The Rise Of Australasia - Chapter 183

Chapter 183: Chapter 177: New Zealand Referendum

During the preparation for the referendum in New Zealand, Australia also welcomed its fourth National Day, which means that Australia has been established for a full four years now.

This year’s National Day celebration was not as grand as previous years, mainly because the Royal Palace and the Administrative Building were under construction and there was no military parade.

The main activities were flag-raising and government’s annual speech. Arthur did not come back to Australia for the National Day celebration.

After half a month of preparation, the referendum in New Zealand officially began on January 15th, 1904.

In order to ensure the fairness of the referendum, the New Zealand Colonial Government had deployed almost all colonial officials and stationed soldiers to firmly resist any unfair practices.

In addition, New Zealand invited officials from countries such as the German Empire, the British Empire, France, Australia, and the Kingdom of the Netherlands to serve as witness teams to ensure the fairness of the referendum.

Of course, these officials were actually colonial officials from the surrounding areas of New Zealand, which helped them to quickly arrive in the country.

However, these people were genuinely acting on behalf of their respective countries, carrying out their orders accordingly.

In order to ensure the fairness of the referendum, the voting period would last from January 15th to February 15th, a whole month.

During this time, New Zealand would invite the entire witness team to randomly inspect all towns in the country to ensure the fairness of the referendum.

There were three options for this referendum: New Zealand’s independence; continued rule by the British Empire as an autonomous colony; and joining Australia.

From these three options, the least popular one seemed to be New Zealand’s independence.

In the recent typhoon crisis, the people of New Zealand have seen the inadequacy of New Zealand’s individual strength.

If it weren’t for the help of Australia and European countries, the disaster relief efforts in New Zealand alone would have caused more casualties and losses.

This situation is actually a common malady worldwide, as small countries and regions are like meat on the hunter’s table, waiting to be divided by powerful nations.

Given New Zealand’s size, even if it successfully becomes independent, it would only be a joke.

Although its economy and industry are much better off than those of Asian countries of the same size, it still cannot compete with European nations.

Moreover, a fully independent New Zealand would be free from control of the British Empire, but it would also attract the attention of other powerful nations.

New Zealand’s size is not sufficient to resist any powerful nation, not even capable of fighting against secondary powers such as Spain and the Netherlands.

Such a result might not be better than remaining part of the British Empire, which is still the world’s first superpower and capable of protecting all its colonies.

With the anticipation of all New Zealanders, the referendum officially began.

Within the territory of New Zealand, hundreds of collection points were set up to collect the referendum choices of all New Zealanders.

In addition, the New Zealand colonial government would help organize collection efforts in remote areas, trying to allow as many eligible New Zealanders as possible to participate in the referendum.

Due to the small size of New Zealand’s land area, the referendum was only held for one month.

However, the counting process took another half a month, and the referendum results would not be officially announced until March 1st.

New Zealand’s referendum attracted the attention of some regions around the world. After all, besides the special case of Australia, this was also the first time that the inhabitants of a colony would have control over their destiny.

This even gave some colonial nations hope for independence, as they too wanted to instigate a referendum in order to gain independent status.

Unfortunately, their rulers did not have the evidence that Arthur had, and their actions were destined to fail.

European colonial countries that had not experienced World War I and World War II were absolutely unwilling to give up their colonies.

Even some smaller European countries considered their colonies extremely important, let alone the old powers that relied on colonies for huge profits and resources.

The politicians of these countries had even anticipated the harm that events like New Zealand’s would bring to their colonies, so they had already ordered their colonial armies to be on high alert to suppress any potential colonial rebellion.

At this time, the attitude of various countries towards the inhabitants of their colonies was still relatively cruel, and human rights for the colonial residents could only be a luxury envisaged half a century later.

Arthur did not appear in this referendum, but his representative, Joshua, represented Australia and inspected all cities in New Zealand on behalf of Arthur.

This referendum attracted enthusiastic participation from New Zealanders, and the constantly full collection boxes in various towns showed that a large number of people took part in the referendum, which would better reflect the true opinions of the New Zealand people.

Wellington, Auckland, Christchurch on the South Island of New Zealand, and Invercagill were the cities where the witness team visited most frequently.

That’s because these four cities were the most populous and relatively economically developed cities in New Zealand.

Among them, Wellington and Auckland are located in the North Island of New Zealand, Christchurch and Invercagill are located in the South Island of New Zealand.

However, the population scale and economic development of the two cities in the South Island were far behind those of Wellington and Auckland.

Wellington and Auckland in New Zealand both have populations exceeding 100,000, especially in Wellington, where the population has reached more than 150,000.

It is worth mentioning that when New Zealand was just separated from Australia, its colonial capital was Auckland.

It was not until 1865 that the colonial capital of New Zealand was moved from Auckland to Wellington, the southernmost part of the North Island of New Zealand where it could be seen across the sea from the northernmost part of the South Island.

But at that time, Wellington was still a backward town, and the decision to choose Wellington as the capital came from the advice of Australian parliamentarians (since Australian parliamentarians were relatively neutral and had good relations with New Zealand).

The reason for relocating the capital was not that Auckland had a bad geographical location.

On the contrary, Auckland and its neighboring cities were located in the plains, where they had the largest population and the most developed economy at the time in New Zealand.

However, after gold was discovered in the South Island of New Zealand, the New Zealand colonial government feared that the people of the South Island might develop a desire for independence and establish a new colony due to the discovery of gold mines, and the fact that the capital was located in the northernmost part of the North Island of New Zealand. So, the government decided to relocate the colonial capital to Wellington, which was closer to the center of New Zealand.

When Wellington became the capital of New Zealand, it was just a small town with a population of less than 5,000.

With the development of New Zealand by successive Governors, Wellington gradually grew into a city and became the second largest port city in New Zealand, second only to Auckland.

At present, Wellington has become the political, industrial, and economic center of New Zealand, surpassing Auckland and becoming the country’s largest city.