Rise of Australia

Chapter 335
The end of 1912 was relatively peaceful, and Arthur also experienced a dull November and December.

On Christmas Day in December, according to the usual practice, Arthur delivered a speech in Sydney Square, encouraging Australasians to make their own contributions to the development of the motherland, and to sincerely unite and love all their compatriots.

Of course, in addition to such relatively peaceful words, Arthur's speech also involved military aspects, such as the expansion of the navy and army in the next few years.

That Christmas evening, newspapers carrying Arthur's speech were distributed throughout Australasia.

In these papers, Arthur's speech occupied almost the largest space, and other news had to be reduced to the smallest type, and printed in some areas on the side and back of the paper.

Discourses such as rejuvenating the country through science and education, and strengthening the country through military affairs, also accompanied Arthur's Christmas speech, spread in the streets of Australasia.

It is said that after Arthur's speech, many families chose to let their children strive for scientific research.

Becoming an excellent scientific research worker has become the most honorable thing for many Australasian families.

Of course, Arthur's talk of expanding the army and navy within a few years attracted a lot of Australasian attention.

The salaries of soldiers in Australasia are among the highest in Australasia, and the military's usual benefits are also very generous.

Many people have started exercising in advance, striving to improve their physical fitness as much as possible before the next conscription, and were selected by the conscription office in Australasia.

Of course, another major condition for conscription review, the review of political background, cannot be changed.

This also makes some people who do not meet the conditions sad, and can only shift their goals to scientific research or other directions.

On major festivals like Christmas, the royal family generally distributes small gifts to the public.

This year's gift is a catty of beef and mutton and a liter of milk. In theory, all Australasians can receive it.

Of course, immigrants who have not yet obtained Australasian citizenship are also counted, and they can receive them from their villages, cities and governments at all levels during the half month from Christmas to National Day.

Although one person only has one catty of meat and one liter of milk, the population of Australasia is already quite large. This will cost more than 5000 tons of beef and mutton and more than 5000 tons of milk.

Because of the vast territory of Australasia, the time for people to receive supplies has also been extended until the end of the National Day holiday.

From Christmas in December to January 12, when the National Day holiday ends, people have more than half a month to collect their supplies.

If you fail to collect the materials within the time limit, you will be deemed to have voluntarily given up receiving the materials, and there will be no compensation for those who are overdue.

But this should not be seen in Australasian civilians.For ordinary people, a catty of meat and a liter of milk are not too much, but who is willing to give up free things?

Arthur and his family spent a happy Christmas in the palace, and also prepared a gift for William and Anna.

The gift to William was a specially made AS-1898 semi-automatic pistol model.

Because it is a model, there is no lethality, and there is no need to worry about the safety of William and the people around him.

The gift given to William also represented Arthur's intention, that is, to let his eldest son and heir develop a hobby for military weapons since he was a child, so that he can master the army more calmly in the future.

For Arthur, his heir must be capable enough to inherit the current Australasian system.

As the founding king of Australasia, Arthur's popularity and prestige in Australasia are naturally beyond doubt.

In Australasia in Arthur's time, the monarchy was absolutely beyond the reach of future monarchs.

Such a high degree of monarchy has advantages and disadvantages, and the requirements for the ability of the country's monarch are also very strict.

Since he is Arthur's heir, William must be capable in both culture and military strategy in order to continue to lead Australasia to a higher level.

It is worth mentioning that, because they are already three years old, William and Anna have already started receiving basic noble education since the second half of this year.

This made the happy time of the two little ones almost disappear. Apart from noble etiquette, most of the time was spent on extracurricular education.

Of course, Anna is fine. After all, she is the only princess in the country. She only needs to receive noble education and simple preschool education.

But William is different. William's long learning career has already started now. Although he is only three years old, there are already many private teachers teaching him some principles.

In addition to all kinds of knowledge, the traditional aristocratic riding and shooting skills are also within the scope of William's learning.

Of course, in order not to backfire, and to give William enough rest, William can get two days of rest a week.

The gift for Anna is an exquisite princess tiara.

This crown was specially made by Arthur's jeweler. It contains gold, silver, diamonds, emeralds, rubies, pearls and other jewels. It looks very delicate and beautiful.

