Chapter 14: The grand occasion of the election.
May 10, 1900, on the streets of Sydney.
Henrys was walking on the streets of Sydney as usual, and his destination was the government building where he had worked for half his life. It has now been renamed the New South Wales Parliament.
In order to make room for the upcoming election of the House of Commons, many government agencies have been relocated in the past two days, giving up their original places to the state houses.
"Good morning, Mr. Henris, are you going to participate in the election of members?" On the street, an aunt who obviously knew Henris saw Henris and immediately stepped forward and said excitedly.
"Oh, it's Ms. Katie, how is your son? Is he feeling better?" Henrys quickly recognized the person who greeted him and responded with a smile.
"Thank you so much for that day. If you hadn't lent me 7 pounds, I'm afraid Trump's illness wouldn't have been cured." Speaking of her son, Katie seemed to start chatting, looking at Henry gratefully while saying Said happily.
There is no clear statistics on per capita income in Australia, but the previous year, in 1899, the British per capita annual income was about 50 pounds, and the annual income of a skilled worker had reached about 200-400 pounds.
Please don’t be fooled by this data. The reason why Britain’s per capita income is so huge is actually that it absorbed a lot of wealth from its major colonies.
As a senior official of the Sydney City Government, Henry's annual income is only about 20 pounds, which is enough to show the gap between the British mainland and the colonies.
And being able to lend one-third of his annual income to a person with whom he has no connection is enough to show Henry's courage and love.
"Those are all small things. Besides, after His Highness Arthur came to Australia, he directly exempted us from most of the taxes. Compared with what His Highness has done, what I have done is nothing." Henrys waved his hand quickly. .
"That's true, but no matter what, Mr. Henrys, you and His Highness are both good people. Australia has a great monarch like His Highness and an excellent official like Mr. Henrys, so why worry about not being able to revive?" Kai Ti said with a gentle smile.
Since Arthur announced Australia-wide tax cuts a few days ago, Arthur has become a great ruler in the hearts of all Australians.
After all, for all ordinary people, those who can bring them practical benefits are truly great.
"Okay, Mr. Henrys. Go ahead and do your work. I will definitely vote for you and wish you good luck in your candidacy." Katie saw that it was getting late and quickly ended the chat with Henrys.
Although Henry's residence is only more than ten minutes away from the current State House, it took half an hour to arrive because he met acquaintances on the road from time to time.
Henrys simply anticipated this situation in advance, so he set out half an hour early, just in time for the opening of the House of Commons election.
In order to allow as many Australians to vote as possible, this House of Commons election will be held simultaneously in three cities in each state.
Sydney, where Henry is located, is the capital of Australia and the most populous city in Australia.
There are 198 seats in the House of Commons, with New South Wales, the most populous state, allocated 71 seats. As the most populous city in New South Wales, Sydney was also allocated 22 seats. But this does not mean that it is easier to succeed in running for office in Sydney. On the contrary, Sydney, as the most populous city in Australia, has a total population of 420,000.
The number of people who are eligible to stand for election has reached a terrifying number of more than 300,000. Even if most people have no idea of running for election, there are definitely not a few competitors.
Under such circumstances, Henrys was already prepared to lose the election as a member of the House of Commons. After all, even if he failed to run for the House of Commons, as long as he received a good number of votes, he would enter the lower-level New South Wales House of Representatives.
The seats in the state House of Representatives change based on the state's population. This time, there are 136 seats in the New South Wales House of Representatives. Henry is still very confident to fight for it.
Walking into the door of the State House, Henrys discovered that the number of people running for the election was far beyond his expectation.
The seemingly huge state house was already packed with voters. Even if most of them were not candidates, it was enough to shock Henris.
According to Henry's prediction, today is the first day of the election. Many people should be waiting and planning. Why is the state house so crowded on the first day?
All this may only be attributed to the appeal Arthur now has in the hearts of all Australians.
On the first day of the election, a large number of Sydney citizens had already participated in the election, and many people were still coming one after another, even though the state parliament did not even have a foothold at this time.
"Henrys, hey! Over here!" Just when Henrys was at a loss what to do, a familiar voice attracted Henrys' attention.
Looking around, it was Henry's colleague and friend, Martin.
Henris was overjoyed and hurriedly walked over and said with a smile: "Martin! Are you also coming to participate in the election of the House of Commons?" "Of
course!" Martin nodded matter-of-factly and said, "This is something we have never done before. Since His Highness has given us the right, why should we give up?" "
What is the current situation? How many candidates are there today?" Henris looked at the crowd around him and asked curiously.
"Haha, do you know what time I came in the morning? Henris." Martin did not answer directly, but smiled mysteriously.
"What time? Did you come here at five or six in the morning?" Henris looked at his friend in disbelief and asked dubiously.
He knows his friend's virtues and will do anything for the things he is interested in. But is it a little too crazy to come to the State House at five or six in the morning? You must know that the election only officially starts at eight o'clock. If you come at five or six o'clock, what else can you do besides facing that very familiar wooden door?
"Bingo! You guessed it, brother. Do you know what I saw this morning? It was all people! These guys are so crazy. I thought I came early enough at five or six in the morning. Who would have thought that waiting for me to come When I arrived, the door was already full of people? If I hadn’t been familiar with the terrain here, I wouldn’t have even had a place to sit, and I had to wait until now.” Martin had an expression on his face that you would never believe, and poured out his words to Henris Bitter water.
Originally, Martin thought that coming early in the morning would give him an advantage. Who would have thought that Martin was not the only one who had the same idea? The state House of Assembly, where the election officially started at eight o'clock, was already crowded with people at five o'clock in the morning.
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(End of chapter)