but at the beginning of the- 17th century this was declining. John Kendrick (d. 1624) left a sum of money to benefit the clothing trade and to “set the poor on work,” but the result was not what was expected. Elias Ashmole (d. 1629) says: “Newbury had lost most of its clothing trade, which the navigation of the river Kennet hither, now begun, will probably recover”; the trade, however, was already irrevocably lost. The Weavers’ Company, which still exists, was incorporated in 1601. In the 18th century a considerable trade was done in corn and malt. Newbury castle, of which traces remained until the 17th century, is said to have been besieged by Stephen in 1152. Newbury was the scene of two battles during the Civil War, in the first of which (1643) Lord Falkland was killed. An important woollen market, established in 1862, is held annually on the first Wednesday in July.
See W. Money, History of Newbury (1887); Victoria County History, Berks.
NEWBURYPORT, a city and port of entry and one of the
county-seats of Essex county, Massachusetts, U.S.A., on the
S. bank of the Merrimac river, about 3 m. above its mouth, and
about 38 m. N.N.E. of Boston. Pop. (1890) 13,947; (1900)
14,478, of whom 2863 were foreign-born; (1910 census)
14,949. Area, about 12·85 sq. m. The city is served by two
divisions of the Boston & Maine railroad, and by coast and
river freight steamers. There are many houses dating back
to the 17th century; of these the stone “garrison” house
(in Newbury), with walls 4 ft. thick and built in the form of
a cross, is an interesting example. Other private houses
worthy of mention are the former homes of “Lord” Timothy
Dexter and Caleb Cushing, the birthplace of William Lloyd
Garrison, and (312 m. from Newburyport in the township of
West Newbury) Indian Hill Farm, the birthplace of the
journalist Ben Perley Poore (1820–1887), author of Perley’s Reminiscences of Sixty Years in the National Metropolis (1886).
Among the public buildings and institutions are the Marine
Museum, the Public Library (founded in 1854 by Josiah Little
and containing about 45,000 volumes), the old Tracy mansion
(built in 1771 or 1772), which forms part of the Public Library
building, the Anna Jacques and Homoeopathic hospitals, homes
for aged women and men, a Home for Destitute Children, Old
South Church, in which is the tomb of George Whitefield, and
the Young Men’s Christian Association building, which is a
memorial to George Henry Corliss (1817–1888), the inventor,
erected by his widow, a native of Newburyport. The General
Charity Society is a benevolent association. The city has a
good public school system. The Female High School was opened
in 1843 and is said to be the first high school for girls to be
established in the United States. The Putnam Free School,
now part of the public school system, was endowed early in the
19th century by Oliver Putnam of Newburyport and afterwards
of Hampstead, New Hampshire. Three parks, Washington,
Cushing and Atkinson, are maintained by the city; and there
are a statue of George Washington (1879), by J. Q. A. Ward, one
of William Lloyd Garrison by D. C. French, and a memorial to
the soldiers and sailors of the Civil War—a bronze statue, “The
Volunteer”—by Mrs Theo (Ruggles) Kitson. A curious chain
suspension bridge across the Merrimac, connecting Newburyport
with Amesbury, was built in 1827, replacing a similar bridge
built in 1810, which was one of the first suspension bridges
in America.
Newburyport in the early part of the 18th century was one of the most prosperous commercial centres in New England. At that time fishing, whaling and shipbuilding were its principal industries, the clipper ships built here being among the fastest and best known on the seas. After the Civil War manufacturing became Newburyport’s chief interest. In 1905 its factory product was valued at $6,809,979, an increase of 32·5% since 1900; 57·6% was in boots and shoes, and the manufactures of combs and silverware, silversmithing products, cotton goods and electrical supplies are also important.
Newbury, including the site of the present Newburyport, was settled in 1635 by a company under the leadership of the Rev. Thomas Parker (1595–1677), who had taught in Newbury, England, in his youth. In 1639 a portion of the territory was set off to form the town of Rowley, and in 1764 about 647 acres were set off and incorporated as the town of Newburyport. In 1819 the town of Parsons (now West Newbury) was formed from Newbury. Newburyport, with its area considerably enlarged, became a city in 1851. During the War of Independence and the War of 1812 it sent out many privateers. In 1811 a fire destroyed 250 buildings, including the greater part of the business portion of the town.