The cost of these materials alone is as high as more than [-] Australian dollars.If you count the manual cost and its potential value, I am afraid that the value of this princess crown is as high as hundreds of thousands of Australian dollars.

And the pistol model for William will definitely not cost more than one hundred Australian dollars.The price difference between the two gifts is as high as a thousand times, which actually shows that Arthur has different attitudes towards the training of William and Anna.

For Arthur, Anna was not the first heir, and because she was a girl, of course she needed to be rich.

And William, as the country's first heir, has a heavier burden than everyone else, so he needs more rigorous training.

Arthur has even planned that after William graduates from high school and completes all knowledge education, he will be sent to a military academy for exercise, and even sent to serve in the army.Only by knowing everything about the army can you better control the army.

This also doomed William to not have a good life in the next 20 years.

His studies and ability training are constantly supervised by Arthur, and his external image and life are also supervised by the House of Representatives and the public.

With Arthur Pearl in front, if William wants to better control the country, he must do better and convince the Australasians.

A few days after Christmas, the time came to the last day of 1912.

Because the next day was New Year's Day in 1913, on the last day of 1912, the 1912 annual summary report meeting was held as usual.

It is also the familiar meeting room of the Sydney Palace, where the annual report meeting is held.

For Arthur, there is still a lot of good news this year.

First of all, the population of Australasia this year has reached 1211.6 million, the total population of Australia is 972.7 million, the total population of New Zealand is 223.7 million, the population of New Guinea is 9, the population of Australian Timor is 4.2, and the royal territory 2 people.

According to the current population growth rate, the population of Australia should exceed 1000 million by the time of the next annual summary report meeting.

With a population of 1211 million, Australasia ranks among the top 20 in the world, more than ten to be precise.

However, there is still a big gap compared with the great powers. The population of the great powers is tens of millions or hundreds of millions. This is also the background and strength of the great powers.

Judging from the current strengths revealed by various countries in the world, the current ranking of the top eight native populations of the major powers in the world is as follows:

No.1, 1.65 million people in Russia (immigration impact)
No.2, 9431 million people in the United States (decrease in immigration)
No.3, 6541 million people in Germany (immigration impact)
No.4, 5200 million people in the Austro-Hungarian Empire
No.5, island country with 5130 million people
No.6, 4410 million people in the UK (immigration impact)
No.7, 3970 million people in France
No.8, 3500 million people in Italy
From this population ranking, it can be seen that among all the currently recognized powers in Europe, except for Australasia, all of them are the top eight countries in terms of population.

The only country in the top eight in terms of population is not a big power, and it is currently an island country whose overall strength is almost the same as that of Australasia.

This also shows how important population is to the development of a country.

To become a regional power, it must have a population of tens of millions.To become a regional hegemon or a great power country, it must have a population of tens of millions.

The good news for Australasia is that Russia, a significant source of immigration to Australasia, has a large population.

More importantly, the Russian upper class did not pay much attention to the loss of population.In fact, this is also normal. After all, Russia's annual population growth is as high as 300 million, and even as high as 500 million in some periods.

Under such circumstances, it is only natural that the top Russian officials do not pay attention to the loss of hundreds of thousands of people who are less than 100 million people every year.

The current Russian immigrants have replaced British immigrants as the largest group of immigrants in Australasia in a year.

Compared with the previous year's annual summary report, the population of Australasia has increased by more than 160 million people in this year.

Among them, the newborn population is nearly 31, and the remaining nearly 130 million people are all immigrants from Europe.

Among these 130 million people, Russian immigrants reached 77, accounting for more than half of all European immigrants.

Under the Russian immigrants, there are 29 British immigrants and 17 German immigrants.

Because of the good relationship between Russia and Australasia, coupled with the relatively lax management in Russia.

Therefore, it is certain that even if a future European war breaks out, Australasia will still be able to attract a large number of immigrants from within Russia.

Of course, attracting immigrants may have to provide some benefits to the Russian government in exchange.

But for Australasia, which is already stockpiling strategic materials such as food and arms and medical treatment, it is definitely a good deal to exchange some of the arms and materials for population.

　Just one update today, please take a leave, and continue tomorrow.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)