Chapter 266 End of the Tour
Arthur stayed in Wellington for about a week. Not only did he visit Victoria University of Wellington, he also gave a lecture at Victoria University for more than an hour.
Although I don’t know what the actual impact will be, judging from the awed and enthusiastic eyes of teachers and students at Victoria University of Wellington, as well as the earnest response from college students, the effect of the speech should be good.
After leaving Wellington, the cars transported with the fleet came in handy.
Taking the car, Arthur set off all the way northwest, and his destination was Opunaki, a small town in Taraki Bay, South of the Tasman Sea.
This town looks like any other fishermen's town in New Zealand, but it is of great significance to New Zealand and Australasia at the moment.
Since the typhoon landed in New Zealand on November 8, 1903, the situation in New Zealand and Oceania as a whole has undergone tremendous changes.
First, New Zealand voted to join Australia after the disaster, forming the Federation of Australia and New Zealand, and then the current Kingdom of Australasia.
The first area where the typhoon made landfall in New Zealand was Opunaki, a small town that looked no different from other areas.
Outside the current town of Opunaki, there is also a monument to the typhoon incident at that time.
The monument is visited by many Australasians and is one of the great disasters not only for New Zealand but also for Australasia.
This disaster not only caused more than 100,000 casualties to New Zealand, but also the loss of millions of cattle, sheep and large tracts of crops. This is also the real reason why the total population of New Zealand so far is only 1.35 million.
Arthur stood in front of the Typhoon Disaster Memorial for a long time and presented a bouquet of flowers.
Although this was just a normal move in Arthur's eyes, it made many New Zealanders who personally experienced the typhoon event very grateful.
After all, after the typhoon incident, Australia not only made donations to New Zealand, but Arthur also made two donations in the name of the Duke of Australia and as a private person.
After finishing what he should do in the small town of Opunaki, Arthur followed the Western Highway of North New Zealand and went straight up, passing through New Spymouth, Piopio, Hamilton, Huntly, and Port Waikato. After Manukau, we finally arrived at our second destination in Northern New Zealand, Auckland.
Auckland at this time was the Auckland that had been rebuilt after the disaster and had been rapidly rebuilt into the second largest city in Northern New Zealand.
This is because many Auckland citizens once chose to stay in Auckland, even though Auckland at that time had become a wasteland after being devastated by typhoons.
After arriving in Auckland, Arthur found that the area had been rebuilt very well. Although the industrial area is not yet very developed, agriculture and animal husbandry are everywhere, which clearly expresses the current development status of Auckland.
In Auckland, there is also the University of Auckland, one of the three universities in New Zealand. As usual, Arthur also visited the University of Auckland and gave a lecture.
Aucklanders are even more grateful to Arthur. After all, if it hadn't been for Arthur and Australia's generous donations, I'm afraid Auckland wouldn't have been able to rebuild so quickly.
It can be said that Aucklanders were able to quickly return to the good life before the disaster within a few years, and Arthur and Australia's donations have a lot of credit.
After the equally boring but necessary inspection and review, Arthur took a fleet and arrived at Picton, the capital of South New Zealand, across the sea from Wellington.
The degree of development between North New Zealand and South New Zealand is worlds apart.
In terms of area, South New Zealand is larger than North New Zealand, but its population is only about half that of North New Zealand.
As the largest city in South New Zealand, Picton has a population of over 80,000. But New Zealand's second largest city, Auckland, which has been reconstructed after the disaster, has a population of more than 100,000.
If North New Zealand has a certain scale of industry, then New Zealand has advantages only in animal husbandry and agriculture.
Compared to North New Zealand, South New Zealand lags far behind in all aspects. This is Arthur's clearest feeling after traveling through North and South New Zealand.
However, you can also see lusher farmland and larger livestock areas in South New Zealand, and the faces of the people of South New Zealand are also full of smiles.
There is really not much to visit in South New Zealand. The three largest cities, Picton, Christchurch and Invercargill, are all small cities with a population of no more than 100,000, and the total population of South New Zealand is less than 100,000. Half a million, not even half of what it costs in Sydney.
After casually wandering around the three cities, Arthur reviewed the New Zealand garrison at Picton.
After encouraging all the soldiers and personally awarding salaries and supplies to some of them, Arthur ended his journey in New Zealand with satisfaction and headed to the next destination of the cruise, the colony of New Guinea.
