The Rise Of Australasia - Chapter 270

Chapter 270: Chapter 244: Annual Report Meeting on New Year’s Day

Fortunately, after a period of adaptation, the soldiers’ aim had improved significantly.

Several shells hit the designated area one after another, putting a bright smile on General Makarov’s face.

Although the hit rate of the shells was a bit low at first, it was not bad for the soldiers who were experiencing such warships for the first time.

If they hadn’t rushed this time, they could have prepared a scrapped fishing boat to test the destructive power of the firearms.

However, the power of the 283mm main gun made in Germany has already been tested. Although it is not as powerful as the firepower of the Dreadnought-class battleship, it ranks among the best in the old battleships currently in service.

Overall, this test made General Makarov very satisfied. He even secretly decided that if the domestic finances improve, he must promote the navy to continue purchasing Australasian Monarch-class battleships.

Only this level of new battleship would play a decisive role in future naval battles.

If the Pacific Squadron is equipped with two Monarch-class battleships, the Island Royal Navy would never be a match for the Russian Navy, at least until the number of dreadnoughts is balanced.

After staying in Australasia for a few days, General Makarov returned to the Far East Region, citing his busy schedule.

Of course, the Russian navy soldiers who came with General Makarov did not return. Their next task is to familiarize themselves with all the equipment on the Peter Pavlovskiy battleship so that they can form combat capabilities more quickly after the battleship is delivered.

After the war ended, all departments in Australasia were very busy. After all, it was already nearing the end of 1907, which meant the annual government summary was coming.

Although many positions still had familiar faces, the Prime Minister had already changed, representing a new government. The new government also needed to show their achievements and prove that they were not worse than the previous government.

Especially for the new Prime Minister Walter and the two new ministers, they need to demonstrate their achievements and capabilities since it was related to whether they could successfully be re-elected in the next cabinet government.

Compared to these busy cabinet officials, Arthur’s life was much more relaxed.

There are currently no major issues in Australasia that require Arthur’s personal decision. Based on the established development goals, ministers only need to make detailed plans and execute them.

This left Arthur with plenty of spare time to accompany his family to enjoy the flowers, view the scenery, and travel around Australasia.

Arthur’s royal financial group’s assets had already exceeded three hundred million pounds, which meant that even if Arthur did nothing, he could still get tens of millions of pounds of pure income each year.

Nothing could be more relaxing than this leisurely and happy life, at least that was what Arthur thought.

Of course, the exchanges between Arthur and Queen Mary have not decreased either. Every night, Arthur would experience the scenery of two peaks, a canyon, and a dense forest, as well as the cheerful and pleasant bird sounds.

The war is now over, and Australasia will enter a relatively stable development period.

Moreover, Arthur’s position is stable, and he doesn’t need to engage in any intrigues with the government.

This also gives Arthur enough mood and time to explore the Human Origins Program and breed an excellent heir for himself and the royal family.

After all, a crown prince is still very important for the stability of the country. Even though Arthur is still young, the issue of succession must be put on the agenda.

After spending more than a month in such a happy and relaxed manner, time quietly came to 1908.

On January 1, 1908, the New Year’s Day arrived.

European countries attach great importance to New Year’s Day, and each country also has different New Year’s customs.

Most people in Australasia are British immigrants, so New Year’s Day in Australasia is more British.

If you were in the countryside of Australasia, you could see people rushing to draw water from the well on this day, which is a British New Year’s custom: drawing well water.

According to British customs, people generally believe that the person who gets well water first on New Year’s Day is lucky, and the first bucket of water is also known as auspicious water.

In addition to the well-water-drawing custom, British people also like to have wine in their bottles and meat in their cabinets before New Year’s Day.

People generally believe that if there is no wine or meat left before New Year’s Day, the new year will be a poor year.

Therefore, you can see that in Australasia, wine and meat are very popular before New Year’s Day and are basically in short supply.

After all, in addition to the tradition of having wine and meat leftovers, the celebration and cuisine on New Year’s Day are also a major reason for the consumption of wine and meat.

However, Arthur and the cabinet officials were not so lucky.

Due to the previous data collection taking too long, the government’s annual report meeting originally scheduled for December 31, 1907, had to be postponed to the second day, the first day of the New Year.

After all, government affairs are most important, so cabinet officials and Arthur can only be forced to give up their New Year’s Day rest.

Fortunately, if the report meeting can be held faster, it is still possible to return before the evening and catch up with the celebration at night.

In order not to delay the evening celebration, Arthur directly set the meeting location at the Sydney Palace Meeting Room, and the reunion with his family can be held in the banquet hall after the meeting is over.

At eight o’clock in the morning, when there are cheers across Australasia, the annual report meeting of the Cabinet Government officially begins.

For the cabinet officials, delaying the meeting for one day is also beneficial as they obtain more time to organize the information at hand and carefully ponder the possible questions and answers from Arthur.

Of course, the most critical is the following plan, the rationality of the plan, and the completion rate of the plan which are also the essential factors determining their performance in the next year.

After a round of useless nonsense and opening remarks, the formal reports from various departments begin.

Prime Minister Walter takes the lead in summarizing. Although a war broke out in the second half of the year, it had no impact on the development of Australasia. Instead, it promoted the development of the military industry in Australasia.

The summary by Prime Minister Walter can be condensed into one sentence: Just like before, every industry in Australasia was booming.

After the general summary, it is time for detailed speeches by the ministers of each department.

First is the industrial sector, the industrial growth of Australasia has not slowed down and still maintains a high level.

Of course, this is all thanks to the ongoing national construction and the Benz Car Factory in Australasia.

Whether it is the various constructions nationwide or the Benz Car Factory, every year a large amount of steel is consumed.

Currently, Australasia’s annual iron production output has reached more than 150,000 tons, while the steel production output has reached 103,000 tons.

The industrial scale of Australasia is currently first-rate among other countries and has long surpassed the European second-rate countries like the Netherlands and Portugal.

More importantly, due to the support from Germany, Australasia has gradually made up for the shortcomings of insufficient basic industries.

There has also been significant progress in the chemical industry. Currently, Australasia has dozens of chemical factories.

Compared to the previous year, the number of industrial zones in Australasia has not increased. However, the number of workers in the industrial zones has increased by more than 30,000, and the number of indigenous people in industrial zones has increased by tens of thousands as well.

With so many indigenous people engaged in labor, it is impossible for industries not to flourish.

Of course, this can only happen on the premise that Australasia has abundant mineral resources.

If Australasia did not have sufficient mineral resources, even if it had a population of hundreds of millions, it could never have such a large industrial scale.

After obtaining Timor, the reserves of gold, manganese, chromium, tin, and copper mine in Australasia have increased significantly.

In addition to the abundant mineral resources in Australasia, the trouble for other countries is the lack of mineral resources, while the trouble for Australasia is that the resources are distributed too widely, and it’s hard to decide which area to prioritize mining.

Australasia’s population has also seen considerable growth. Currently, the main immigrant groups in Australasia are from Britain, Germany, and Russia, accounting for 31%, 30%, and 27% of the total annual immigration, respectively.

There are as many as 400,000 immigrants from these three countries alone each year. Together with immigrants from other countries, the total number of immigrants in Australasia in 1907 exceeded 450,000.

In addition to immigration, the local birth population is also a significant factor in population growth.

With the various government policies encouraging population growth, 1907 saw explosive growth in the native population of Australasia.

Of course, besides enacting various policies to encourage childbirth, the increase in per capita income is also an essential factor in the large population growth.

According to the Ministry of Civil Affairs statistics, 1907 saw the birth of more than 183,000 newborns in Australasia while the death toll was more than 30,000.

Adding the number of immigrants, Australasia’s total population growth in 1907 exceeded 600,000.

This has raised Australasia’s population from the beginning of 1907 at 65.5 million to 71.5 million.

Currently, among all the population in Australasia, British descendants account for 73%, German descendants account for 14%, and Russian descendants account for 9%, with the rest being the population from other European countries.

Because the British descendants hold the majority, there is not much opposition when Arthur proposed the concept of the Australian nation.

This also led to many immigrants from Europe being more willing to accept the concept of the Australasian nation, as their own national proportion does not occupy an advantage.

Moreover, various welfare policies of Australasia are aimed at the Australasian people, which forced many to admit they are Australasian.