Chapter 216 The Development of the University

"Our current population is still too small. Even compared with the less powerful countries in Europe, we still have many disadvantages. If Australasia wants to become a powerful country, having a population of tens of millions is the minimum guarantee." Se shook his head and said: "In the new year, I hope that all departments can work together to carry out immigration introduction plans. British immigrants, German immigrants, Russian immigrants and even European immigrants are all our goals. I hope that Australia will The population of West Asia can exceed 10 million as soon as possible, and it has the real potential to become a powerful country. "

At any time, population is a very important resource for a country.

Looking at all the major countries in the world today, their populations are in the tens of millions, often tens of millions or even hundreds of millions.

This population brings a lot of development potential to these countries and is one of the fundamental reasons why they can become world powers.

A country with a population of less than 10 million, no matter how it develops, can only become a regional power, and it will be constrained by other countries in some aspects.

According to Arthur's development goals, if Australasia wants to become a powerful country, it must have a population of at least tens of millions.

If you want to strive to become a great power, you need at least a population of more than 20 million, or even 30 to 40 million.

Naturally, such a population target cannot be achieved in a short time, but efforts must be made now. The first step is to vigorously promote plans to attract immigrants.

In fact, Australasia's immigration plan is much ahead of Australia's in history.

The population of the entire Australian region has increased by more than one million in the past six years. The average annual population growth of two to three million is the best proof.

But this growth rate obviously cannot meet Arthur's expectations. Judging from the current needs of Australasia, the more immigrants the better, there is no need to have too many.

"Yes, Your Majesty!" Minister Walter nodded repeatedly, and other ministers also responded.

"Go on!" Arthur signaled.

"Your Majesty, although our population has grown, our per capita income has not decreased. As of now, the per capita annual income in the Kingdom is about 40 Australian dollars. Among them, the per capita annual income in Australia is 41 Australian dollars, and New Zealand's per capita annual income is about 41 Australian dollars. The per capita annual income in the Netherlands is 37 Australian dollars, and the per capita annual income in the New Guinea colony is 33 Australian dollars," Minister Walter continued.

Because most of Australasia's construction is located in Australia, Australia also has the highest per capita annual income.

In order to take care of the mood of the people in New Zealand, construction has also begun in the two states of New Zealand, but if you want to see the effect, I am afraid you will have to wait another year or two.

Not to mention the New Guinea colony. As the only colony in Australasia, New Guinea has not received much attention because Australasia is currently undergoing all-round construction.

In addition, more than one-sixth of the indigenous people in New Guinea have been sent to the country for construction, resulting in low income growth for the colonial population.

In fact, there is another factor. All minerals in New Guinea are state-owned, and the main source of income for the colonial population is agriculture.

This is an area suitable for agriculture, and the crop production here accounts for one-fifteenth of the total output of the Kingdom of Australasia.

Although this ratio is not that high, the population of the New Guinea colony is less than 40,000, and the per capita grain production is much higher than that of the mainland of Australasia.

Because of the lack of population in the colony of New Guinea, the royal government also promulgated certain policies to attract immigrants to encourage a small number of people to go to the colonial areas.

Everyone who went to the colony of New Guinea could obtain about ten acres of land, and could rent indigenous people from the colonial government for labor at a very low price.

If it weren't for the insufficient population, Arthur also planned to carry out crop cultivation in New Guinea and develop the New Guinea colony into a large granary of Australasia.

In fact, although Australasia has a huge land area, a large number of areas are desert areas or are not suitable for farming.

But the arable area of ​​the entire Kingdom of Australasia is actually quite large.

There are not many indigenous people currently used in agriculture in the kingdom. Even including the New Guinea colony, the number of indigenous people engaged in agriculture is less than 100,000.

Together with Australasia's agricultural population, more than 5.5 million tons of food can be produced for Australasia every year.

If you include the meat and dairy products brought by Australasia's developed livestock industry, this food is enough to feed more than 20 million people.

If the current agricultural population was not too small and the agricultural technology was not mature, the entire Australasian region would not even have a problem feeding hundreds of millions of people.