After several years of construction in the colony of New Guinea, its capital, Port Moresby, has grown into a city of 50,000 people. And because of the strategic granary plan proposed by Arthur, New Guinea has always been regarded by the Australasian government as a natural granary and one of the experimental sites for mechanized agriculture in Australasia.
New Guinea currently produces more than one-sixth of Australia's grain output. The grain produced in New Guinea alone is enough to feed more than four million people for a year.
Because of its good relationship with Germany, part of the grain produced in New Guinea was directly transported to German New Guinea in the north. This also resulted in German New Guinea not having much arable land. After all, Germany had no intention of vigorously developing in such an area. farming.
Officials of the colonial government of New Guinea attached great importance to Arthur's review. Arthur also gave a few symbolic words of encouragement to the officials, and followed important officials of the colonial government to visit several large planting areas in New Guinea.
Then he reviewed the troops in New Guinea. These actions also allowed Arthur to stay in New Guinea for three days.
After doing this, Arthur rushed to Australian Timor without stopping to continue the next stop of the tour.
The Governor of Australian Timor is Roman Peto, a member of the Royal Parliament and an official from New Zealand.
As one of the first New Zealand officials to swear allegiance to Arthur, it is not surprising that Romain Peto was awarded the status of Governor of Australian Timor. After all, the team Arthur brought from the UK were basically entrusted with important tasks, leaving a vacancy. Promotions can only be made from talent in Australia and New Zealand.
But this can be considered a good thing, and at least it can reassure the Australian and New Zealand forces loyal to Arthur.
After all, if Arthur only recognized officials he brought from Britain, then the local forces in Australasia would never be able to integrate into Arthur's core circle of subordinates, and their loyalty to Arthur would naturally decrease.
As the latest region to be incorporated into Australasia, Australian Timor has a very small population.
Even after several years of development, the current population of Australian Timor has barely exceeded 10,000, and almost the entire population of Australian Timor is distributed in Dili, the capital of Timor.
If New Guinea is an important food-producing area in Australasia, then Australian Timor is more like a military fortress and outpost.
Although it only has a population of just over 10,000 residents, there are up to 3,000 troops stationed around Dili, as well as multiple radio stations to communicate with the country in Australasia at any time.
In fact, Arthur and the government were indeed prepared in this way. Australian Timor cannot develop in a short period of time, so the government directly uses it as an outpost of Australasian defense.
Because Australian Timor still has thousands of Portuguese residents, Arthur's stay in Australian Timor was also the shortest.
Although Arthur was very interested in seeing the folk life of Australian Timor with his own eyes, he thought about it and decided against it.
After all, it has only been more than two years since this land was annexed by Australasia, and there are still thousands of grape residents living in the city of Dili.
Although in order to maintain the stability of Australian Timor, after the official annexation of Timor, Governor Roman had organized several operations to collect weapons in this area, and residents other than Australasia were not allowed to possess thermal weapons, and Australasian residents who own thermal weapons must register them with the government, and each use of the weapon must be reported.
But who can guarantee that there will not be anyone hiding thermal weapons among these Portuguese residents, just waiting for the arrival of senior Australasian government officials and Arthur.
As the saying goes, no matter how skilled you are, you are still afraid of a kitchen knife. Even if Arthur was fully prepared, he would not bet on whether someone would assassinate him.
After all, are there few such examples in history? There is a very similar one, that is the Austro-Hungarian Crown Prince Ferdinand who triggered the First World War.
There are also many kings and high-ranking nobles including King Alexander I of Serbia and King George I of Greece.
The bloody cases of these people told Arthur a truth, that is, no matter how noble his identity is, no matter how many people he loves, he is still an ordinary person, and he will still die if he is shot.
A good king would risk his own life if he behaved improperly. Arthur would not be so stupid.
In fact, as long as Arthur didn't take risks, the possibility of being assassinated was almost zero. After all, he was protected by a regiment of troops on the surface, and secretly followed by many intelligence personnel from the Royal Security Intelligence Service. If there was any abnormality around Arthur, these intelligence personnel would take action immediately.
Not to mention that those who could get within three hundred meters of Arthur had definitely had their identities checked.
Those who can get closer than 200 meters will even have to undergo another round of searches. Unless it is a minister or official whom Arthur particularly trusts, Arthur's guards and members of the Royal Security Intelligence Service will not show mercy. If they do not accept inspection, they will be arrested first.
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(End of chapter)