Chapter 227: The New Cabinet, The New Plans
On June 19, 1907, the third day after the election, the first meeting of the new cabinet government officially began.
Since this cabinet had many new faces, along with changes in the positions of the old staff, this meeting was necessary, and Arthur personally presided over it.
For newcomers to the political scene like Agriculture Minister Mark and Transport Minister Lauren, they still needed more time to adapt to their positions and to understand the details of their departments.
Of course, for the new Prime Minister Walter, he too needed time to adjust to his role, as the Prime Minister is the one who coordinates the cabinet. He must manage the cabinet as efficiently as possible to successfully complete all tasks assigned by Arthur.
This meeting was held at Sydney Palace, attended by the Prime Minister and ministers of the cabinet, as well as their chosen deputies, the deputy ministers of each department.
Although the deputy ministers could attend the meeting, their main role was to assist their respective ministers, especially the newcomers, by providing departmental materials and information.
Before the cabinet meeting officially began, there was a formal ceremony: all members of the cabinet government swore an oath of loyalty to Arthur.
This was a tradition dating back to the time of Australia and was the best way to ensure that the cabinet members understood who they were working for.
Arthur, having seen such ceremonies many times, accepted the loyalty oaths calmly. After all the cabinet members had sworn their loyalty, Arthur spoke:
"Ladies and gentlemen, I am very pleased to see the establishment of the new cabinet government of Australasia. Once you become members of the cabinet, your actions represent the government and the nation. I hope all of you can remain true to yourselves, be loyal, and steadfast in maintaining the Constitution of the Kingdom of Australasia, cherishing all the people of the kingdom, and serving the royal family with fearless and firm belief to develop our great nation. I believe that by now, you are all familiar with the current status of your departments. Now, it is time to set new goals and make new plans for the country's development during your term."
Regardless of the situation, the new cabinet would definitely be different from the previous one under Prime Minister Evan.
The contrasting personalities of Prime Ministers Evan and Walter, as well as the current situation in Australasia, meant that policies would differ from before.
Once Prime Minister Walter took office, he was bound to make some changes. If he continued to follow the same actions as Prime Minister Evan, it wouldn't be a good situation for him.
"Let's have each department briefly report on their situation! Everyone should first understand the state of the nation, and then we can discuss specific plans," Arthur said with a smile.
This was primarily to allow the new Agriculture Minister and Transport Minister, as well as the newly appointed Prime Minister Walter and Minister Henris, to get acquainted with the situation. To formulate detailed and reasonable development plans, they first needed to understand the current state of their departments.
This segment naturally began with Pierre, the Minister of Industry, a veteran who had been re-elected two or three times.
"Your Majesty, the current state of the industrial department is good. With the help of the Germans, we have made up for the gaps in basic industries, particularly in the chemical industry, and solved the problem of insufficient basic industry," Minister Pierre said.
"Furthermore, our industrial scale is expanding rapidly. At present, we have more than eight large industrial zones, and the number of medium and small industrial zones has nearly reached fifteen," Minister Pierre proudly continued.
The industrial development in Australasia had been smooth, with progress being made without many obstacles.
With the aid of industrial equipment from Britain, support from Germany, and its own rich mineral resources, Australasia had become one of the world's industrial powers in just over seven years. Its steel production had even surpassed countries like Italy, ranking in the top ten in the world.
However, this did not mean that Australasia's total industrial scale had reached the first tier among the great powers.
Compared to the well-established European nations, Australasia still had many deficiencies and would need some time to catch up.
Nevertheless, the development potential of Australasia was visible, and its industrial growth was proceeding more smoothly than expected.
"At present, we have been vigorously cultivating domestic factories. Up until now, Australasia has more than one hundred private factories, including those for machinery, paper, cement, glass, timber, chemicals, and more. Some of these factories have already reached a certain scale and are able to generate consistent profits," Minister Pierre continued.
Although most of the smaller factories still needed subsidies from the industrial department, there were already factories that were profitable on their own.
These factories, big and small, producing various goods, filled the markets of Australasia and were seen as potential contributors to the nation's civilian industrial sector.
Of course, most military industries were controlled by Arthur, with a small portion being joint ventures between the royal family and the government.
At present, there were no private military industrial companies in Australasia, as Arthur's military factories and shipyards had technological dominance that no other companies in Australasia could match.
After the Industrial Department, the next to report was the Minister of Public Safety, Thomas.
"Your Majesty, everyone, our police training system has shown some initial success after a long period of development. Currently, Australasia has over 4,000 police officers spread across more than 300 police stations. Our police training system is capable of training over 200 police officers annually, which is sufficient to meet the security demands arising from our population growth," Minister Thomas reported.
