Chapter 177

On January 2, 1904, the German Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and the Russian Empire successively issued statements expressing regret and grief for the typhoon incident in New Zealand, and announced their support for New Zealand to hold a referendum, allowing New Zealanders to decide their own destiny.

On January 3, the British Empire, as one of the protagonists, followed suit, stating that the British Empire was willing to comply with Queen Victoria's will and let New Zealanders decide their own destiny.

For New Zealanders, this was a great victory, and New Zealand seemed to be heading for a bright future.

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

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

This time, the referendum in New Zealand covered the entire New Zealand region, including all overseas islands over which New Zealand had sovereignty.

The referendum stipulates that anyone who is a permanent resident of New Zealand and has lived in all regions of New Zealand for ten years can obtain the right to participate in the referendum.

The current total population of New Zealand is as high as 1,073,400, and there are a total of more than 430,000 people who meet this condition.

The age limit plus the limit on residence time also greatly reduces the number of people who have the right to participate in the referendum.

The good news is that New Zealand has long given women the right to vote, but they do not have the right to run for election, only the right to vote.

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

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

Australia's most obvious achievement in 1903 was in terms of population. At the beginning of 1903, Australia's population was about 4,263,900.

By January of this year, 1904, Australia's population had exceeded 4,566,600, with a population growth rate of 7.1%.

This also brought the number of cities in Australia with a population of more than 500,000 to two, and Sydney and Melbourne became the two most dazzling pearls in Australia.

The industrial development in 1903 was not as rapid as in 1902, but the steel production reached 390,000 tons and 670,000 tons respectively.

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

In this year, Australia has also discovered a large number of mineral resources, the largest of which are coal and iron ore.

At present, Australia has proven iron ore reserves of up to 1.5 billion tons, and the total reserves of bituminous coal and lignite are as high as 13 billion tons.

Such rich magnesia iron ore reserves will become a strong support for Australia's industrial development, and also make Australia one of the major countries in coal and iron ore reserves.

It is worth mentioning that Australia has also proven more than 10 million tons of oil, most of which are distributed on the southeast coast of Australia and the west coast of Australia.

With the sales of Benz One all over the world, the demand for oil consumption is also increasing worldwide.

This has also led to the rise of the originally relatively cheap oil prices, and the prices of gasoline, diesel and various petroleum products have also become higher and higher, which has also allowed some countries and regions with oil to see the opportunity to make a fortune.

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

At present, according to rough statistics, Australia has more than 120 million sheep, tens of millions of cattle and other animals, and the population engaged in animal husbandry exceeds one million. It is a veritable animal husbandry power.

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. The annual income brought to Australia by animal husbandry products has exceeded two million pounds.

Australia has not fallen behind in the development of agriculture. 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 planting areas because of its extremely large land area.

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

In addition, the current industrial development in Australia has created a large number of urban populations and jobs, making large-scale agriculture possible.

This is good news for Australia, as Australia's agriculture can be transformed into a large-scale farm model in the future.

With the large-scale use 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.

Australia has also made good achievements in transportation.

First of all, the roads connecting the towns of all sizes in each state are centered on the capitals of each state. These roads are generally funded by the state government 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 capitals.

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

This also allows Australia, a vast trade country, to have a well-developed highway network, making it more convenient for Australians to travel.

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

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

The second is in terms of railways.

Up to now, Australia's industrial railways have been built for more than two years, and the results have been very good.

Of course, the main part of railway construction is still in the southeast of Australia, which is also the most populous and 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, Orbost, Melbourne, Geelong, Adelaide and Port Augusta.

The total distance of this section of railway is nearly half of the industrial railway. The reason for the rapid construction is that this area already has a relatively developed railway network.

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

In South Australia, it is not bad. The current railway has been built from Port Augusta to Adelaide and connected to the industrial railway part in the southeast.

However, the current railway construction in Western Australia only extends 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 railway section connecting Western Australia and South Australia, that is, the section connecting Perth and Port Augusta, will be the more difficult part of the entire industrial railway construction, because this area originally has very few railways, and almost all of them need to be newly built.

If it goes smoothly, this section of railway will be completed in four years. But if the progress is not smooth, the completion time of this section of railway may be postponed to five or even six years later.

But this is still shorter than the initial planned construction time of the industrial railway. At first, the industrial railway plan was to be completed in ten years, but now it seems that it will only take about six to eight years.

The only area that the railway plan did not radiate is Tasmania, which is also the smallest state in Australia with the smallest land area and the smallest population.

In order to take care of the feelings of the residents of Tasmania, Arthur specially started the construction plan of the Ring Island Highway in Tasmania, the main part of which is to connect the northern city of Smithton and the southern city of Hobart on Tasmania Island, as well as some small towns distributed in the east and west.

Compared with the highway construction throughout Australia, although the highway in Tasmania connects smaller villages and some farms, the scale is still only a fraction.

This is also the reason why the highway construction in Tasmania is so smooth. So far, Tasmania has completed the construction of the Ring Island Highway, and the two major cities of the state, Hobart and Smithton, have all been connected to the highway, and all small towns and villages are within the scope of the urban network construction.

This also makes Tasmania the most developed region in Australia for road transportation, which greatly attracts 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 has exceeded 15 pounds, and even in more developed states such as Victoria and New South Wales, the per capita annual income has reached 16 pounds.

This annual income level has almost doubled compared to the period when the Principality of Australia was just established, which can also prove how Australia's industry and economy have developed during this period.

Although this income level is 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 being finalized, and it is still only in a period of growth.

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