Chapter 115 Senate Group Meeting (Please subscribe!)
On April 23, 1902, after a ten-day election period, the specific list of the first Senate Committee was finally released.
This time the suffrage group has a total of one hundred seats, and all New Zealanders of adult age can participate in the election.
Although the response in New Zealand was not strong, it still attracted hundreds of New Zealanders to participate in the election.
However, these individual candidates obviously do not have the advantage of running for political parties. Most of the seats are occupied by political parties, and less than ten are actually left for individual candidates.
In terms of political parties, the Alliance Party has a great advantage this time. Perhaps because the Relief Committee brought by Arthur did achieve many benefits, the Alliance Party became more popular in New Zealand, and many people also had a favorable impression of Australia.
Of the 100 seats, the Alliance Party occupies most of them, more than 70 seats. After deducting the seats won by individual candidates, there are less than 20 seats left for the Labor Party.
The gap in seats already provides a clear indication of the current popularity of the Coalition and New Zealand Labor in New Zealand.
Arthur didn't even operate behind the scenes, it was entirely the result of New Zealanders' own election.
With the successful election of the political participation group, the first meeting of the political participation group also came soon.
Arthur also briefly attended the meeting and appointed two deputy speakers of the Senate, namely Grant Wilson, leader of the Alliance Party, and Andy Rimmer, leader of the New Zealand Labor Party.
The choice of Andy Rimmer as one of the deputy speakers of the Senate, in addition to checks and balances, may not be due to the fact that there is really no one in the Senate.
Those individual candidates were all New Zealand civilians before, and it would be impossible to calm the scene by letting them become the deputy speaker.
Apart from those individual candidates, the rest are members of the Alliance Party and the New Zealand Labor Party.
Putting Grant Wilson's men in Grant's position would have been insulting to Grant and inconsistent with Arthur's intent to win over the Unionists.
Then we can only ask Andy Rimmer, the current leader of the New Zealand Labor Party, to supplement this number. Anyway, the deputy speaker actually does not have much power, and the actual power of the suffrage group also comes from Arthur.
With the support of the two deputy speakers and the witness of Arthur, the Senate successfully held its first meeting and discussed the next decision of the Senate.
It is said to be a decision-making, but in fact it is just a discussion on the scope of the Senate's capabilities and next steps.
Arthur gave the Senate the right to advise the colonial government and supervise all New Zealand officials.
These rights, if implemented well, are absolutely huge.
But how to implement it and the method of implementation need to be discussed in more detail.
Because most of the seats were controlled by the Alliance Party, the political suffrage group quickly adopted a strategy that recommended that the government strengthen its ties with Australia and improve the public's goodwill towards Australia.
Although the New Zealand Labor Party and those individual candidates do not understand the purpose of this, it does not prevent them from agreeing with the strategy proposed by the Coalition.
After all, strengthening ties with Australia is also beneficial to New Zealand. At least Australia's Crown Relief Committee has also implemented some relief policies in New Zealand. For New Zealand Labor Party workers and these New Zealand individuals, the benefits definitely outweigh the disadvantages.
They can also clearly see that it is impossible for New Zealand to achieve rapid rise relying on its own development alone. It is absolutely impossible to even imitate the development model like Australia. Because Australia has the support of Arthur, as well as technical and financial assistance from the United Kingdom and Germany.
But what about New Zealand? As an autonomous colonial government of the British Empire, after achieving food self-sufficiency, the British Empire basically did not provide any relief to New Zealand.
Even part of New Zealand's income and resources were shipped to the British Empire, which is why New Zealand's development has been tepid.
With the British Empire mired in the European arms race, it was impossible to rely on the British Empire for rescue.
Rather than placing its hopes on the British Empire, which has been sucking the blood out of New Zealand, it is better to place its hopes on united Australia.
At least Australia is close to New Zealand and has a similar history and common blood with New Zealand.
Subsequently, the Senate Group determined the next plan, which is to count the poor people in New Zealand and assist the Royal Relief Committee to use work-for-relief methods so that these poor and unemployed people can quickly get into work, at least to have A little money to meet your own living needs.
This is a matter that is closely related to their own interests. Whether it is the Alliance Party, the New Zealand Labor Party, or individual candidates, they are very excited and active in this regard.
Arthur also agreed, as the Duke of Australia, to donate two million pounds to New Zealand to help New Zealand develop better.
Of course, this amount of funds will be handed directly to the New Zealand government and will be supervised by the Senate.
Although the funds were used to win people's hearts, this did not mean that Arthur was completely confident in handing over these funds to the New Zealand colonial government.
As Duke of Australia, Arthur could not stay in New Zealand forever. The future supervision work must indeed be handed over to the Senate, allowing them to serve as Arthur's eyes to supervise the New Zealand colonial government.
When the people of New Zealand are almost won over, Arthur will let the two political parties take the opportunity to instigate a referendum in New Zealand. By then, the annexation of New Zealand will be successful.
This is a long plan, and Arthur is not in a hurry. After all, he still has nearly twenty years to complete this plan.
As long as Arthur was Governor-General of New Zealand, no one could stop New Zealand from approaching Australia.
After the meeting of the Senate, Arthur summoned Grant Wilson again at the Government House.
At this time, Grant Wilson was already in high spirits, with a respectful smile on his face.
With the establishment of the Senate, Grant Wilson has become one of New Zealand's hottest figures. Although his power and status are not at the top of New Zealand, compared to the previous small mayor, he has gained huge improvement.
Of course, Grant Wilson naturally understood who brought him all this, so when he looked at Arthur, his eyes showed great respect.
"Your Highness, I have followed your order and asked all members of the Alliance Party to publicize the superiority of union with Australia within the scope of their control. At the same time, we are also trying our best to find people who have a good impression of Australia to join us. Not only can it expand the size of the Alliance Party, but it can also speed up our plans." Grant Wilson said with a smile on his face.
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(End of chapter)