The Rise Of Australasia

Chapter 393: Chapter 334: 1913

By the end of 1912, life was relatively peaceful, and Arthur experienced a calm November and December.

On Christmas Day in December, as was customary, Arthur gave a speech in Sydney Square, encouraging Australasians to make their own contributions to their country's development and sincerely unite to protect all their compatriots.

Of course, besides these more peaceful words, Arthur's speech also touched on military matters, such as the plan to expand the navy and army once again in the coming years.

That night on Christmas Eve, newspapers printed Arthur's speech and circulated it nationwide throughout Australasia.

In these newspapers, Arthur's speech took up nearly the largest space, with other news being reduced to the smallest font, printed on the side and back of some sections of the paper.

The slogan "National strength lies in education and a powerful military" accompanied Arthur's Christmas speech and spread throughout the streets and alleys throughout Australasia.

It was said that after Arthur's speech, many families chose to encourage their children to strive towards the path of scientific research.

Becoming an outstanding researcher became the most glorious thing for many Australasian families.

Of course, Arthur's statement that the army and navy would be expanded in the next few years attracted the attention of many Australasians.

Australasian soldiers' salaries were the highest in the country, and the welfare benefits during peacetime were also very generous.

Many people had already started exercising in advance to improve their physical fitness as much as possible before the next recruitment so that they could be selected by the Australasian recruitment office.

Of course, the other major condition for recruitment, the political background check, cannot be changed.

This also saddened those who did not meet the requirements and had to shift their struggle goals to scientific research or other directions.

On major holidays like Christmas, the royal family usually gives small gifts to the public.

This year's gift was a pound of beef and mutton and a liter of milk, which theoretically all Australasians could receive.

Of course, immigrants who had not yet obtained Australasian citizenship were also included, and they could receive theirs from the country's municipalities, cities, and governments at various levels from Christmas to National Day, which lasted for half a month.

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Although each person only received a pound of meat and a liter of milk, the number of people in Australasia was not small, and the total expenditure on these gifts would be more than 5,000 tons of cattle and sheep meat and 5,000 tons of milk.

As Australasia is vast, the time for the public to receive these supplies has also been extended till the end of the National Day holiday.

From Christmas Day in December to the end of the National Day holiday on January 17th, the public had half a month to collect their supplies.

Those who failed to collect their supplies on time were deemed to have voluntarily given up collecting them, and there would be no compensation after the deadline passed.

However, this should not be seen among the Australasian commoners. For commoners, a pound of meat and a liter of milk might not be much, but who would be willing to give up free stuff?

Arthur and his family had a pleasant Christmas at the palace and prepared a gift for William and Anna Miller.

William's gift was a specially made AS-1898 semi-automatic pistol model.

Since it was a model, it had no killing power and there was no need to worry about William's or anyone else's safety around him.

By giving such a gift to William, Arthur showed his intention to cultivate his eldest son and heir's interest in military weapons from a young age, enabling him to take control of the army more comfortably in the future.

For Arthur, his successor must have exceptional abilities to inherit the current Australasian system.

Arthur, as the founding monarch of Australasia, was naturally unquestionable in terms of the respect and prestige he held among the people.

The absolute authority of the monarchy during Arthur's reign in Australasia was something that future monarchs could not match.

Such a high level of authority had its advantages and disadvantages, and the requirements for the ability of the national monarch were also very strict.

As Arthur's heir, William needed to have abilities in both literary and martial arts to lead Australasia to greater heights.

It is worth mentioning that because William and Anna Miller had already reached the age of three, they began to receive basic noble education in the second half of the year.

This left the two little ones with little leisure time. Besides noble etiquette, most of their time was focused on extracurricular education.

Of course, it was not so bad for Anna Miller, as the country's only princess, all she needed was basic noble education and simple preschool education.

However, it was different for William. William's long academic journey had already begun, and although he was only three years old, he already had several personal teachers who were imparting some wisdom to him.

In addition to various knowledge, traditional noble equestrian and shooting skills were also part of what William needed to learn.

Of course, to avoid overtraining and to give William enough rest, he was allowed two days off a week.

Anna Miller's gift was an exquisite princess crown.

