Chapter 245 Annual Report Meeting on New Year's Day
Fortunately, after a period of adaptation, the soldiers' accuracy improved significantly.
Several artillery shells hit fixed areas one after another, which also made General Makarov's face shine brightly.
Although the hit rate of the previous artillery shells was a bit low, after all, it was the first time for the soldiers to come into contact with such a warship. It was already good to be able to master it at such a short speed.
We came out in a hurry this time, otherwise we could have prepared a scrapped fishing boat to test the destructive power of the artillery.
However, the power of the 283mm main gun produced in Germany has already been tested. Although it is not as good as the firepower of the Dreadnought battleship, it is among the best among the current old battleships.
Overall, General Makarov was very satisfied with this test. General Makarov has even secretly decided that if the domestic finances become richer, he must push the Navy to continue to purchase the Australasian Monarch class. Battleship.
Only new battleships of this level will play a decisive role in future naval battles.
If the Pacific Squadron is equipped with two Monarch-class battleships, the island navy will never be able to match the Russian Navy, at least until the number of dreadnoughts is balanced.
After a brief stay in Australasia for a few days, General Makarov returned to the Far East, citing busy official duties.
Of course, the Russian naval soldiers brought by General Makarov did not return. Their next task is to familiarize themselves with all the equipment and equipment of the battleship on the battleship Petropavlovsk so that they can Form combat effectiveness faster.
After the war, Australasia was busy in all sectors. After all, the time is approaching the end of 1907, which also means that the annual government annual summary is coming.
Although there are still familiar faces in many positions, the prime minister of the largest government has changed, which means that this government is a new one, and the new government also needs to show their political achievements to prove that they are no better than the previous one. The government has done a poor job.
In particular, the new Prime Minister Walter and the two new ministers need to show their political achievements and abilities. After all, this is also related to whether they can be successfully re-elected in the next cabinet government.
Compared with these busy cabinet officials, Arthur's life was obviously much easier.
At present, there are basically no important matters in Australasia that require Arthur's personal decision. On the basis that the development goals have been set, the ministers of each department only need to make detailed plans and implement them themselves.
This also gives Arthur plenty of free time to spend with his family admiring flowers, seeing the scenery, and traveling throughout Australasia.
Because the current assets of Arthur's royal consortium have already exceeded 300 million pounds, Arthur can earn tens of millions of pounds in net income every year even if he does nothing.
There is nothing more relaxing than this leisurely life, at least Arthur thinks so.
Of course, the communication between Arthur and Queen Mary has never diminished. Every night Arthur will experience the scenery of two peaks and a canyon, as well as lush forests, and the light and joyful chirping of birds.
Now that the war is over, Australasia will also enter a period of relatively stable development.
In addition, Arthur's position is stable, and there is no need to engage in intrigues with the government.
This also gave Arthur enough mood and time to explore the human origin plan and give birth to an outstanding heir for himself and the royal family.
After all, the country's prince is still very important to the stability of the country. Even though Arthur is still very young, the heir must be put on the agenda.
After spending more than a month happily and relaxedly like this, time quietly came to 1908.
On January 1, 1908, it was New Year's Day.
European countries still attach great importance to New Year's Day, and each country also has different New Year's Day customs.
Australasia is mostly made up of British immigrants, so New Year's Day in Australasia also has a more British flavor.
If you are in the countryside of Australasia, you can see people rushing to the wells to draw water on this day. This is also the British custom on New Year's Day, to draw water from the wells.
According to British customs, it is generally believed that the first person to draw water from a well on New Year's Day is a happy person, and the first bucket of water is also called auspicious water.
In addition to the custom of collecting well water, the British also like to have wine in the bottle and meat in the cupboard before New Year's Day.
It is generally believed that if there is no food and wine left before New Year's Day, the new year will be a year of poverty.
Therefore, we can see that before New Year's Day, wine and meat in Australasia are very popular, and demand basically exceeds supply.
After all, in addition to the tradition of wine and meat, the celebrations and food on New Year's Day are also a major reason for the consumption of wine and meat.
But Arthur and his cabinet officials were not so lucky.
Because the previous data statistics took too long, the government's annual report meeting originally planned to be held on December 31, 1907, was also forced to be postponed to the next day, which was the first day of the New Year.
