chapter 29

(copyright, 1907, by Doubleday, Page & Co., New York, 1907)._

NEW ZEALAND: A. D. 1906. The Democratizing of Competition. Labor Group Coöperation.

See (in this Volume) LABOR REMUNERATION.

NEW ZEALAND: A. D. 1906-1909. The Liberal Party and the Liberal Ministry. Their years of Great Power. Their Strength shaken in the latest Election. Its Method and Result. The new Ministry of Sir Joseph Ward.

In June, 1906, the Liberal Party in New Zealand experienced a great loss, in the death of Mr. Richard J. Seddon, its strong leader, and the Prime Minister of Government for some time past. His place was taken temporarily by Mr. Hall-Jones, until Sir Joseph Ward, then absent from the country, returned and received the chief ministerial seat. Since 1893 the Liberal Party had derived large majorities in Parliament from each triennial election. The Liberal Administration had advanced accordingly, says a recent letter to the London _Times_, "under the banner of labour legislation, new land laws, and State Socialism, and was strengthened in its position by the general prosperity of the country and the expenditure of large sums of borrowed money upon public works. At the end of last Session, it was still at the head of affairs with a majority (including the four Maori members) of no fewer than 46.

"In the meantime, however, the guiding hand of Mr. Seddon, the great apostle of New Zealand democracy, had been removed from the scene, the harsh working of the Compulsory Arbitration Act had begun to alienate the sympathies of both employers and workers; the anti-freehold tendencies of the present Administration were effecting a change of feeling in the country constituencies, and the drop in the prices of some of our staple products, combined with the stringency in the local money market, began to act as a check on our commercial prosperity. Finally, the Government made some tactical blunders." Hence the Opposition, at the Parliamentary election of November, 1908, was greatly strengthened, though the ascendancy of the Liberals was still maintained. The conduct of the election and its result are described by the correspondent already quoted, as follows: "An election in New Zealand is conducted in a most orderly manner. The distribution of literature, the wearing of badges, and any touting for votes from electors on their way to the polls or in front of the polling booths are strictly prohibited by law. A half-holiday has to be observed in shops and offices, and factory owners must allow their _employés_ time off to vote. The publichouses remain closed from noon until the polls are closed, the closing hour being in the country 6 P. M., and in the cities 7 P. M. Time was, in the very early days, when the polling booths were in some cases located between two drinking saloons that did a roaring trade, and the result was much loud disputation, bad language, and fighting. Nowadays all that is changed, and women can walk into the polling booths with complete unconcern. For the 76 seats 213 candidates had been nominated. Of these 114 claimed to be Ministerialists and 52 Oppositionists, while 46 were Independents, among whom were a few Socialists and Independent Labourites. The result of the first ballot was that 34 Government supporters, 16 Opposition candidates, and three Independents were elected by absolute majorities. In 23 constituencies the candidates at the head of the poll failed to secure absolute majorities of the total votes polled, and it became necessary to hold second ballots, the number of these being practically double what was estimated by the Prime Minister. … Twenty-two of these were held a week later, and resulted in a further strengthening of the Opposition party. One—in a widely scattered country constituency—has yet to be held. The Government secured 12 of the seats, the Opposition nine, and Independent Labour one. …

"The result of the elections, as a whole, is greatly to strengthen the Opposition, and correspondingly to weaken the Government. The next most noticeable feature about it is the unusual change it has made in the _personnel_ of the House of Representatives. While not a single Opposition member of the last Parliament who stood has lost his seat, no fewer than 17 followers of the Ministry have been relegated to private life; while the new Parliament will contain 27 new members out of 76. {459} The position of parties, with one second ballot yet to be decided, is—Government, 45; Opposition, 25; Independent, 4; Independent Labour, 1. At the end of last Session (excluding Maori members) the Government were 59 strong, while the Opposition, including one Independent, numbered only 17. Thus, whereas in the last Parliament the Government could reckon on a majority of 42, they cannot now be absolutely sure of a majority of more than 15 of the European members on certain issues. There are four Maori members still to be elected, and as these generally vote with the party in power the assured Ministerial majority will be 19. This should be amply sufficient to enable Sir Joseph Ward to continue in power for the full term of the Parliament—three years."

