The catalog from 1941 indicates,
"The New World Lightweight bicycles may be built up with any combination of English or American type equipment available anywhere."
The most common English hub was certainly the SA AW 3 speed. I do not recall ever seeing one with a Villiers hub or the like. All of the single speeds I have seen have either an American-made coaster brake or the Schwinn single speed freewheel. Supposedly the Continental Dural hub shell could take an "imported" freewheel (1948 catalog), but I'm not sure that counts as an "English" hub.
I have not seen a New World with English-made rims original to it. The ones with English hubs I have seen were laced to Schwinn rims. I will say switching to English rims offers the advantage of a wider selection of tires. Schwinn made a point of repeatedly saying you could get whatever English or American-made parts you wanted on your New World. I tend to think of the New World not so much as an individual bike, but as a "platform" for building up a wide array of English and American parts. That said, I've seen only Schwinn rims as original parts, never Raleigh or BCC/Birmingham rims.
Are the rims different? It's possible someone swapped a whole rear wheel to get the three speed gears, while leaving the front alone.