New Ireland Province, formerly New Mecklenburg (German: Neu-Mecklenburg) is the most northeastern province of Papua New Guinea.-------------The largest island of the province is New Ireland. Also part of the province are numerous smaller islands, including New Hanover, Saint Matthias Group (Mussau, Emirau), Tabar Group (Tabar, Tatau, Simberi), Tanga Group (Malendok, Boang), Feni Islands (Ambitle, Babase), Djaul, Lihir and Anir. The land area of the province is around 9 600 km².----------------------There have been at least three waves of migration into New Ireland over the last 40,000 years. The famous Lapita pottery culture was present around 3,300 years ago. Chinese and South-East Asian contact appears to have been longstanding, though evidence is thin. Dutch explorers made the first European contact in 1616. It was initially believed by Europeans to be part of New Britain, but the British explorer Philip Carteret established in 1767 that the island was physically separate, and gave it the name Nova Hibernia. In the 1870s and 1880s, Marquis de Rays, a French nobleman unsuccessfully attempted to establish a French colony on the island called La Nouvelle France. He sent four ill-fated expeditions to the island, the most famous of which caused the death of 123 settlers. Missionary activity did not begin until 1877, and New Ireland was colonised by Germany in 1886 under the name Neu-Mecklenburg, as part of the German partition comprising the northern half of present-day Papua New Guinea. Blackbirding - the removal, often by force, of local young men to work on plantations in northern Australia and other Pacific islands - was widespread in New Ireland in the late 19th century. Australia took control in 1914, in the early stages of World War I, and renamed the island as New Ireland. It became part of the Mandated Territory of New Guinea declared in 1921 by the League of Nations and administered by Australia. During World War II New Ireland was occupied by Japanese forces from January 1941 until 1945. Australian colonial administration continued until Papua New Guinea became independent in September 1975.