Rise of Australia

Chapter 261 Problems in Current Development
"Your Majesty!" Seeing Arthur walking slowly, everyone in the cabinet quickly stood up and said respectfully.

Arthur nodded flatly, sat on the main seat, and said with a smile: "Everyone, let's get started. We will restructure the first meeting of the cabinet."

Everyone heard the words, and then they sat down, but this time the seats had changed compared to the previous meeting, and several newly added cabinet seats were all ranked before the cabinet ministers.

It is worth mentioning that, between the cabinet ministers and the new seat, there is still a seat vacant, which is reserved for the future minister of royal affairs.

"Presumably you all know each other, so let's get straight to the point!" Arthur said: "Although our cabinet has undergone restructuring, our goal has never changed. Developing the country is our eternal theme."

"Prime Minister Walter, how many procedures are there for this meeting?" Arthur asked.

"Your Majesty, in addition to reporting our achievements in the past six months, dividing the positions of the cabinet government after the current restructuring is also an important issue. In addition, there are reports and improvements on some issues in the government's work, which are all today. What needs to be discussed at the meeting." Prime Minister Walter quickly stood up and introduced.

"Then let's talk about the division of duties in the current cabinet government after the restructuring." Arthur smiled and directly raised the most important topic for the cabinet ministers.

"Several newly added cabinet positions, the justice is in charge of the domestic judicial system, and the state courts of each state are also handed over to the justice. In judicial cases involving middle and senior officials, both the judicial system and the House of Representatives have enforcement powers. The House of Representatives The law enforcement system is responsible to the House of Representatives, and the justices are responsible to the cabinet government and the Royal Council. Do you have anything to say?" Arthur looked at the crowd and asked with a smile.

Seeing that everyone shook their heads with interest, Arthur continued: "In addition to being the archbishop, the archbishop of Australasia is also the head of the Kingdom Protestant Association, who coordinates and manages domestic Protestant affairs. But other religions besides Protestantism, They should also have the right to handle affairs within their church."

"As for the newly born minister of state, he is generally responsible for helping the prime minister handle state affairs. The House of Representatives theoretically has the right to supervise the cabinet government, but the execution power of the cabinet government lies with the Royal Council and must be approved by me. As for the remaining royal affairs Minister, who deals with affairs between the royal family and the government, and is accountable only to me."

"That's all for now. The most important thing right now is the country's development and the next steps of various departments." Arthur stopped the topic and said with a smile: "Talk about the government's work progress and encounters so far this year. It happens that everyone is here today, and they can brainstorm and solve problems when they encounter problems.”

Seeing that Arthur quickly ended the topic, everyone didn't dare to say anything more, and quickly focused on the new topic.

Although the development of Australasia is generally smooth, this does not mean that there will be no problems during the development process.

The ministers looked at the materials summarized in their hands, and thought carefully about the achievements made by their respective departments and the problems they faced.

"You non-departmental ministers should also listen carefully to the current problems and achievements of various departments. As a cabinet minister, even if you are not doing government work, you can offer some opinions, which is also a contribution to the country." Arthur looked at several candidates for the new position and said.

"Yes, Your Majesty." Several people nodded in agreement.

"Let's briefly talk about the results the government has achieved so far, first listen to the good news from the government, and then focus on solving our problems." Arthur ordered.

"Your Majesty, so far, our government's various developments are on the rise. The number of immigrants in the first seven months of this year has exceeded 42. At present, our total domestic population has reached 760 people. , the non-immigrant population increased by over 1000." Prime Minister Walter stood up and made a summary.

"The development of industry and agriculture has also been steadily improved. According to our construction speed, the Leonora Industrial Base is expected to be initially put into use at the end of 1909, and the first phase of construction of the industrial base will be completely completed in mid-1910, entering the second phase The second phase of construction is underway. If the progress is relatively smooth, we hope to realize the second and third phases of construction of the industrial zone in 1913 and 1916, and complete the entire industrial zone before 1918.”

Prime Minister Walter paused for a while before continuing: "Our fiscal revenue has also ushered in a steady increase. So far, in less than eight months, our fiscal revenue has exceeded 700 It is expected that the total fiscal revenue this year will exceed 4000 million Australian dollars."

"So far, our financial expenditure has been about 300 million Australian dollars, and the financial loss has been about 600 million Australian dollars. But this is because we have started the construction of three battleships, plus the construction of the Leonora industrial base. If If there is not much construction in the second half of the year, it is expected that our financial situation can still return to a state of surplus." Prime Minister Walter introduced.

