Chapter 335

The end of 1912 was relatively peaceful, and Arthur also experienced a dull November and December.

On Christmas Day in December, as usual, Arthur delivered a speech in Sydney Square, encouraging Australasians to make their own contributions to the development of the motherland and to sincerely unite and love all their compatriots.

Of course, in addition to such relatively peaceful words, Arthur's speech also involved military aspects, such as the expansion of the navy and the army in the next few years.

On Christmas Eve that day, newspapers printed with Arthur's speech were distributed throughout Australia.

Among these newspapers, Arthur's speech almost occupied the largest page, and other news could only be reduced to the smallest font and printed on the side and back of the newspaper in certain areas.

Words such as science and education make the country prosperous and military power are also spread in the streets and alleys of Australia along with Arthur's speech on Christmas.

It is said that after Arthur's speech, many families chose to let their children strive for scientific research.

Becoming an excellent scientific researcher has become the most glorious thing for many Australasian families.

Of course, Arthur's statement that the army and navy would be expanded in a few years attracted the attention of many Australasians.

The salary of Australasian soldiers is the highest in Australasian, and the welfare benefits of the army are also very generous.

Many people have started to exercise in advance, striving to improve their physical fitness as much as possible before the next conscription, so as to be selected by the Australasian conscription office.

Of course, another major condition for conscription review, the review of political background, cannot be changed.

This also makes some people who do not meet the conditions sad, and they can only shift their goals to scientific research or other directions.

On major holidays such as Christmas, the royal family usually distributes small gifts to the people.

This year's gift is a pound of beef and mutton and a liter of milk. In theory, all Australasians can receive it.

Of course, immigrants who have not yet obtained Australasian nationality are also included. They can receive it from their villages, cities and governments at all levels within half a month from Christmas to National Day.

Although each person only has one pound of meat and one liter of milk, the population of Australasia is not small, which will cost more than 5,000 tons of beef and mutton and more than 5,000 tons of milk.

Because Australasia is vast, the time for people to receive supplies has been extended to the end of the National Day holiday.

From Christmas in December to January 17, the end of the National Day holiday, people have more than half a month to receive their supplies.

If they fail to receive them within the deadline, they will be deemed to have voluntarily given up receiving supplies, and there will be no compensation for overdue.

However, this should not be seen in the civilians of Australasia. For civilians, one pound of meat and one liter of milk are not too much, but who is willing to give up free things?

Arthur and his family spent a happy Christmas in the palace, and also prepared a gift for William and Anna.

The gift for William was a specially made AS-1898 semi-automatic pistol model.

Because it is a model, there is no lethality, and there is no need to worry about the safety of William and his people.

The gift given to William also represents Arthur's intention, which is to let his eldest son and heir develop a love for military weapons from an early age, so that he can master the army more calmly in the future.

For Arthur, his heir must have sufficient ability to inherit the current system of Australasia.

As the founding monarch of Australasia, Arthur's popularity and prestige in Australasia are naturally beyond doubt.

In Australasia during Arthur's era, the monarchy was absolutely beyond the reach of future monarchs.

Such a high degree of monarchy has both advantages and disadvantages, and the ability requirements for the monarch of the country are also very strict.

Since he is Arthur's heir, William must have some ability in both civil and military strategies to continue to lead Australasia to a higher level.

It is worth mentioning that because they are already three years old, William and Anna have begun to receive basic aristocratic education since the second half of this year.

This makes the happy time of the two little guys almost disappear. In addition to aristocratic etiquette, most of the time is spent on extracurricular education on weekdays.

Of course, Anna is fine. After all, she is the only princess in the country. She only needs to receive aristocratic education and simple preschool education.

But William is different. William's long learning career has begun now. Although he is only three years old, he has several private teachers who are teaching him some principles.

In addition to various knowledge, traditional aristocratic riding and shooting are also within the scope of William's learning.

Of course, in order not to force the growth of seedlings, and to give William enough rest, William can get two days of rest every week.

The gift for Anna is an exquisite princess crown.

This crown was specially made by Arthur for the jeweler. It contains gold, silver, diamonds, emeralds, rubies, pearls and other jewelry. It looks very delicate and beautiful.