See Caleb Cushing, History and Present State of the Town of Newburyport (Newburyport, 1826); Joshua Coffin, History of Newbury, Newburyport, and West Newbury, 1635–1845 (Boston, 1845); Mrs E. V. Smith, History of Newburyport (Boston, 1854); D. H. Hurd, History of Essex County (Philadelphia, 1888); J. J. Currier, History of Newbury from the First Settlement of the Town to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century (Boston, 1902), History of Newburyport, 1764–1905 (Newburyport, 1906), and Ould Newbury, Historical and Biographical Sketches (Boston, 1898).
NEW CALEDONIA (Fr. Nouvelle-Calédonie), an island in the western Pacific Ocean, belonging to France. (For map, see Pacific Ocean.) It is about 250 m. long, and has an extreme breadth of 35 m. and an area including adjacent islets of 6450
sq. m.; is situated at the southern extremity of Melanesia,
between 20° 5′ and 22° 16′ S., and between 164° and 167° 30′ E.,
and, like all the chief islands of that chain and the chain itself,
lies north-west and south-east. An almost unbroken barrier
reef skirts the west shore at about 5 m. distance, enclosing a
navigable channel; on the east, which is more abrupt and
precipitous, it is much interrupted. To the north the reefs
continue, marking the former extension of the land, for about
160 m., ending with the Huon Islands. The Isle of Pines, so
called from its araucarias (its native name is Kunie), geologically
a continuation of New Caledonia, lies 30 m. from its south-east
extremity. It formerly abounded in sandalwood, and consists of a central plateau surrounded by a belt of cultivation. At the two extremities of New Caledonia, parallel longitudinal ranges of mountains enclose valleys; for the rest the island consists essentially of confused masses and ranges of mountains, rising to an extreme elevation of 5387 ft., the plains being chiefly the deltas of rivers. The landscape is rich and beautiful, varied with grand rock scenery, the coast-line being broken
by numerous small bays, into which flow streams rarely navigable even for short distances, but often skilfully utilized by the natives for irrigation; and sometimes flowing in subterranean channels. The larger rivers in the wet season form impassable morasses, especially in the S.E., where the mountains rise in isolated masses from flat plains.
Geology.[1]—Speaking generally, New Caledonia may be described as a band of Palaeozoic and probably Lower Palaeozoic rocks, associated doubtless with some Archean beds; this band runs from north-west to south-east, through the whole length of the island. The second element in the composition of the island consists of Mesozoic beds, which occur in a broken band along most of the south-western coast. Most of the island is occupied by the band of the old rocks, which include mica, glaucophane and sericite-schists and slates; there are small intrusions of granite, and numerous dikes and masses of basic eruptive rocks. The slates are interbedded with limestones containing fossil brachiopods, which have led to their determination as Silurian or Devonian; but L. Peletan classes all these limestones as Triassic. Triassic beds of the Pacific coastal type occur in a band along the south-western coast. They are covered by marine Jurassic beds and they in turn by Cretaceous coal-bearing, terrestrial deposits, resembling those of New Zealand; According to E. Glasser, the basic igneous rocks which are associated with the mineral deposits of New Caledonia were intrusive in Cainozoic times, at the severing of the connexion between New Caledonia and New Zealand. New Caledonia is part of the Australasian Festoon, and in its general characters resembles the geology of New Zealand. The main mineral deposits are the nickel ores, occurring as veins of garnierite, associated with peridotite dikes, in the ancient rocks of the eastern slope of the island.
- ↑ The basis of knowledge of the geology of New Caledonia was laid by Garnier, Ann. des Mines, ser. 6, vol. xii. (1867). Later accounts are by E. Glasser, “Les Richesses minérales de la Nouvelle Calédonie,” Ann. des Mines, ser. 10, vol. iv. mem. pp. 299-392, pl. xi., and vol. v. mem. pp. 29-54, 503-701, pl. ii. and xii. (1904); and by L. Peletan, Les Richesses minérales des colonies françaises (Paris, 1902).