The development and construction of Australasia has gone through eight years, and it has also been able to achieve a preliminary turnaround.

This state is still under the condition that the domestic construction has not stopped, which also reflects the results of the government's development for so many years.

Only with a sufficient budget can we do more things. At least for now, Arthur is still satisfied with Australasia's finances.

After a brief report, Arthur looked at the cabinet ministers and asked: "If you have some undecidable issues in your work, you can raise them now and the cabinet will vote to deal with them."

After a few seconds of silence, Minister of Agriculture Mark Radell first stood up and said respectfully: "Your Majesty, everyone. As of this year's development, our per capita arable land has reached about 2.3 acres. The total arable land The area is about 750 acres. It is estimated that our annual grain output this year will reach more than 700 million tons. Under the premise of meeting domestic consumption and strategic grain reserves, we should still have at least 300 million tons of grain for use for export."

Arthur nodded.The increase in grain production and the increase in per capita arable land are good news, and there is nothing to say about such good news, so Arthur nodded and continued to listen.

"But such a growth rate depends entirely on the use of a large number of indigenous people and the increase in the agricultural population, rather than the use of our agricultural technology and agricultural machinery." Mark Radell continued: "Take our current important grain-producing area New Guinea Looking at it, New Guinea has a lot of arable land and has a lot of rivers, which are very suitable for growing crops."

"We have an advantage in New Guinea, that is, because of the small population, we can achieve large-scale unified planting, and encourage qualified citizens to set up large farms in these areas, with unified planting and harvesting methods, using large machinery to Upgrade our agriculture. At present, many areas in Australasia can adopt this method, using a small number of agricultural population and a large number of machinery to produce more food, so that the saved agricultural population can be used in other fields, saving Our manpower costs and labor."

"At the same time, I think we should also vigorously support the establishment of the agrochemical industry and promote changes in agricultural technology such as fertilizer plants and synthetic ammonia technology. If most of our land can use more fertilizer technologies, then our food production will It should be able to rise by at least [-]%. At present, the experiment of tractors in a small area of ​​Sydney is very successful. I think it should be promoted and used nationwide in time to use machinery to drive agricultural production and change. If all conditions can be implemented, I will I believe that even if our available arable land no longer expands, there is hope that the grain output will exceed [-] million tons." After speaking, Mark Radell glanced around, then looked at Arthur with respectful eyes, waiting for Arthur's decision thoughts and decisions.

"Well, the Ministry of Agriculture has a good idea. Do you have any opinions?" Arthur nodded, asking for other people's opinions.

"Your Majesty, there is no problem supporting the chemical industry and agricultural technology, ammonia synthesis technology, and the corresponding factories. Our newly built Leonora Industrial Base also includes such factories and fields. We will build the Leonora Comprehensive Industrial Base. The purpose is to build technological factories involving all aspects of Australasia to improve the existing production methods in Australasia." Minister of Industry Pierre nodded first and said.

Such an idea has already been involved in the Leonora Industrial Base, which is why Minister Pierre nodded in agreement without even thinking about it.

"The Ministry of Finance is fine, Your Majesty." Roger the Chancellor of the Exchequer nodded, and said: "In terms of factories and agricultural technology, the Ministry of Finance can spend about 100 million Australian dollars to encourage the establishment of more factories in this area, and research and development. Corresponding agricultural chemical fertilizer technology. As for the large-scale use of tractors mentioned by Minister Mark, I think the one-time implementation is too much financial burden. It is better to conduct preliminary large-scale use tests in New Guinea. If private farmers want to buy If tractors are used in agricultural production, we can also provide certain subsidies to help tractors enter more private farms.”

Arthur nodded, this is indeed the best way so far.Although the cost of a single tractor is not too high, if it is widely used throughout Australasia, it is not affordable by the current government's finances.

The best way is to carry out large-scale promotion in important grain-producing areas like New Guinea, and encourage relatively large private farmers to use certain preferential policies to let them buy tractors by themselves.

As long as these farm owners realize the convenience that tractors bring to agriculture and can bring them tangible benefits, they will spontaneously purchase this kind of machinery without government encouragement to speed up the efficiency of their farms.

"Anyone else have anything else to say?" Arthur asked.

This matter is actually not a big problem, and the Secretary of Agriculture Mark himself has proposed a proper solution.

Coupled with the opinions given by the Ministry of Finance in combination with the current government financial situation, basically the agricultural problem has been properly resolved.