The cost of these materials alone is as high as more than 100,000 Australian dollars. If the labor cost and its potential value are counted, I am afraid that the value of this princess crown is as high as hundreds of thousands of Australian dollars.

The pistol model for William definitely cost no more than one hundred Australian dollars. The price difference between the two gifts is as high as a thousand times, which actually shows Arthur's different attitude towards the training of William and Anna.

For Arthur, Anna is not the first heir, and because she is a girl, she certainly needs to be raised in wealth.

As the first heir to the country, William has a heavier burden than anyone else, so he needs more rigorous training.

Arthur has even planned that after William graduates from high school and completes all knowledge education, he will send him to a military academy for training, and even to the army to serve. Only by understanding everything about the army can we better control the army.

This also means that William is destined to have no good days in the next twenty years.

His academic and ability training are constantly supervised by Arthur, and his external image and life are also supervised by the House of Representatives and the people.

With Arthur's example, if William wants to better control the country, he must do better and convince the Australasians.

A few days after Christmas, time came to the last day of 1912.

Because the next day was New Year's Day in 1913, the annual summary report meeting for 1912 was held as usual on the last day of 1912.

It was the familiar conference room of Sydney Palace again, where the annual report meeting was held.

For Arthur, there was still a lot of good news this year.

First of all, the population of Australasia this year has reached 12.116 million, the total population of Australia is 9.727 million, the total population of New Zealand is 2.237 million, the population of New Guinea is 90,000, the population of Australian Timor is 42,000, and the Royal Territory is 20,000.

According to the current population growth rate, the population of Australia should exceed 10 million at the next annual summary report meeting.

The population of Australasia of 12.11 million can also be ranked in the top 20 in the world, to be precise, more than ten.

But there is still a big gap compared with the powerful countries. The population of the powerful countries is tens of millions or even hundreds of millions, which is also the foundation and strength of the powerful countries.

According to the strength revealed by the world's countries, the top eight native populations of the world's major powers are:

First, Russia 165 million people (immigrant impact)

Second, the United States 94.31 million people (immigrant reduction)

Third, Germany 65.41 million people (immigrant impact)

Fourth, Austria-Hungary 52 million people

Fifth, island countries 51.3 million people

Sixth, Britain 44.1 million people (immigrant impact)

Seventh, France 39.7 million people

Eighth, Italy 35 million people

From this population ranking, it can be seen that among all the currently recognized powers in Europe, except Australasia, all are in the top eight countries in terms of population.

The only country in the top eight that is not a great power is an island country with a comprehensive strength that is almost the same as Australasia.

This also shows how important population is for the development of a country.

To become a regional power, you must have a population of tens of millions. And to become a regional hegemon or a great power, you must have a population of tens of millions.

There is good news for Australasia, that is, Russia, an important source of immigrants in Australasia, has a large population.

More importantly, the Russian upper class does not pay much attention to the loss of population. In fact, this is normal. After all, Russia's annual population growth is as high as two to three million, and even as high as four to five million in some periods.

Under such circumstances, it is natural that the Russian top leaders do not pay attention to the loss of hundreds of thousands of people less than one million every year.

At present, Russian immigrants have replaced British immigrants and become the largest immigrant population in Australasia in a year.

Compared with the annual summary report of the previous year, the population of Australasia has increased by more than 1.6 million in this year.

Among them, the newborn population is nearly 310,000, and the remaining nearly 1.3 million are all immigrants from Europe.

Among these 1.3 million people, Russian immigrants are as high as 770,000, accounting for more than half of all European immigrants.

Below the Russian immigrants are 290,000 British immigrants and 170,000 German immigrants.

Because of the good in-law relationship between Russia and Australasia, coupled with the lax management in Russia.

Therefore, it is certain that even if a European war breaks out in the future, Australasia can still attract a large number of immigrants from Russia.

Of course, to attract immigrants, some benefits may have to be exchanged with the Russian government.

But for Australasia, which is currently stockpiling strategic materials such as food, arms and medical care, it is definitely worthwhile to exchange some arms for population.

I will update once today, take a leave, and continue to update 10,000 tomorrow.