutions are on a liberal scale, and besides legal outdoor relief, the poor are cared for by a public society with agents appointed to different districts. The most noticeable charitable buildings are-the New York hospital, infirmary, deaf-mute, and lunatic asylums, and "Long Island Farms," the latter supported from a fund for the provision of destitute children. Among the chief open spaces are-Washington Square, in front of the New York University; Union Square, with a fountain; and the Central Park-the latter a public domain of great size, which is considered one of the finest city parks in the world. It lies in the upper part of the city, and covers an area of 843 acres, beautifully diversified in surface, and extending 2 miles in length by 14 in breadth. There are several smaller parks and squares. The Battery is a public ground on the south point of the island, containing 11 acres, on the extremity of which the Castle Gardens immigration depot is situated. In the vicinity of the city is Greenwood Cemetery, covering an area of 242 acres. An expensive and useful public work undertaken by the city was the aqueduct called the Croton Water-works, which conveys a supply of pure river water. The dam at the Croton River is 38 miles from the reservoirs at New York, which are large enough to receive 1,200,000,000 gallons.

The manufactures of New York are very various, and its commerce of vast proportions. Indeed, it has become the great centre of American finance and commerce. It receives nearly 70 per cent. of all the imports, and sends out more than 50 per cent. of the exports of the whole of the states. The value of the imports in 1884 was 429,380,950 dollars, |

NEW ZEALAND.

and of the exports 385,271,949 dollars. The imports from the United Kingdom were valued at 130,155,878 dollars, and the exports thereto at 155,076,037 dollars. The customs' revenue in 1884 amounted to 132,416,697 dollars.

There are no inclosed docks, except the Atlantic Dock at Brooklyn, which covers 4 acres and has a sea-wall of 3000 feet. For repairing ships there are slip docks or marine railways, and the sectional dry docks on the East River. In the government navy yard at Brooklyn is the finest graving dock in America, but it is not available for ships of war. New York has been fortified seaward to protect it from any hostile attack in that direction. Regular lines of packets maintain communication with all the principal ports of the United States, the West Indies, Mexico, and South America; and with Liverpool, Southampton, Havre, Hamburg, Bremen, and Sweden. The shortest sea-route to England is 3016 miles. The city is connected with the mainland of New York by bridges across the Haarlem River, with Brooklyn by a suspension bridge, opened in 1883, the longest in the world, being 5989 feet in length, 85 feet in width, with a footway, two car tracks, and beyond these waggon ways, and has a clear height at the centre above high water of 135 feet. It is also connected with New Jersey, Long Island, and Staten Island by several steam ferries, which daily carry hundreds of thousands of passengers. Ten railways radiate from the city, which has telegraphic communication with every town of importance in America. An elevated railway carried on iron trestles facilitates the internal communication. The municipal arrangements were long a reproach to the United States for their corruption and jobbery, but the passing of an Act in 1883, requiring that an examination must be passed before offices can be held, and the disclosure of gigantic frauds by the "Tammany Ring" in 1870-76, have acted as a check on the worst abuses. The city is divided into seventeen wards, and the local government is conducted by a mayor, alderman, and cominon council. The police stations are connected by telegraph, and have lodging fr destitute persons. A Compulsory Education Act came into force in 1875; its provisions, which are thoroughly enforced, making school attendance compulsory for at least fourteen weeks in the year, between the ages of eight and fourteen years. The commissioners of charity have e direction of asylums, hospitals, and prisons, and comme sioners of immigration receive and attend to the wants of immigrants. There is an effective militia of sixteen regiments for the protection of the city, and an extensive and well-equiped fire brigade, under municipal control. The situation of the city is considered healthy. The bulk of immigrants to America arrive at the port, and 320,197 landed in 1884. The city debt in 1885 amounted to 92,047,403 dollars.

The bay of New York was entered in the year 1523 by Verrazzano, an Italian in the service of the French, its first European visitor. Hudson, the English navigator, discovered the river which now bears his name. The Dutch settled the colony and founded the city as New Amsterdam in 1621. Governor Stuyvesant surrendered it to the English in 1664, when the name was changed to New York, in honour of the Duke of York, afterwards James IL It was the seat of the first American Congress, and of the inauguration of Washington as the first president of the Republic. At the period of the revolution the city was smaller than Philadelphia or Boston, but gradually increased in importance, especially after the completion of the Erie Canal had opened to it the commerce of the west.

NEW ZEALAND, an important British colony in the southern hemisphere, consisting of three principal islands, the North, the South, and Stewart Island, arranged in a curving chain, about 1200 miles to the south-east of Australia, nearly midway between the Cape of Good Hope and