Austral English Part 179

Never, Never Country, or Never, Never Land.

See quotations. Mr. Cooper's explanation (1857 quotation) is not generally accepted.

1857. F. de Brebant Cooper, `Wild Adventures in Australia,'

p. 68:

"With the aid of three stock-keepers, soon after my arrival at Illarrawarra, I had the cattle mustered, and the draft destined for the Nievah vahs ready for for the road."

[Footnote]: "Nievah vahs, sometimes incorrectly p.r.o.nounced never nevers, a Comderoi term signifying unoccupied land."

1884. A. W. Stirling, `The Never Never Land: a Ride in North Queensland,' p. 5:

"The `Never Never Land,' as the colonists call all that portion of it [Queensland] which lies north or west of Cape Capricorn."

1887. Ca.s.sell's `Picturesque Australasia,' vol. i. p. 279:

"In very spa.r.s.ely populated country, such as the district of Queensland, known as the Never Never Country--presumably because a person, who has once been there, invariably a.s.severates that he will never, never, on any consideration, go back."

1890. J. S. O'Halloran, Secretary Royal Colonial Inst.i.tute, apud Barrere and Leland:

"The Never, Never Country means in Queensland the occupied pastoral country which is furthest removed from the more settled districts."

1890. A. J. Vogan, `The Black Police,' p. 85:

"The weird `Never, Never Land,' so called by the earliest pioneers from the small chance they antic.i.p.ated, on reaching it, of ever being able to return to southern civilization."

Newberyite, n. [Named after J. Cosmo Newbery of Melbourne.] "A hydrous phosphate of magnesium occurring in orthorhombic crystals in the bat-guano of the Skipton Caves, Victoria." (`Century.')

New Chum, n. a new arrival, especially from the old country: generally used with more or less contempt; what in the United States is called a `tenderfoot.'

1839. T. L. Mitch.e.l.l, `Three Expeditions,' vol. i. p. 99:

"He was also what they termed a `new chum,' or one newly arrived."

1846. C. P. Hodgson, `Reminiscences of Australia,' p. 366:

"`New Chum,' in opposition to `Old Chum.' The former `cognomen' peculiarizing [sic] the newly-arrived Emigrant; the latter as a mark of respect attached to the more experienced Colonist."

1855. `How to Settle in Victoria,' p. 15:

"They appear to suffer from an apprehension of being under- sold, or in some other way implicated by the inexperience of, as they call him, the `new chum.'"

1865. `Once a Week,' `The Bulla Bulla Bunyip':

"I was, however, comparatively speaking, a `new chum,'

and therefore my explanation of the mystery met with scant respect."

1874. W. M. B., `Narrative of Edward Crewe,' p. 17:

"To be a new chum is not agreeable--it is something like being a new boy at school--you are bored with questions for some time after your arrival as to how you like the place, and what you are going to do; and people speak to you in a pitying and patronizing manner, smiling at your real or inferred simplicity in colonial life, and altogether `sitting upon' you with much frequency and persistence."

1885. R. M. Praed, `Head Station,' p. 32:

"A new chum is no longer a new chum when he can plait a stock-whip."

1886. P. Clarke [t.i.tle]:

"The New Chum in Australia."

1887. W. S. S. Tyrwhitt [t.i.tle]:

"The New Chum in the Queensland Bush."

1890. Tasma, `In her Earliest Youth,' p. 152:

"I've seen such a lot of those new chums, one way and another.

They knock down all their money at the first go-off, and then there's nothing for them to do but to go and jackaroo up in Queensland."

1891. Rolf Boldrewood, `A Sydney-side Saxon,' p. 4:

"The buggy horse made a bolt of it when a new-chum Englishman was driving her."

1892. Mrs. H. E. Russell, `Too Easily jealous,' p. 155:

"One man coolly told me it was because I was a new chum, just as though it were necessary for a fellow to rusticate for untold ages in these barbarous solitudes, before he is allowed to give an opinion on any subject connected with the colonies."

New Chumhood, n. the period and state of being a New Chum.

1883. W. Jardine Smith, in `Nineteenth Century,' November, p. 849:

"The `b.u.mptiousness' observable in the early days of `new chumhood.'"

New Holland, n. the name, now extinct, first given to Australia by Dutch explorers.

1703. Capt. William Dampier,' Voyages,' vol. iii. [t.i.tle]:

"A Voyage to New Holland, &c., in the Year 1699."

1814. M. Flinders, `Voyage to Terra Australis,' Intro. p. ii:

"The vast regions to which this voyage was princ.i.p.ally directed, comprehend, in the western part, the early discoveries of the Dutch, under the name of New Holland; and in the east, the coasts explored by British navigators, and named New South Wales."

1845. J. O. Balfour, `Sketch of New South Wales,' p. 2:

"The Spaniards at the commencement of the seventeenth century were the discoverers of New Holland; and from them it received the name of Australia. It subsequently, however, obtained its present name of New Holland from the Dutch navigators, who visited it a few years afterwards."

[The Spaniards did not call New Holland Australia (q.v.). The Spaniard Quiros gave the name of Australia del Espiritu Santo to one of the New Hebrides (still known as Espiritu Santo), thinking it to be part of the `Great South Land.' See Captain Cook's remarks on this subject in `Hawkesworth's Voyages,' vol. iii. p. 602.]

1850. J. Bonwick, `Geography for Australian Youth,' p. 6: