Chapter 111: Food Donation and Relief (Subscribe Please!)

Currently, the party with the most say in New Zealand is actually the Coalition.

First of all, most of the members of the Coalition are retired soldiers and officials of New Zealand, and even some current officials.

Although most of them are just officials with small positions, their say is indeed higher than that of the New Zealand Labor Party, which is composed of the vast majority of workers.

Secondly, New Zealanders and Australians are both new ethnic groups that are a mixture of mostly British immigrants and a small number of European immigrants. Although their ethnic names are different because of the different areas of residence, they can actually be regarded as the same kind of people.

Many New Zealanders envy the development speed of Australians today, and also envy the Australian monarch Arthur.

This is also the reason why they support the Coalition. Once New Zealand joins Australia, as it did decades ago, and continues to be a part of Australia, they can enjoy the development speed brought by having an excellent monarch like Australians.

For this reason, the Coalition even applied to the British Empire to join Australia shortly after the establishment of the Principality of Australia, but was rejected by the British government at the time.

This also made the Coalition lose some reputation, and even some New Zealanders were disappointed with the plan to unite with Australia.

But after Arthur became the Governor-General of New Zealand, the voice of uniting with Australia became louder and louder. The Alliance Party took advantage of the situation and rose to regain more voice than the New Zealand Labor Party.

Arthur looked at the data of the New Zealand colony thoughtfully.

At present, it seems that Australia has great hope of annexing New Zealand, and even New Zealand can be turned into a region of Australia and completely annexed.

But there is a problem. Arthur cannot directly encourage New Zealanders. The problems of New Zealand have to be solved by New Zealanders themselves.

In the case that it is not convenient for Australian forces to directly participate, the Alliance Party seems to have become a good force. It is not only a political party with voice in New Zealand, but also a force that tends to unite with Australia.

Thinking of this, Arthur decided to find a time to meet with the leader of the Alliance Party and encourage New Zealanders in disguise through the Alliance Party.

On April 7, 1902, after more than ten days of investigation and statistics, the Royal Relief Committee finally determined the first round of relief plan in New Zealand.

Compared with Australia's relief plan, New Zealand's relief plan is more like a combination of the first and second rounds of Australia's relief plan.

The Royal Relief Committee will provide a five-pound subsidy to all families with an annual income of less than thirty pounds throughout New Zealand, and provide them with new job opportunities.

So where do the jobs come from? In addition to the jobs needed for various factories, construction and facilities in New Zealand, Arthur also provided these New Zealanders with a new option, which is to go to Australia to work.

Australia is not far from New Zealand, and it is only more than two days or three days' voyage.

For people who can't find a job in New Zealand, going to Australia to work is also a good choice.

Just getting the colonial government to agree to this policy took Arthur a lot of thought.

However, the effect is still very good. Under the suppression of Arthur's identity as the governor and the threat of the guards next to him, the colonial government still agreed to this proposal very simply.

Arthur did this for a purpose. Letting some New Zealanders go to Australia to work can also strengthen the connection between New Zealand and Australia.

These New Zealanders who go to Australia to work can also tell their families and relatives in New Zealand about their experiences in Australia during the holidays every year, so that more people will yearn for Australia.

Under the subtle influence, do we still need to worry about the problem that New Zealanders do not agree to merge with Australia?

For those who go to Australia to work, if New Zealand and Australia can merge into a unified country, their work will be smoother.

After a long period of development, New Zealand joining Australia will be a happy thing for these people.

New Zealanders are not very receptive to going to Australia to work, after all, this means leaving their homes and going to another country.

Moreover, Australia's per capita income is not high. Although the income of most jobs has exceeded the per capita income, it is only about 11 or 12 pounds, which is similar to the income of some jobs in New Zealand.

But they are still very welcome to the relief funds of the Relief Committee. In just three days, thousands of low-income New Zealanders in Wellington alone received relief from the Royal Relief Committee.

Expanding the scope to the whole of New Zealand, about 8,000 people received relief, and the number is still growing wildly.

As the saying goes, "A man who eats someone's food will be soft-hearted, and a man who takes someone's money will be short-handed." After receiving relief from the Royal Relief Committee, these New Zealanders welcomed Arthur and the committee members more, and even began to spread Australia's deeds spontaneously.

This was something Arthur had not expected. Under the spontaneous propaganda of these New Zealanders who received relief, more and more New Zealanders have a good impression of Australia, and the support for the Coalition Party is also increasing.

There are even many New Zealanders who have begun to discuss the possibility of Arthur becoming their monarch, which is enough to show that Arthur is already very popular in New Zealand.

In this case, Arthur doesn't mind adding some effort.

Under Arthur's instruction, the Royal Relief Committee added another item to its relief plan, which was to give food to low-income people.

Because there was also a five-pound fund, the food given was not much, only a large bag of flour and five pounds of mutton.

Because New Zealand's animal husbandry was also very developed, it was easy to buy enough relief food.

Especially beef and mutton, the price of meat in New Zealand is very cheap, especially under large-scale purchases.

Therefore, the newly added relief plan did not actually cost too much money. On the basis of the original, it only cost less than one pound per person.

But this did win the favor of New Zealanders again.

The relief plan that not only gave money and food, but also provided jobs was something that these New Zealanders had never encountered.

As the saying goes, there is no harm without comparison. Even though the New Zealand colonial government has made great efforts for New Zealand's economic recovery, in front of Arthur's relief plan of giving money, food and jobs, New Zealanders instantly felt that their government and officials were not good enough.

The third update, please support! Let's completely annex New Zealand. After consulting a lot of information, I found that this is something that can be done. New Zealand and Australia share the same roots, and there is a high degree of recognition between the two countries. In addition, New Zealand is not independent, so it is still feasible.