The crown was specially crafted by a jeweler for Arthur and contained gold, silver, diamonds, emeralds, rubies, pearls, and other precious gems, making it a very intricate and beautiful piece.

The cost of these materials alone totaled more than 100,000 Australian dollars. If the labor and potential value were also considered, the value of this princess crown would likely be several hundred thousand Australian dollars.

As for William's pistol model, the cost would not exceed 100 Australian dollars. The price difference between the two gifts was thousands of times, which also showed Arthur's different attitudes towards grooming William and Anna Miller.

For Arthur, Anna was not the first heir, and being a girl, she naturally needed to be pampered.

As for William, being the first heir to the country, he bore more responsibility than anyone else, and therefore required a more rigorous upbringing.

Arthur had even planned that after William graduated from high school and completed all his education, he would send him to a military academy for training, and even to serve in the military. Only by knowing everything about the military could he better control it.

This meant that William was destined to have a hard time in the next twenty or so years.

His academic achievements and capacity building were constantly supervised by Arthur, and his public image and life were also monitored by the House of Representatives and the people.

With Arthur as a shining example, to better control the country, William had to do even better and win the trust of the Australasian people.

Within a few days after Christmas, it was the last day of 1912.

As the New Year's Day of 1913 would be the day after, the annual summary report conference of 1912 would be held on the last day of 1912 as usual.

It was the familiar conference room of Sydney Palace. The annual report conference was held here.

For Arthur, there was quite some good news this year.

First of all, the population of Australasia this year reached 12.116 million, with a total population of 9.727 million in the Australian region, 2.237 million in the New Zealand region, 90,000 in New Guinea, 42,000 in Australian Timor, and 20,000 in the Royal Territory.

According to the current population growth rate, the Australian region's population should break through 10 million by the time of the next annual summary report conference.

The 12.11 million people of Australasia can rank among the top 20 in the world, precisely around ten or so.

But compared with the powerful nations, there is still a big gap. The population of powerful countries can be tens or hundreds of millions, which is the foundation and strength of those countries.

According to the strength revealed by the countries around the world at present, the ranking of the populations of the top eight countries in the world now is:

First place, Russia Nation 165 million people (affected by immigration).

Second place, United States 94.31 million people (decreased immigration).

Third place, Germany 65.41 million people (affected by immigration).

Fourth place, Austro-Hungarian Empire 52 million people.

Fifth place, Island Nation 51.3 million people.

Sixth place, United Kingdom 44.1 million people (affected by immigration).

Seventh place, France 39.7 million people.

Eighth place, Italy 35 million people.

From this ranking, it can be seen that apart from Australasia, all the other recognized powers in Europe are among the top eight countries in terms of population.

The only powerful non-power country among the top eight in population is Island Nation, which is now similar to Australasia in terms of comprehensive strength.

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

To become a regional powerhouse, one must have tens of millions of people. To become a regional hegemon or a powerful country, one must have tens of millions of people.

There is good news for Australasia: one of Australasia's main sources of immigration, Russia Nation, has a large population.

More importantly, the upper echelons of Russia Nation are not too concerned about the loss of population. This is actually normal, given that the population of Russia Nation grows by two to three million each year, and even four to five million during some periods.

In this context, the loss of several hundred thousand to less than a million people each year overseas is not a concern for the Russian government.

At present, Russian immigrants have replaced British immigrants as the largest group of immigrants in Australasia in a year.

A total of 1.6 million people have been added to the population of Australasia during this year compared to the annual summary report of the previous year.

Of these, nearly 310,000 are newborns, while the remaining nearly 1.3 million are all immigrants from the European region.

In these 1.3 million people, Russian immigrants account for 770,000, making up more than half of all European immigrants.

Following Russian immigrants are 290,000 British immigrants and 170,000 German immigrants.

Due to the good marital relationship between Russia Nation and Australasia and lax management in Russia Nation's domestic affairs,

It can be stated with certainty that even if the European War breaks out in the future, Australasia will still be able to attract a large number of immigrants from Russia Nation.

Of course, some benefits may have to be offered to the Russian government if immigration is to be attracted in the future.

But for Australasia, which has been stockpiling strategic supplies such as grain, armaments, and medical care, exchanging some armament supplies for population is absolutely worthwhile.