Early in January, 1909, the Ministry was reconstructed, the Premier, Sir Joseph Ward, burdening himself with the portfolios of Finance, Defence, Lands, Agriculture, and the Post Office. This was said to be made necessary by the inexperience in office of the new Ministers whom he called to his side.

NEW ZEALAND: A. D. 1907 (April-May). Imperial Conference at London.

See (in this Volume) BRITISH EMPIRE: A. D. 1907.

NEW ZEALAND: A. D. 1907-1909. Working of the Compulsory Arbitration Law.

See (in this Volume) LABOR ORGANIZATION: NEW ZEALAND.

NEW ZEALAND: A. D. 1908. Population.

The population of the Dominion of New Zealand on December 31, 1908, was estimated as follows: Europeans 960,000; Maoris, 49,000; Cook Islanders, 12,000. There was an increase of Europeans during the year of 31,000, being at the rate of 3.36 percent. The excess of immigration over departures was 14,000—a record; while the natural increase was 17,000. The death-rate was 9.57 per thousand, as compared with 10.95 in 1907; and the birth-rate was 27.45 per thousand, as compared with 27.30.

NEW ZEALAND: A. D. 1908-1909. Labor Strike caused by Legislation making "Miners’ Disease" a ground of Compensation from Employers.

See (in this Volume) LABOR PROTECTION: EMPLOYERS’ LIABILITY.

NEW ZEALAND: A. D. 1909. Announcement of Railway-Building Policy.

See (in this Volume) RAILWAYS: NEW ZEALAND.

NEW ZEALAND: A. D. 1909. Act establishing compulsory Military Training.

See (in this Volume) WAR, THE PREPARATIONS FOR: MILITARY: NEW ZEALAND.

NEW ZEALAND: A. D. 1909. The Prime Minister’s testimony to the good working of Woman Suffrage.

See (in this Volume) ELECTIVE FRANCHISE: WOMAN SUFFRAGE.

NEW ZEALAND: A. D. 1909 (July-August). Imperial Defence Conference. Offer of a "Dreadnought" to the Imperial Navy.

See (in this Volume) WAR, THE PREPARATIONS FOR: MILITARY AND NAVAL.

NIAGARA FALLS: Preservation of their "Scenic Grandeur."

An Act of Congress, designed "to preserve the scenic grandeur" of Niagara Falls, approved in June, 1906, authorized the Secretary of War to grant permits for the diversion of water for the creation of power to an aggregate amount not exceeding 15,600 cubic feet a second, and to grant permits for the transmission of power from Canada to an aggregate quantity not exceeding 160,000 horsepower. The then Secretary of War, Mr. Taft, since elected President of the United States, after careful investigations and hearings, granted permits for the diversion of the maximum amount of water under the act and for the admission of the maximum quantity of power. In reporting his decision Mr. Taft explained why he believed that the diversion authorized could be made without harm to the Falls: "I have reached," he said, "the conclusion that with the diversion of 15,600 cubic feet on the American side and the transmission of 160,000 horse power from the Canadian side, the scenic grandeur of the Falls will not be affected substantially or perceptibly to the eye. With respect to the American falls this is an increase of only 2,500 cubic feet a second over what is now being diverted and has been diverted for many years, and has not affected the Falls as a scenic wonder. With respect to the Canadian side, the water is drawn from the river in such a way as not to affect the American falls at all, because the point from which it is drawn is considerably below the level of the water, at the point where the waters separate above Goat Island, and the Waterways Commission and Dr. Clark agree that the taking of 13,000 cubic feet from the Canadian side will not in any way affect or reduce the water going over the American falls. The water going over the Falls on the Canadian side of Goat Island is about five times the Volume of that which goes over the American falls. … If the amount withdrawn on the Canada side for Canadian use were 5,000 cubic feet a second, which it is not likely to be during the three years’ life of these permits, the total to be withdrawn would not exceed ten per cent, of the Volume of the stream, and, considering the immense quantity which goes over the Horseshoe Falls, the diminution would not be perceptible to the eye."

See, also, provisions of "WATERWAYS TREATY," in this Volume, under CANADA: A. D. 1909 (JANUARY).

NIAGARA MOVEMENT, The.

See (in this Volume) RACE PROBLEMS: UNITED STATES.

NICARAGUA.

