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 municipal franchise, hitherto confined to ratepayers, was greatly widened; in 1900 the English system of compensation to workmen for accidents suffered in their trade was adopted with some changes, one of the chief being that contested claims are adjudicated upon cheaply and expeditiously by the same arbitration court that decides industrial disputes. In 1895 borrowing on a larger scale was begun, and in twelve years twice as many millions were added to the public debt. Before this the Ballance ministry had organized two new departments, those of labour and agriculture. The former supervises the labour laws and endeavours to deal with unemployment; the latter has done much practical teaching, inspection, &c. Butter, cheese and New Zealand hemp are by law graded and branded by departmental inspectors before export. For some years the government has worked two coal-mines profitably, chiefly to supply its railways. In 1907 the net profit on these was over £8000. The continued success of the government life insurance office led in 1899 to the setting up of an accidents insurance office, and, in 1903, of a state fire insurance office.

The outbreak of the Boer War in October 1899 was followed in New Zealand by a prompt display of general and persistent warlike enthusiasm: politics ceased to be the chief topic of interest; the general election of 1899 was the most languid held for fifteen years. The desire of New Zealanders to strike a blow for the mother-country took the practical shape of despatching to South Africa ten successive contingents.

After gaining office at the beginning of 1891 the Ballance-Seddon party had to struggle with the last four years of the period of depression. In 1895 began a marked commercial revival, mainly due to the steady conversion of the colony’s waste lands into pasture; the development of frozen meat and dairy exports; the continuous increase of the output of coal; the invention of gold-dredging; the revival and improvement of hemp manufacture; the exploiting of the deposits of kauri gum; the reduction in the rates of interest on mortgage money; a general rise in wages, obtained without strikes, and partially secured by law, which has increased the spending power of the working classes. Undoubtedly also commercial confidence was restored by the reconstruction in 1895 of the Bank of New Zealand, and activity has been stimulated by large public loans, while more cautious banking and the systems of taxation and rating on land values, adopted in 1891 and 1896, have done something to check land speculation.

Between 1879 and 1908 seven governors represented the crown in New Zealand. Of these Sir Hercules Robinson and Sir Arthur Gordon had but brief reigns; Sir Arthur Gordon quitted the colony in June 1882. His successor, Sir William Drummond Jervois, arrived in January 1883, and held office until March 1889. The earl of Onslow, who followed, landed in June 1889, and resigned in February 1892. The next governor, the earl of Glasgow, remained in the colony from June 1892 to February 1897, and was succeeded in August of the last-mentioned year by the earl of Ranfurly, who did not retire until 1904. His place was then taken by Lord Plunket. The cabinets which administered the affairs of the colony during these years were those of Sir Frederick Whitaker, Sir Harry Atkinson (3), Sir Robert Stout (2), Mr Ballance, Mr Seddon, Mr Hall-Jones and Sir Joseph Ward. Mr Hall-Jones’s short premiership was an interregnum made necessary by the absence of Sir Joseph Ward in England at the moment of Mr Seddon’s death. Except in one disturbed month, August 1884, when there were three changes of ministry in eighteen days, executives were more stable than in the colony’s earlier years. The party headed by Ballance, Seddon and Ward held office without a break for more than seventeen years, a result mainly due to the general support given to its agrarian and labour policy by the smaller farmers and the working classes. Sir Arthur Gordon differed from his ministers—Hall and Atkinson—on their native policy. Lords Onslow and Glasgow came into collision with Ballance over a proposal to nominate a large batch of Liberals to the then Conservative legislative council. The dispute was by consent referred to the secretary for the colonies. and the decision from Downing Street was in Ballance’s favour.

The governor’s salary, reduced in 1887, was restored to £7500 a year in 1900. An Immigrants Exclusion Act voted by the general assembly in 1896 did not receive the royal assent; but, by arrangement with the colonial office, another measure, giving power to impose a reading test on aliens landing in the colony, became law in 1899.

The presence of New Zealand premiers at the imperial conferences in London in 1897, 1903 and 1907 helped to bring the colony into conscious touch with imperial public questions. Among the results were the increase of the naval contribution (first to £40,000 and then, in 1908, to £100,000), and the imposition in 1903 and again in 1907 of severe discriminating duties against imports from foreign countries.

