Rise of Australia

Chapter 177

On January 1904, 1, the German Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and the Tsarist Russian Empire successively issued statements, expressing regret and sorrow for the typhoon in New Zealand, and announced their support for New Zealand to hold a referendum, allowing New Zealanders to decide their own destiny.

On the following January 1, the British Empire, one of the protagonists, followed up and expressed its willingness to obey Queen Victoria's will and let New Zealanders decide their own destiny.

It was a great win for the New Zealanders, who seemed to be headed towards a bright future.

Arthur is not good at expressing his position on this. In everyone's opinion, from the start of the march to New Zealand's right to vote in a referendum, Arthur never showed up.

But in fact, only a very few people know that Arthur's actions played a decisive role in New Zealand's smooth acquisition of the right to hold a referendum.

The scope of the New Zealand referendum covers the entire New Zealand region, including all overseas islands that New Zealand has sovereignty over.

The referendum stipulates that as long as they are New Zealand permanent residents over the age of 20 and have lived in all regions of New Zealand for ten years, they can obtain the right to participate in the referendum.

The current total population of New Zealand is as high as 400, and there are a total of more than 43 people who meet this condition.

The age limit, combined with the residence time limit, has also drastically reduced the number of people who have the right to participate in the referendum.

The good news is that New Zealand gave women the right to vote a long time ago, but they don't have the right to stand for election, they just have the right to vote.

Although Arthur did not participate in the entire New Zealand referendum, this does not mean that Arthur had nothing to do during this time.

On the contrary, because the beginning of the new year has come, the 1903 annual summary of the Australian cabinet government has also been successfully delivered to Arthur, waiting for Arthur's review.

The most obvious achievement of Australia in 1903 was in terms of population. At the beginning of 1903, Australia's population was about 420 people.

By January of this year, 1904, the population of Australia had exceeded 1 people, and the population growth rate had reached a gratifying 450%.

This has also brought the number of cities with a population of more than 50 in Australia to two. Sydney and Melbourne have become the two brightest pearls in Australia.

The industrial development in 1903 was not as rapid as that in 1902, but the steel output also reached 39 tons and 67 tons respectively.

At present, Australia's total steel output has exceeded 100 million tons, and it is not an exaggeration to say that it is an industrial country.

During this year, Australia also discovered a large number of new mineral resources, the most of which are coal mines and iron ore.

At present, Australia's proven iron ore reserves are as high as 15 billion tons, and the total reserves of bituminous coal and lignite are as high as 130 billion tons.

Such abundant magnesium iron ore reserves will become a strong support for Australia's industrial development, and it will also make Australia one of the countries with large coal and iron ore reserves.

It is worth mentioning that Australia has already proven more than 1000 million tons of oil, most of which are distributed along the southeast coast of Australia and the coast of western Australia.

With the sales of Benzone all over the world, the demand for oil consumption in the world is also getting higher and higher.

This has also led to an increase in the price of relatively cheap oil, and the price of gasoline, diesel and various petroleum products has also increased. This has also allowed some countries and regions with oil to see opportunities to make a fortune.

Unlike New Zealand's livestock industry, which has suffered serious losses, Australia's livestock industry can be said to be in full swing.

At present, according to rough statistics, Australia has more than 2000 million sheep, tens of millions of cattle and other animals, and more than 100 million people engaged in the animal husbandry industry. It is a veritable animal husbandry country.

Australia's current animal husbandry products, including wool, milk and goat milk, beef and mutton, have established sales channels in Europe, America and parts of Asia, and the annual income brought to Australia by animal husbandry products has exceeded 200 million pounds .

The development of agriculture in Australia has not fallen behind. Although most of the land in the country is desert and other areas that are not suitable for planting, Australia still has a wide range of plantable areas because of its extremely large land area.

Because the government began to encourage large-scale planting, many farmers have begun to seek to expand their farm area.

Coupled with the current industrial development in Australia, a large number of urban population and jobs have been born, which also makes it possible to scale agriculture.