See (in this Volume) CENTRAL AMERICA.

NICHOLAS II., TSAR OF RUSSIA.

See (in this Volume) RUSSIA.

NICHOLS, ERNEST FOX: President of Dartmouth University.

See (in this Volume) EDUCATION: UNITED STATES: A. D. 1901-1909.

NICOLSON, SIR ARTHUR: British Ambassador at St. Petersburg. Convention with Russia.

See (in this Volume) EUROPE: A. D. 1907 (AUGUST).

NIEL, M.: The head of the Confédération Générale du Travail in France.

See (in this Volume) LABOR ORGANIZATION: FRANCE: A. D. 1884-1909.

NIGERIA.

See (in this Volume) AFRICA: FRENCH CENTRAL.

NIGHT RIDERS, of the Tobacco Farmers’ Union.

See (in this Volume) KENTUCKY: A. D. 1905-1909.

NILE BARRAGE.

See (in this Volume) EGYPT: A. D. 1902 (DECEMBER).

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NOBEL PRIZES.

By the will of Alfred Bernard Nobel, the distinguished Swedish engineer and chemist, pupil of John Ericsson and inventor of dynamite and other explosives, five great prizes, averaging nearly $40,000 each in value, were instituted, for annual reward to persons who shall severally have made the most important discovery or invention in the domain of physics, chemistry and physiology or medicine; to the writer who has produced in literature the most distinguished work of an idealistic tendency, and to the person who has most or best promoted the fraternity of nations, the abolition or reduction of standing armies and the formation and increase of peace congresses. The award of the two prizes first named to be made by the Royal Academy of Science in Stockholm; the third by the Caroline Medical-Chirurgical Institute in Stockholm; the fourth by the Swedish Academy in the same city; the fifth by the Storthing or Parliament of Norway.

The presentation of prizes on the first award was made with impressive ceremonies on the 10th of December, 1901, that being the fifth anniversary of Mr. Nobel’s death. Each year since, the awards have been made on that anniversary day. The recipients have been as follows:

PHYSICS.

1901 William Conrad Roentgen, professor of physics at the University of Munich.

1902 Divided equally between Henrik Anton Lorentz, professor of physics at the University of Leyden, and Peter Zeeman, professor of physics at the University of Amsterdam.

1903 Half to Antoine Henri Becquerel, professor of physics at the École Polytechnique and at the Museum d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris, France, member Institut Française, and half to Pierre Curie, professor of physics at the University of Paris (Sorbonne) and teacher in physics at the Paris Municipal School of Industrial Physics and Chemistry, and his wife, Marie Sklodovska Curie, preceptress at the Higher Normal School for Young Girls at Sevres.

1904 Lord Rayleigh, professor of natural philosophy, Royal Institution of Great Britain, London.

1905 Philippe Lenard, professor of physics at the physical Institute of Kiel.

1906 J. J. Thomson, professor of experimental physics at the University of Cambridge.

1907 Albert A. Michelsen, professor of physics at the University of Chicago.

1908 Professor Gabriel Lippman of the University of Paris.

1909 G. Marconi, Italy, and Professor Ferdinand Braun of Strassburg.

MEDICINE.

1901 Emil Adolf von Behring, professor of hygiene and medical history at the University of Marburg, Prussia.

1902 Ronald Ross, professor of tropical medicine at the University college of Liverpool.

1903 Niels Ryberg Finsen, professor of medicine, Copenhagen, Denmark.

1904 Ivan Petrovic Pawlow, professor of physiology in the Military Academy of Medicine, St. Petersburg.

1905 Robert Koch, member of the Royal Academy of Science, Berlin.

1906 Professors Ramon y Cajal and Camillo Golgi of the Pavia university, Italy.

1907 Charles L. A. Laveran of the Pasteur Institute in Paris.

1908 Dr. Paul Ehrlich of Berlin and Professor Elie Metchnikoff of the Pasteur Institute, Paris.

1909 Professor E. T. Kocher, Switzerland.

CHEMISTRY.

