Chapter 114: Establishing the Political Suffrage Group (please subscribe!)
Arthur acted very quickly. In just three days, he convinced most officials of the New Zealand colonial government, and with a lot of "applause", he established a society that would have a far-reaching impact on New Zealand. political organization, political participation group.
The Suffragette is actually the combination of Australia's upper and lower houses, just with a different name.
New Zealand's political suffrage can be elected by New Zealand's political parties and civilians, and is elected by all New Zealand citizens with legal voting rights.
In terms of rights, the suffragettes did not have as much power as the House of Representatives, but they could also give their own opinions based on the current situation in New Zealand and submit them to the colonial government.
In addition to these, the suffrage group also has a more important right, which is to be able to supervise officials of all New Zealand factions and impeach officials when they have sufficient evidence.
Although it is basically impossible to threaten the officials appointed by the British, there are actually very few officials appointed by the British. Except for the governor and the garrison commander, there are very few officials appointed by the British personally. Most of them are appointed by the governor and the garrison commander, or directly from the New Zealand people. elected officials.
This also means that the newly established political participation group has great power among the local forces in New Zealand. It can even be said that apart from the governor, the garrison commander and the colonial government, it is the most powerful institution and group in New Zealand.
In order to prevent the newly established suffrage group from escaping from his control, Arthur also specially added a new article under the regulations for the establishment of the suffrage group, that is, the Governor of New Zealand can do so if he feels that the suffrage group is causing harm to New Zealand. Disband the suffrage corps without any explanation.
This order directly allowed Arthur to control the lifeblood of the suffrage group. Once the suffrage group showed a slight tendency to escape from Arthur's control, he would have no choice but to face the fate of disbandment.
Thanks to the fact that New Zealand was not a free government, no one objected to Arthur's conditions.
Of course, since Arthur proposed the establishment of the political suffrage group, those who are qualified to be selected for the political suffrage group will naturally not object.
The colonial government's announcement was issued very quickly. In just a few days, most New Zealanders in Wellington had learned about the establishment of the political suffrage group.
The vast majority of New Zealanders are not interested in the establishment of a political suffrage group, which is also an expected result.
After all, New Zealand's economic recession had just ended, and many New Zealanders were just recovering from not having enough to eat.
Under such circumstances, they really do not have much mood and energy to participate in politics.
Arthur was already prepared for this. After all, the political suffrage group was not prepared for ordinary New Zealanders, but for the Alliance Party.
To put it bluntly, the suffrage group is just a stepping stone for the Coalition to gain greater power. Only by giving the Union greater power could Arthur's plan to annex New Zealand be implemented.
It is indeed a good time to form a political participation group at this time. As New Zealand's other major political party, the New Zealand Labor Party itself has little desire to participate in politics.
The background of the establishment of the New Zealand Labor Party is actually that these workers protect their rights, which is similar to the party established by Australian workers.
The nature of the New Zealand Labor Party is slightly looser than that of the Alliance Party. What they pursue is only to improve the welfare of workers and protect their basic living conditions.
Coupled with New Zealand's economic recession in the past few years, these workers have been the first to bear the brunt.
Because factories produce a large amount of food and the finished products cannot be sold, factory owners' profits have been greatly reduced, and they have to deduct workers' salaries and reduce workers' welfare benefits. Although this led to a surge in workers' enthusiasm for participating in politics in a short period of time, they were actually unable to resist the wealthy factory owners and capitalist class in New Zealand.
In the face of livelihood, many people gave up fighting against factory owners and had to accept the cruel reality of being exploited.
At the same time, Australia's rise has also attracted the attention of some New Zealanders. On the premise that they cannot fight internally, many people also hope to join Australia.
Because Australia's newly established industrial zones and various factories all strictly implemented the policies formulated by Arthur at that time. Not only did the ten-hour work system be generally implemented, but workers' wages and due welfare policies must be paid on time.
Ten-hour working day! This is a policy that many European countries cannot enjoy.
In fact, although many European countries have formulated a ten-hour or even eight-hour working system, only a handful of them can actually implement it. Even the powerful countries are implementing a ten-hour or even longer working system.
This is also something that can't be helped. In this gloomy era, if you want to protect your own interests, you can only exploit the interests of the people at the lower level.
Although Australia's working system is just a ten-hour working system that is very common in Europe, at least Australia implements this system very strictly. All Australians work less than ten hours, and any overtime is paid double.
This alone has attracted the yearning of many New Zealand workers.
As an autonomous colony, New Zealand's various welfare benefits and systems are imperfect. Taking the work system as an example, New Zealand does not have specific requirements for workers' working hours, which gives factory owners and capitalists room to operate.
After all, the government has no working hours requirements. As long as we ensure that these workers will not die of exhaustion in the factory, doesn’t it comply with the government’s requirements?
After all, a large number of workers are exploited to death, starved to death, and exhausted every year in Europe.
But there is no way, this is the early twentieth century, for capitalists, what are the people? Just animals that can be exploited.
In fact, this is nothing. For New Zealand workers, gritting the teeth may be acceptable.
After all, this is an event that workers all over the world, even in Europe, are experiencing.
But Australia, which has the same roots as them and is not far away, has changed.
Although workers in Australia do not have high incomes, at least they do not have to worry about being oppressed. They receive full wages every month, and they can also enjoy double wages for holidays and other overtime work.
What does this mean for workers? Heaven!
This caused the New Zealand Labor Party to fall into a long period of depression, with many workers choosing to join the Coalition or compromise with capitalists in order to maintain their livelihoods.
Now that the political participation group is established, it can at least ensure that most of the seats will be won by the Alliance Party. Even if New Zealand Labor Party workers can win some seats, they may not really support the Labor Party.
First update, please support!
(End of chapter)