"According to last year's statistics, there were less than 1,000 criminal cases across the Kingdom of Australasia in 1906, and less than one-tenth of those involved homicide."
While almost 1,000 criminal cases may sound like a lot, with a population of over 6 million, the crime rate was less than 0.001%.
Even compared to later statistics, this was an exceptionally low crime rate.
This could be understood, as chaotic order and an unstable environment often lead to higher crime rates.
But Australasia's environment was very stable. Even the merger with New Zealand was done through a peaceful referendum.
In addition, Arthur's emphasis on the lower-class poor had contributed to this. The Royal Welfare Committee annually provided large amounts of funding to help the impoverished citizens.
This was one of the reasons for the low crime rate in Australasia.
Of course, the current crime statistics mostly included only severe criminal cases. More common events like fights and brawls that attracted police attention were usually settled with a few words of advice.
However, crimes like theft and robbery were still strictly monitored by the Public Safety Department.
This was also Arthur's policy to create a positive environment for immigrants in Australasia. Theft and robbery were considered serious crimes, with severe penalties, including life imprisonment or even the death penalty in extreme cases.
After all, the Royal Welfare Committee had ensured that no citizen of Australasia would starve to death. In such circumstances, those who resorted to theft or robbery were mostly criminals motivated by greed and were beyond redemption.
Arthur nodded in satisfaction.
He was very pleased with the crime rate in Australasia. Despite the fact that Australasia did not ban guns, large-scale firearm use was not supported, and people living in remote areas were allowed to legally own hunting rifles to protect themselves from wild animals or other dangers.
After all, Australasia had vast barren lands, dense forests, and mountains.
These areas had not been fully explored and were home to many wild animals and poisonous insects.
Without hunting rifles for protection, the safety of people in suburban areas could not be guaranteed.
After the Public Safety Department, the Ministers of Education and Healthcare gave their reports.
Education and healthcare in Australasia were also developing smoothly. With the Victoria Prize addressing the need for skilled talent, the country's healthcare sector had been progressing smoothly, and hospital construction could now meet domestic needs.
Currently, excluding the Royal Hospital built by Arthur at Sydney Palace, Australasia had more than 15 large hospitals and over ten medium-sized ones.
Particularly in the capital territory, the most developed area in Australasia, there were two large hospitals and one medium-sized hospital.
Even in the more sparsely populated regions of Western Australia and South Australia, each had one large hospital and one small hospital.
Along with the growing number of private clinics, Australasia's healthcare issues had been largely resolved.
The first few large hospitals, along with the Royal Hospital established by Arthur, were home to many medical experts from Europe, bringing advanced medical standards to Australasia.
In particular, the Royal Hospital, although recently established, was designed for the royal family and high-ranking government officials, offering world-class healthcare standards and equipment.
The education sector in Australasia was also in great shape, with six universities meeting the basic needs of university students.
At the same time, the vast network of primary and secondary schools was the foundation of the country's educational development and was the key to increasing the literacy rate.
Many factories in Australasia had also set educational requirements for key positions.
Fortunately, immigrants from Britain and Germany had at least primary school education, with many even holding secondary school diplomas.
The immigrant group from Russia had relatively lower education levels, but these immigrants were more obedient and easier to govern.
Australasia also offered supplementary education for adults, which made it easy for most Russian immigrants to achieve at least a primary school education.
The main plan for the Ministry of Education was to upgrade the current six universities in Australasia to top-tier institutions, attract more European students, and retain them to contribute to the kingdom.
At the same time, the number of universities in Australasia was still too small and needed to be expanded by at least two or three times to meet Arthur's expectations.
Minister Andrew had little to report, as Australasia did not participate much in international affairs, except for exchanges with a few friendly nations. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs had little to do.
The Minister of Defense, Kent, briefly reported the number of soldiers and their current training status. The Ministry of Defense was in a unique situation, as it was part of the cabinet but reported only to the Royal Council and Arthur.
Next was the Minister of Finance, Roger.
The financial situation of Australasia was in good shape. Not only did the government have 230 million AUD in its accounts, but the fiscal revenue for the past six months had also reached a new high of 15.31 million AUD.
If this continued, the government's total revenue for 1907 could break 30 million AUD, marking the first budget surplus in history.
With total government expenditures of only 14.12 million AUD in the first half of the year, even including the construction of the northern railway project, the outlook for the second half of the year was very promising.
A government moving from deficit to surplus brought great joy to many ministers.