.—The only lengthy historical account of any note is Rusden’s three-volume History of New Zealand (2nd ed., Melbourne, 1896), chiefly valuable as a statement of the grievances of the Maori race. Short histories are: R. F. Irvine and O. T. J. Alpers, The Progress of New Zealand in the Century (London, 1902), and W. P. Reeves, The Long White Cloud (2nd ed., London, 1900). Sir William Fox, The War in New Zealand (London, 1866) is the best account of any portion of the native wars. A. S. Thomson’s Story of New Zealand (London, 1859) is historical as well as descriptive. William Gisborne’s New Zealand Rulers and Statesmen, 1844–1897 (London, 1897), gives many graphic portraits. For early accounts of the Maori race, see Cook’s Voyage and Boosé’s translation of Crozet’s Voyage. On the Maori also note, Sir G. Grey, Polynesian Mythology and Maori Legends (New Zealand, 1885); Edward Tregear, The Maori Race (New Zealand, 1704); S. Percy Smith, Hawaiki (New Zealand, 1903); John White, The Ancient History of the Maori (6 vols., London, 1889); and many papers—especially by the three last-named, and Colenso, Stack, Wohlers, Best, Von Haast, Travers and Shand—in the Transactions of the New Zealand Institute (New Zealand, annual), and the Journal of the Polynesian Society (New Zealand, annual). On early events of pioneering and colonization are: E. J. Wakefield, Adventure in New Zealand (new ed., New Zealand, 1908); Hon. R. McNab, Murihuku (New Zealand, 1907); T. M. Hocken, Contributions to the Early History of New Zealand (London, 1898); Samuel Butler, First Year in the Canterbury Settlement (1863). For later impressions note: Lady Barker, Station Life in New Zealand (London, 1869); Sir Charles Dilke, Greater Britain (London, new ed., 1885); Anthony Trollope, Australia and New Zealand (London, 1875); J. A. Froude, Oceana (London, 1886). The best-known poetic work produced is Domett’s Ranolf and Amohia (London, 1867). An anthology of New Zealand verse appeared in London in 1907. Sir John Gorst, New Zealand Revisited (London, 1908). Among scientific works come papers in the two societies above-mentioned and F. von Hochstetter, New Zealand (translation, London, 1861); J. Kirk, The Forest Flora of New Zealand (New Zealand, 1889); Sir J. Hooker, Handbook of the New Zealand Flora (London, 1864); Laing and Blackwell, The Plants of New Zealand (New Zealand, 1906); Professor E. Hutton and James Drummond, The Animals of New Zealand (New Zealand, 1905); Sir W. L. Buller, The Birds of New Zealand, finely illustrated (new ed., London, 1906); S. Percy Smith, The Eruption of Tarawera (New Zealand, 1887). On recent social and political changes and experiments there are: W. P. Reeves, State Experiments in Australia and New Zealand (2 vols., London, 1902); H. D. Lloyd, Newest England (London, 1901); André Siegfried, La Démocratie en Nouvelle Zélande (Paris, 1904). On Alpine climbing the best book is still The High Alps of New Zealand by W. S. Green (London, 1883).

 NEXT FRIEND, in law, the phrase used for a person who represents in an action another person who is under disability to maintain a suit on his own behalf. This disability arises from infancy or mental incapacity, consequently every application to the court on behalf of an infant or a lunatic must be made through a next friend (prochein amy, proximus amicus). Previous to the Married Women’s Property Act 1882 it was also usual for a married woman to sue by a next friend, but that act, allowing a married woman to sue in all respects as a feme sole, has rendered a next friend unnecessary in her case. In the case of an infant the father is prima facie the proper person to act as next friend; in the father’s absence the testamentary guardian if any; but any person not under disability may act as next friend so long as he has no interest in the action adverse to that of the infant. A married woman cannot, however, act as next friend. An infant defends a suit, not by a next friend, but by a guardian ad litem. In the case of a lunatic, he sues by his committee, but if he has no committee, or if the committee has some interest adverse to the lunatic, he sues by his next friend. A next friend has full power over the proceedings in the action