1901 Jakob Hendrik van’t Hoff, professor of chemistry in the University of Berlin.

1902 Emil Fischer, professor of chemistry in the University of Berlin.

1903 Svante August Arrhenius, professor at the University of Stockholm.

1904 Sir William Ramsay, professor of chemistry in the University college, London.

1905 Adolf von Baeyer, professor of chemistry at Munich.

1906 H. Moissan, professor of chemistry at the Sorbonne, Paris.

1907 Eduard Buchner, professor of chemistry in the agricultural high school of Berlin.

1908 Professor Ernest Rutherford of the University of Manchester, England.

1909 Professor W. Ostwald of Leipsic.

LITERATURE.

1901 Rene Francois Armand Sully-Prudhomme, member of the French Academy.

1902 Theodor Mommsen, professor of history at the University of Berlin.

1903 Bjornstjerne Bjornson, author, Norway.

1904 Half to Frederic Mistral of France and half to José Echegaray of Spain.

1905 Henryk Sienkiewicz, the author of "Quo Vadis?"

1906 Professor Giosue Carducci of Bologna, Italy.

1907 Rudyard Kipling of England.

1908 Professor Rudolf Eucken of the University of Java.

1909 Selma Lagerlof, Sweden.

PEACE.

1901 Divided equally between Henri Dunant, founder of the International Red Cross Society of Geneva, and Frederic Passay, founder of the first French peace association, the "Société Française pour l’Arbitrage Entre Nations."

1902 Divided equally between Elie Ducommum, secretary of the international peace bureau at Bern, and Albert Gobat, chief of the interparliamentary peace bureau at Bern.

1903 William Randal Cremer, M. P., secretary of the International Arbitration league, London.

1904 The Institute of International Right, a scientific association founded in 1873 in Ghent, Belgium.

1905 Baroness Bertha von Suttner for her literary work written in the interest of the world’s peace movement.

1906 Theodore Roosevelt, president of the United States, for the part he took in bringing the Russo-Japanese war to an end. Money set apart by the president for the establishment of a permanent industrial peace commission.

1907 Divided equally between Ernesto T. Moneta, president of the Lombardy Peace union, and Louis Renault, professor of international law at the University of Paris.

1908 K. P. Arnoldsen of Sweden and M. F. Bajer of Denmark.

1909 Baron d’Estournelles de Constant, Paris, and M. Beernaert, Holland, ex-Premier.

[For a contemporary list see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Nobel_laureates]

NODZU, General.

See (in this Volume) JAPAN: A. D. 1904 (FEBRUARY-JULY), and after.

NOGI, GENERAL.

See (in this Volume) JAPAN: A. D. 1904 (FEBRUARY-JULY), and 1904-1905 (MAY-JANUARY).

NOMINATIONS, Political: By Direct Primary Vote.

See (in this Volume) ELECTIVE FRANCHISE: UNITED STATES.

NOMINAVIT NOVIS CONTROVERSY.

See (in this Volume) FRANCE: A. D. 1905-1906.

NORD ALEXIS, GENERAL.

See (in this Volume) HAITI: A. D. 1902 and 1908.

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NORDENSKJÖLD, DR. OTTO: Commanding Swedish Antarctic Expedition.

See (in this Volume) POLAR EXPLORATION.

NORDEZ, BISHOP LE.

See (in this Volume) FRANCE: A. D. 1905-1900.

NORTHCOTE, LORD: On the Australian Land and Immigration Questions.

See (in this Volume) IMMIGRATION AND EMIGRATION: AUSTRALIA.

NORTHERN SECURITIES COMPANY CASE, THE.

See (in this Volume) RAILWAYS: UNITED STATES: A. D. 1901-1905.

NORTH SEA AND BALTIC AGREEMENTS.

See (in this Volume) EUROPE: A. D. 1907-1908.

NORTHWEST TERRITORIES, CANADIAN: A. D. 1896-1909. Their Rapid Settlement. The "American Invasion."

See (in this Volume) CANADA: A. D. 1896-1909.

NORTHWEST TERRITORIES, CANADIAN: A. D. 1901-1902. Census. Increased Representation in Parliament.

See (in this Volume) CANADA: 1901-1902.

NORWAY: A. D. 1902-1905. Result of the Consular Question. Secession from the Union of Crowns with Sweden. Acceptance by King Oscar of his virtual Deposition. Election of Prince Charles of Denmark to the Throne.

The discontent of Norway in its union with Sweden, especially because it could have no distinct national representation, consular or diplomatic, in foreign countries, is described in