The improvement in government finances meant that departments would receive more budget allocations, making it easier for them to execute their plans.
Minister Henris had transitioned from a relatively low-ranking Agriculture Minister to a key member of the cabinet as the Minister of Public Welfare.
Though his responsibilities were completely different, years of political experience had allowed Minister Henris to quickly get accustomed to his new position and handle government affairs more smoothly.
In just six months, the population of Australasia had grown rapidly.
As of now, Australasia had a total population of 6.77 million, with 5.4 million in Australia and 1.32 million in New Zealand.
Clearly, Australia's population was growing much faster than New Zealand's, due to the larger land area and the original population base.
This was good news for the current Australasia, as Arthur's base was in Australia, and the stronger Australia grew, the more stable the unification of Australasia became.
Although the growing gap between Australia and New Zealand might cause some dissatisfaction among the New Zealanders, Arthur had strategies to handle this.
In addition to building large-scale infrastructure in New Zealand, allowing the people to feel the benefits of joining the kingdom, he also promoted the ideals of Australasians, gradually merging the Australians and New Zealanders into one people, eliminating any potential divisions between the two.
Next came the reports from the two new ministers, the Minister of Agriculture and the Minister of Transport.
First was the report from the Agriculture Minister, Mark.
Agriculture in Australasia was also progressing rapidly, thanks to the large amount of native labor.
With the substantial involvement of natives, the total cultivated land in Australasia increased by at least 1.5% annually, and food production saw impressive growth, reaching over 5.5 million tons in 1906, up from around 2 million tons at the beginning.
Such output could feed 20 million people, but Australasia still had plenty of arable land, which was a key resource for feeding an even larger population.
A noticeable difference now was the increased amount of land allocated to immigrants for farming.
Previously, each immigrant received three acres of land, but only about one-fifth of it was ready for farming, with the rest requiring the immigrant to clear and cultivate it.
However, Australasia's immigration policy had been upgraded. Each immigrant now received at least five acres of land, with one-third of it already arable, and they could hire natives at a low cost to clear the land.
In particular, immigrants to the New Guinea colony could even receive ten acres of land, and the colonial government would send natives to help clear the land, even allowing immigrants to hire natives for farming and harvesting at low cost. It was like becoming a farm owner.
There was a side note: the Dutch East Indies had also noticed the rapid development in Australasia and had made some adjustments to their native labor policies.
The frequency of native transfers from the Dutch East Indies had decreased significantly, with most of the natives sent being women or the elderly, who were not as effective as laborers.
Although their prices were lower, Australasia had no need to spend money on ineffective workers.
According to estimates, the Dutch East Indies had a native population of over 40 million. However, only a little over 1 million natives had been sent to Australasia, a drop in the bucket for the Dutch.
Therefore, the likely reason for the reduction in native transfers was that the Dutch were wary of Australasia's rapid development.
Perhaps they realized that continuing to send large numbers of natives would only speed up Australasia's development.
Once Australasia reached a certain level of development and had sufficient military strength, the Dutch East Indies, located to the north of Australasia, would certainly be the first to suffer.
Arthur understood the Dutch's caution, but it was too late for them to act now.
Based on the current progress of Australasia, the Dutch were not likely to be able to compete with them.
If the Dutch East Indies refused to continue sending natives, they would have to face the might of Arthur's loyal army.
This was an important matter concerning national development, and it could certainly tear apart the friendly relations between the two countries.
If the Dutch did not want to maintain the previous scale of native transfers, they would have no choice but to feel the strength of the Australasia army.
However, Arthur would not act until he had sufficient reason to do so.
After all, the Dutch East Indies was a legally recognized colony by the great powers, and Arthur didn't want to damage Australasia's image among them.
The reports from the Agriculture and Transport Departments were mostly based on the data. The transport infrastructure in Australasia was also progressing well. The industrial railway, which was expected to take ten years to build, was already more than halfway complete after just six years, and it would be fully operational in the second half of this year.
This would greatly alleviate the transportation issues between the eastern and western ends of the Australian continent, and the rich mineral resources of Western and South Australia could be efficiently transported to the most developed southeastern regions of Australia.
If the northern railway construction was completed, communication between Australia's states would also become much more effective, which would be a good thing for the development of Australasia.
In fact, if the northern railway succeeded, Australasia would have better control over its northern regions, which were very close to Southeast Asia, particularly parts of the Dutch East Indies.
This could also serve as a stepping stone for Australasia's expansion, as parts of Southeast Asia were crucial to its future growth.
(End of Chapter)
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