Seeing that everyone shook their heads, Arthur said: "Then let's go to the next department. Are there any problems in other departments?"

After a little silence, the Minister of Education, Richard Noble Chapman, stood up and said: "Your Majesty, the education department has a heavy task this year, but our budget is running out. The Ministry of Education requests to apply for at least A budget of AUD 500 million is used to expand the existing university and build two more universities."

"How is the work of the Ministry of Education going? How much is your budget for this year? Is it going to be spent so soon?" Arthur asked puzzled.

Generally, at the annual end-of-year summary meeting, the budget for the next year will be allocated to each department based on the situation of the previous year.

In particular, departments such as the Ministry of Education will receive additional attention from the government, and generally have an additional budget of about 200 million Australian dollars.

"Your Majesty, we are currently planning to expand the National University of Australasia and the University of Auckland and build them into the first and second universities in Australasia. The expansion plans of these two universities need about 100 million Australian dollars each, especially It is the national university of Australasia, which needs a budget of at least 100 million to 150 million Australian dollars to barely keep up with the progress of European universities." Richard, the education minister, explained.

"In addition, in order to reserve more technical talents for the Leonora industrial base, we have built a technical training school in Western Australia and South Australia respectively to train skilled workers for the industrial base. There are also nearby Sydney and Melbourne. The expansion of technical schools, these technical schools have cost a total of 200 million Australian dollars. The budget of the Ministry of Education this year is only 600 million Australian dollars. After excluding the normal maintenance costs of several universities, the current available budget of the Ministry of Education is less than 100 million. Australian dollars, there is nothing you can do to build a new university," Richard explained.

The Ministry of Education has indeed taken a big step this year, not only to expand the existing universities, but also to maintain them at the level of European universities.

At the same time, new technical schools and universities will be built to meet the growing demand for skilled workers and universities in Australasia.

At present, with the popularization of Australasian education policies, the per capita education in Australasia has reached the middle school level.

Although many people are half-baked out of education popularization classes, the Australasian government has done its best to raise the per capita education level to around middle school in this era.

Judging from the continuous emergence of various schools and universities in Australasia over the years, we can see the efforts made by the government and the education department on the educational environment in Australasia.

Arthur looked at Prime Minister Walter and Minister Roger, waiting for the opinions of the government and the financial department.

"Your Majesty, education is an important matter for the country, and the popularization of education is very necessary for our development in all aspects. If it weren't for our efforts in education, I am afraid that our industry will lack enough talents to develop to the current scale. Therefore, I think the work of the education sector is very necessary. The extra budget of 500 million Australian dollars is not much. Even if it is for the construction of universities, I think the budget can be expanded to about 800 million. This money should be enough to bring us The number of domestic universities has been expanded to ten, which is meaningful for our education work." Prime Minister Walter took the lead in speaking.

The ten universities are only a fraction of the number of universities in the great powers, but for Australasia, it is already the result of hard work.

If we can have ten universities, it means that thousands or even tens of thousands of college students can be trained every year, which will greatly fill the vacancy of middle-end talents, and even cultivate the seedlings of high-level talents for Australasia.

Among the thousands of college students each year, it is very likely that many outstanding scientists and various experts will be trained. These talents are very important for the development and construction of the country.

Although Arthur was able to obtain a certain number of senior talents every year with the Victoria Award, such self-cultivated talents are definitely more loyal than recruited talents, and they are also very handy to use.

Everyone turned their attention to Finance Minister Roger, waiting for the final opinion of the finance department.

Roger the Chancellor of the Exchequer smiled helplessly, and said: "Since the Prime Minister has said so, why does the Ministry of Finance not support it? Your Majesty, the Ministry of Finance can come up with a budget of about 800 million to 1000 million Australian dollars to come Help the education department to build more universities and expand more schools at the same time. But after the 1000 million Australian dollars is taken out, I am afraid that this year's financial situation will suffer losses again, and your Majesty, don't blame me by then!"

Before Arthur could speak, Prime Minister Walter hurriedly said: "Don't worry, Minister Roger. These budgets are used for education, and even a small loss is not a big deal. Everyone participated in this decision. Your Majesty also watched it personally, who would blame you?"

Arthur finally ordered: "Minister Richard, I hope that the extra budget can be used in the cause of education. When the education department has made achievements, you as the minister should take the lead. But I hope Universities and other schools are built without any shoddy work, students in Australasia should live in a safe and comfortable environment, not some dangerous work, understand?"