After all, government affairs are the most important, so cabinet officials and Arthur are forced to give up their New Year's Day rest.
Fortunately, if the report meeting can be held faster, we can still return before evening and catch up with the evening celebration. In order not to delay the evening celebration, Arthur directly held the meeting in the conference room of Sydney Palace. After the meeting, he could go to the banquet hall to reunite with his family.
At eight o'clock in the morning, amid cheers across Australasia, the Cabinet Government's annual report meeting officially began.
Postponing the meeting by one day was also beneficial to the cabinet officials. They also gained more time to sort out the information in their hands and seriously think about Arthur's possible questions and answers.
Of course, the most critical thing is the next plan. The rationality of the plan and the degree of completion of the plan are also important factors that determine their performance in the next year.
After a period of useless nonsense and opening remarks, the reports from various departments officially began.
Prime Minister Walter took the lead in summarizing that although a war broke out in the second half of the year, the war had no impact on the development of Australasia. Instead, it promoted the development of Australasia's military industry.
Prime Minister Walter's summary can be condensed into one sentence, that is, as before, all walks of life in Australasia are booming.
After the general summary, the next step is the detailed speeches of the ministers of each department.
The first is the industrial sector. Australasia's industrial growth has not slowed down and remains at a high level.
Of course, this also depends on the current nationwide construction in Australasia and the contribution of the Benz Automobile Factory.
Whether it is various constructions across the country or the Benz Automobile Factory, a large amount of steel is consumed every year.
At present, Australasia's annual iron production has reached just over 1.5 million tons, and its annual steel production has also reached 1.03 million tons.
Australasia's industrial scale is now first-rate among the great powers, and has already surpassed second-rate European countries such as the Netherlands and Portugal.
More importantly, because of the support from Germany, Australasia has gradually made up for the shortcomings of insufficient basic industry.
There has also been considerable progress in the chemical industry. Australasia now has dozens of chemical plants.
The number of industrial estates in Australasia has not increased compared to the previous year. However, the number of workers in industrial areas increased by more than 30,000, and the number of indigenous people in industrial areas also increased by tens of thousands.
With so many indigenous people working, it is impossible for industry not to flourish.
Of course, this can only happen if Australasia has sufficient mineral resources.
If Australasia does not have sufficient mineral resources, even with a population of hundreds of millions, it is destined not to have a large industrial scale.
After acquiring Timor, Australasia saw a significant increase in its reserves of gold, manganese, chromium, tin, and copper ores.
Coupled with the rich mineral resources owned by Australasia, other countries are troubled by insufficient mineral resources, but Australasia's trouble is that the resources are too widely distributed and they don't know where to prioritize mining.
Australasia's population has also experienced considerable growth. At present, the mainstream immigrants in Australasia are British, German and Russian immigrants, accounting for 31%, 30% and 27% of the total annual immigrants respectively.
The number of immigrants from these three countries alone is as high as 400,000 every year. Together with immigrants from other countries, the total number of immigrants in Australasia exceeded 450,000 in 1907.
In addition to immigration, the new local population is also a major factor in population growth.
Due to various government policies to encourage births, the native population of Australasia also experienced a spurt of growth in 1907.
Of course, in addition to the promulgation of various policies to encourage childbirth, the increase in per capita income is also an important reason for the massive growth in population.
According to statistics from the Ministry of Public Welfare, in 1907, more than 183,000 newborns were born in Australasia, and more than 30,000 people died.
Coupled with the number of immigrants, Australia's total population increased by more than 600,000 in 1907.
This also allowed the population of Australasia to jump from 6.55 million in early 1907 to 7.15 million.
At present, of the entire population of Australasia, British ancestry accounts for 73%, German ancestry accounts for 14%, Russian ancestry accounts for 9%, and the rest are from other European countries.
Because British people dominate the mainstream, when Arthur proposed the national concept of Australia, the opposition was not loud or even small.
This has also led many immigrants from Europe to be more willing to accept the concept of Australasia as a nation. After all, their own ethnic proportions do not have an advantage.
In addition, various welfare policies in Australasia are targeted at the Australasian ethnic group, which also forces many people to admit that they are Australasians.
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