NEW ZEALAND 



4222 



NEZ PERCES 



ply remains, yet reforestation with native trees 

 :mited by the fact that they require from 

 150 to 3,600 years to mature. 



Zealand's wheat fields are the most won- 

 :1 in the British oversea dominions. The 

 lowest yield of the present century was 24.70 

 bushels per acre in 1901, the greatest 38.87, in 

 1902. The average for twelve yours is nearly 31 

 bushels, a figure equaled only once in Alberta, 

 never in Saskatchewan and only occasionally 

 in the irrigated regions of the United States. 

 However, production is on a small scale, for the 

 annual crop of 6.000.000 bushels is no greater 

 than in the tiny Netherlands. 



History and Government. After Abel Tas- 

 man visited \n nw Zccland in 1642 no voyager 

 reached its shores till Captain Cook's voyage 

 in 1769. A month later came the French 

 navigator, De Surville. Though there were 

 soon English settlements in all parts of the 

 islands, not till 1839 was the British govern- 

 ment persuaded to appoint a governor. There 

 were seven distinct 'colonies until 1853, when a 

 single constitution was given them. There has 

 been little trouble with the Maoris in the last 

 fifty years, but previously their warlike spirit 

 caused frequent conflicts. 



Since 1907 New Zealand has been a Domin- 

 ion, and it bears exactly the same relation to 

 Great Britain as does Canada. The governor 

 sent from England cooperates with the General 

 Assembly, which consists of an appointed Legis- 

 lative Council of thirty-nine, and an elected 

 House of Representatives with eighty members. 

 A treaty of 1840 with the Maoris has been 

 faithfully kept, and the natives have four rep- 

 resentatives and 12,000 voters. The Dominion 

 includes Chatham Islands, 536 miles east, and 

 several smaller islands at an equal distance, and 

 since 1901 it has administered the government 

 of the Cook Islands. 



In the War of the Nations New Zealand 

 gave remarkable proof of its loyalty to the 

 British Empire. By June, 1917, one person in 

 eleven in the Dominion had enlisted for serv- 

 ice; this was a greater proportion than had 

 joined the- colors from any other part of the 

 empire, excepting England alone. C.H.H. 



Consult Douglas's The Dominion of New Zea- 

 land; Lloyd's Newest England; Lusk's Social 

 Welfare in New Zealand. 



Related Subjects. The reader interested in 

 New Zealand is referred to the following articles 

 in these volumes : 



Auckland 



Butter 



Cheese 



Christchurch 

 Cook, James 

 Dunedin 



Gold single Tax 



Maoris \\Vlllngton 



-M.at .in 1 M.Mt Packing Wool 



NEY, HO//. Mn HEL, DUKE OF ELCHINGEN 

 AND PRINCE OF THE MOSKVA (1769-1815), a mar- 

 shal of France who so distinguished himself in 

 the service of Napoleon that the latter honored 

 him with the title "Bravest of the Brave." Ney 

 was the son of a 

 cooper of Saar- 



louis. At the ai- 



of nineteen he 

 joined a regiment 

 of hussars a i 

 Metz, and in the 

 campaign of 1792. 

 when the French 

 Army of the 

 North defeated 

 the allied Prus- 

 sians and Aus- 

 trians, he showed MARSHAL NEY 



himsplf fnr ahnvp Intense devotion to his em- 

 ir aoove peror brought him to his deatn 



the average in facing a firing squad, 

 energy and -valor. In 1804, when the French 

 Empire was proclaimed, Napoleon made him 

 marshal of France. Ney defeated the Austrians 

 at Elchingen in 1805 (receiving for this exploit 

 the title Duke of Elchingen, in 1808), took 

 part in the battles of Jena and Eylau, and in 

 1807 captured the village of Friedland from, the 

 Russians. It was this latter triumph that in- 

 spired Napoleon to call him Brave des braves. 



For his services in the disastrous Russian 

 campaign he was awarded the title Prince of 

 the Moskva, and he proved himself invaluable 

 during the terrible retreat from Moscow. 

 Though he approved of Napoleon's abdication 

 after the fall of Paris and tendered his services 

 to the Bourbons, he rejoined his former com- 

 mander when Napoleon returned from Elba, 

 and it was Ney who led the last charge of the 

 Old Guard on the field of Waterloo. Con- 

 demned to die on the charge of treason, he was 

 shot in the gardens of the Luxembourg. 



NEZ PERCES, na per sa' , a peaceable tribe 

 of Indians found in 1805 by Lewis and Clark 

 while on their famous trip into the Northwest 

 (see LEWIS AND CLARK EXPEDITION). They 

 called these Indians Chopunnish, but the source 

 of this name is unknown. Nez Perces, mean- 

 ing pierced noses, was a name given by the 

 French to tribes accustomed to piercing the 

 nose, as many other people pierce their ears, 

 in order to wear ornaments there, but it is not 

 known that this tribe had such a custom. 