This is good news for Australia, whose agriculture can be transformed into a large farm model in the future.

In the case of using a large number of machines, a lot of manpower can be saved, and large-scale farming can be completed with only a small amount of manpower and machinery.

In terms of transportation, Australia has also made good achievements.

The first is the roads connecting the large and small towns of the states with the capitals of the states as the center. These roads are generally funded by the state governments and supported by the Australian government.

As of January 1904, except for Western Australia and South Australia, which have a relatively large area, the other four states have basically connected roads to all towns and established a road network centered on the state capital.

Based on the road network of each state, the Australian government has built a road network connecting state capitals and important cities.

This also allows Guangmao Australia to have a four-way developed road network, making travel more convenient for Australians.

In particular, the roads funded by the Australian government are basically large roads with three roads in both directions.

Although this has increased the Australian government's investment in transportation, it has also made it easier for Australians to travel.

The second is the railway.

Up to now, Australia's industrial railway has been under construction for more than two years, and the results achieved are also very good.

Of course, the main part of railway construction is still in southeastern Australia, which is also the most populous and most economically developed region in Australia.

The current railway has completed the main part from Brisbane, the capital of Queensland, to Adelaide, South Australia, and has successfully connected Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia.

There are countless cities connected, among which, the larger cities are Brisbane, Newcastle, Sydney, Orbst, Melbourne, Geelong, Adelaide and Port Augusta.

The total distance of this railway is nearly half of the industrial railway, and the reason why the construction is so fast is also because this area already has a relatively developed railway network.

In Western Australia and South Australia, where the population is relatively small, the construction of railways is relatively slow.

Fortunately, the South Australian region, the current railway has been built from Port Augusta to Adelaide, and connected to the industrial railway in the southeast.

However, the current railway construction in Western Australia is only from the capital Perth to Geraldton and Albany, which are two port towns in Western Australia. The reason for connecting these two towns is also to facilitate transportation in Western Australia.

The part of the railway connecting Western Australia and South Australia, that is, the railway connecting Perth and Port Augusta, will be a more difficult part of the construction of the entire industrial railway, because there are very few railways in this area, and almost all of them are New construction is required.

If all goes well, the railway will be completed in four years.But if the progress is not smooth, the completion of this section of the railway may be delayed until five or even six years later.

But this is still a reduction compared to the initial planned construction time of the industrial railway.At the beginning, the industrial railway was planned to be completed in ten years, but it seems that it only takes about six to eight years.

The only area not covered by the railway plan is Tasmania, which is also Australia's smallest state in terms of land area and population.

In order to take care of the mood of the residents of Tasmania, Arthur specially started the construction plan of the Ring Road in Tasmania, the main part of which is to connect the northern city of Tasmania, Smithton, and the southern city of Hobart. , and some small towns in the east and west.

Compared with the road construction in the whole of Australia, although the roads in Tasmania connect smaller villages and some farms, the scale is still only a fraction.

That's why road construction in Tasmania is going so well.So far, Tasmania has completed the construction of the road around the island. The two major cities in the state, Hobart and Smithton, have all been connected to the road, and all small towns and villages are within the scope of urban network construction.

This has also made Tasmania the most developed region in Australia's road transportation, which has greatly attracted the regret of Tasmanian residents because they cannot build railways in their area.

Regarding the Australian people, there is another very significant change, that is, Australia's per capita income has ushered in a significant increase.

As of January 1904, the per capita income of all states in Australia had exceeded £1, and even the more developed states like Victoria and New South Wales had an annual per capita income of £[-].

This year's income level has almost doubled compared to when the Principality of Australia was just established, and it can also confirm how Australia's industry and economy have experienced development during this period.

Although this income level is only less than half of that of the great powers, it is almost at the same level as that of ordinary European countries.

What's more, Australia's per capita income level is far from finalized, and it is still only in the growth period.

　[-]-word chapter, please support!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)