Education Minister Richard nodded quickly and made his promise.

I don't care too much about the cost of funds, but the quality of engineering and construction must be guaranteed. This is Arthur's bottom line for various constructions in Australasia.

Basically, the construction departments will hear Arthur's instructions, and they all agree very well on the surface.

At least Australasia has not had any incidents of inferior engineering, which makes Arthur feel very satisfied.

But if such a poor-quality project really happened, no matter who it was under, Arthur would never show mercy.

There is no room for any surprises in the development and construction of the country. If anyone dares to obstruct it, he is not only the enemy of the development and construction of the country, but also the enemy of Arthur and all Australasians.

"Is there any problem with other departments?" After giving instructions, Arthur also looked at other people and asked.

"Your Majesty, the Ministry of Public Security has several issues that need to be consulted with His Majesty." Minister of Public Security Thomas Cech stood up and said.

"The public security department has developed to the present and has a total of more than 600 police officers. Although it looks like a lot, it is still very small for the huge Australasia, and it cannot effectively maintain the law and order environment in any area of ​​the country. At the same time, because of the popularity of cars and the construction of various roads, I think it is necessary for us to establish a road police department to better manage the circulation of roads." Minister Thomas said.

"Our police station also often receives various requests and requests from the public. Many of these are just trivial matters, but because of the public's help, we have to do it. This is a waste of our police resources. So I think it's necessary to have an assistance police department that deals with these things, to differentiate it from the police in our Department of Public Security."

Before several police revolutions took place, although the police system has generally been born around the world, the specific duties of the police and the division of what the police should do are not clear.

The police in this era can be regarded as a composite of all the police, which has also led to the busy affairs of the few public security departments in Australasia, and the efficiency is not too high.

"Any specific ideas?" Arthur asked.

It is still necessary to specialize the policing of the police. Although this will be decades earlier than in history, it can greatly improve the efficiency of the Ministry of Public Security. Why not do it?

Moreover, the professionalization of the police does not have any technical content. At most, it is only a professional training for the police in a certain aspect, which does not require too much time and resources.

"Your Majesty, I think the police in our public security department should be divided into several categories. First of all, the first category is our law enforcement police. This category of police is responsible for handling illegal and criminal cases and maintaining our domestic security and order. This The first category of police officers should also be our most professional police officers, and their appointment requires a lot of training time and practice time." Minister Thomas said.

"The second type of police is what I call the police who maintain traffic order. This type of police only needs to have a certain degree of popularization of traffic laws and knowledge before they can take office. Their main task is to maintain traffic order on our domestic roads. There are no cases. law enforcement powers, and the possession and carrying of firearms is not permitted."

"The third type of police is responsible for residents' daily help, as well as some disasters in our daily life. These disasters include fires, floods, etc. Residents can turn to these police officers if they encounter difficulties. They will become the police department closest to the people. .”

Arthur nodded and looked at the others.

In the final analysis, this is the Ministry of Public Security's own business, so the other ministers chose to remain silent in a tacit understanding, and just wait quietly for Arthur's opinion.

"Your Majesty, I think such a professional division is very necessary. At least it can greatly improve the efficiency of the police, and even hope to reduce our domestic crime rate and case handling success rate." Secretary of State Kent said with a smile: " But the problem is that the scale of the public security department will definitely continue to expand. If the existing police force is divided into three categories, the number of police officers in any category will not be enough, and it will hinder the efficiency of the police.”

It has to be said that the number of traffic police and comprehensive police must be at least 1000 each in order to initially reflect their role.

In particular, the comprehensive police must not only have a sufficient number, but also be deployed in large and small cities in order to reflect their role of being close to the people and helping them.

Arthur nodded and asked Minister Roger: "Does the Ministry of Finance still have enough budget?"

Minister Roger responded: "Your Majesty, if it is only the expansion of the number of various types of police officers, I think that 50 Australian dollars can at least train thousands of various types of police officers. Even if it is necessary to establish a training institution for the three types of police, it will cost 100 million The Australian dollar is also perfectly adequate. A million Australian dollars is still completely fine, and the funds will even arrive tomorrow."

Arthur nodded, and said to Minister of Public Security Thomas: "Then I will give you 100 million Australian dollars, Minister Thomas. The specific classification of the police system, the establishment of training institutions, and the task of expanding the scale of the police will be entrusted to you. I hope We can see some results by the end of this year, and next year we can plan to deploy three police lines in all cities."

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(End of this chapter)