Word: newfoundlands
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...important intangible asset is the character of Newfoundland's hardy people. Newfies (a term they use but do not much like) are nearly all natives; 98% were born on the island, mostly of English and Channel Island stock, with generous traces of Irish, Scotch and French. Isolated for centuries, their character tempered by wresting a living from their bleak island and the sea around it, the Newfies have developed into an independent, hardworking, happy breed. Their wit and individuality show strongly in their geographic names. Newfoundland places are called Happy Adventure, Come By Chance, Heart's Delight, Witless...
Spruce & Iron. In spite of its backward aspects, Newfoundland is potentially rich. The famed Grand Banks off its southeast coast, discovered for England by John Cabot in 1497, are still the world's greatest cod-fishing grounds. Newfoundland's forests abound with prime black spruce for papermaking; they hold the only big stand of disease-free birch left in Canada. Newfoundland's unharnessed streams can eventually yield an estimated 8,000,000 h.p. of electric energy, nearly one-third the total developed in the U.S. The rocky land is rich in iron; it has proved deposits...
...depression cracked even Newfoundland's primitive economy. When the market for salt cod failed, one-third of the island's population was forced on the dole. Payments were only 6^ a day, but even that soon broke the public treasury. Newfoundland had to give up self-government, and a British commission came in to try to get the island on its feet...
World War II temporarily ended Newfoundland's financial troubles. The cod market revived. In 1940, when the Battle of the Atlantic was heating up, Britain gave the U.S. an outright gift of 99-year leases for defense bases on Newfoundland. The big Gander airport was enlarged, and U.S. money began pouring into other defense installations; that gave work to thousands of Newfoundlanders. After the war, Newfoundland had a $29 million cash surplus, and Britain gave the Newfoundlanders three choices: to continue with commission government (which few Newfies wanted), to return to dominion status, or to join Canada...
Joey Smallwood's first big decision as premier was to spend the province's cash surplus developing the island's resources. Otherwise, he warned, "Newfoundland will never enjoy more than a meager, peasant economy." His opponents cried havoc, and wailed that the cash should be saved as a nest egg, but Joey retorted: "We will use it to get a goose that will lay us golden eggs...