It is precisely because of the adequate food supply that the poor people in Australasia currently have enough food.

At least Arthur is confident that there will basically be no starvation deaths in the Kingdom of Australasia.

Since the establishment of the Royal Relief Committee, the living standards of the people under Arthur's rule have become better and better.

At least within the Kingdom of Australasia, the word hunger has become more and more distant to people, and starvation has even become a rumor.

In this era, as a monarch of a country, it is actually very simple to win over the people. Arthur understands this very well.

Just make a promise, a promise to make people well fed and clothed, and live a happy life.

Then, little by little, from scratch, to achieve it. As long as this promise is achieved, it will be recognized and loved by most people, and naturally win the hearts of the people.

Arthur gave the people of Australasia a good life, and these people would naturally support Arthur with all their lives to protect their good lives.

After Minister Walter finished his report, Minister of Health Willy stood up and reported on the situation of the Medical Department.

"Your Majesty, our medical work has also made significant progress. So far, there are a total of 14 large hospitals in the Kingdom of Australasia, distributed in all states and colonies of the Kingdom. We encourage civilian medical professionals to establish small clinics, and the plan for private hospitals has also achieved good results. At present, the number of small clinics and private hospitals that have been counted has exceeded 100, most of which are distributed in Australia and New Zealand." Minister Willy said with a smile.

The development of medical care has reduced the mortality rate of the Australasia population and significantly eased the medical environment in Australasia.

Coupled with the development of transportation, people can go to the hospital very conveniently. Coupled with the establishment of various small clinics and private hospitals, people's medical needs are well met.

"Your Majesty, there is another thing that must be mentioned. During this period of medical development, we were surprised to find that some medical skills from East Asia have a good alleviating effect on some conditions that we don't understand. They can even solve some difficult and complicated diseases better, which is not available in current Western medicine." Minister Willy seemed to have thought of something and said hurriedly.

Arthur immediately understood what Minister Willy said.

This is a medical system with a much longer development history than Western medicine. The reason why this medical system declined in later generations is that it was suppressed and many advanced medical skills and medical books disappeared in the development of history.

"Whether the medical skills are good or not is not something that can be said with words. Don't we have a lot of indigenous people? Try it on them first. If it is confirmed that this medical skill can cure many difficult and complicated diseases that Western medicine cannot cure, then it is a good medical skill. If it is confirmed that this medical skill is useful, then we don't mind cultivating and learning it extensively. In short, Australasia needs an excellent medical system, and we should also learn from the excellent things of other nations." Arthur is open to the development of the medical system in Australasia.

Perhaps the combination of Chinese and Western medicine is the most suitable medical development. In addition, during this period, many Chinese medicine knowledge has not been lost. Perhaps Australasia can also grow into a major Chinese medicine country.

After getting Arthur's attitude, Minister Willie was relieved. He was also curious about how far the excellent medical skills of other nations can go and what help they can provide for the growth of Western medicine.

The education industry in Australasia has also made significant progress in the medical field.

After more than six years of long development, universities in Australasia have also ushered in considerable development.

At present, Australasia has a total of six universities, three technical schools, and several primary and secondary schools.

The construction of primary and secondary schools has basically met the population needs of Australasia, and the per capita education level in Australasia has also grown to the junior high school level.

Then there are universities. Among the current six universities, three are in Australia and three are in New Zealand.

The three universities in Australia are Victoria University in Melbourne, University of New South Wales in Newcastle, and National University in Sydney.

The universities in New Zealand are the University of Auckland in Auckland, the University of Otago in Otago, and Victoria University of Wellington in Wellington.

Although the number of universities seems to be large, the only universities that can truly keep up with the international standards are the National University and Victoria University of Wellington.

In addition to these two universities, the other four universities have an annual enrollment of less than 400 people, all of which are relatively small public universities.

As the largest university in Australia and New Zealand, the National University of Australasia currently enrolls 900 people per year, and Victoria University of Wellington enrolls 600 people per year.

These various universities together can produce nearly 3,000 college students for Australasia every year, and are the most promising source of talent for Australasia.

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