Chapter 345 Hunting and the Royal Zoo

As the king of Australasia, Arthur's work is actually very easy and enjoyable when government affairs are not too busy.

Because the cabinet meeting is held once a week, it also means that when there is no cabinet meeting and there are not many government affairs, Arthur has six days a week to arrange freely.

But in the early 20th century, it was not easy to find some entertainment methods that are enough for entertainment, even for Arthur as the head of a country.

Fortunately, Arthur has enough power to do whatever he wants, including the now very popular sound movies, football, sports, etc. in Australasia, all of which are promoted by Arthur.

Arthur currently has many ways to entertain himself. In addition to occasionally watching a new movie, watching football matches organized by the states of Australasia, horse racing, and even hunting by traditional nobles are all one of Arthur's ways of entertainment.

Speaking of horse racing, this is an aristocratic sport that has been passed down for hundreds of years and is deeply loved by aristocrats in the East and the West.

As the only convenient means of transportation for humans before the birth of cars and trains, horses appeared in all aspects of people's lives before the 20th century.

As early as 1174, the first formal horse racing appeared at the Friday Horse Fair in Smithfield, London.

Along with the development and spread of horse racing in Britain, a wave of horse racing fever swept Europe around the 13th century.

In the West, horse racing is known as the sport of the king. Because horse racing is determined by the skills of the knights and the speed of the horses, it is a big test for the requirements of riding skills and the endurance of the horses.

In the underdeveloped Middle Ages, those who could afford to host and participate in horse racing were generally local nobles and wealthy families.

So far, horse racing is very popular in Britain, France, the United States, Germany, Italy, Australasia and some parts of Asia. Every horse racing in these regions will attract a large number of people to watch.

The history of horse racing in Australasia can be traced back to 1840 during the colonial period. At that time, Flemington Racecourse had already held more formal horse racing competitions during the colonial rule, and it has continued to this day.

As the largest horse breeder in Australasia, Arthur's assets include hundreds of thousands of wild horses.

Of course, the term "wild horses" is a more unified name. In fact, the hundreds of thousands of horses owned by Arthur can be roughly divided into three categories: purebred Arabian horses imported from other places and Victoria Kent horses and Donald horses native to Australasia.

These three horse races are the oldest and most populous horses in Australasia.

The history of Arabian horses can be traced back hundreds of years. They were introduced by British colonists at that time to improve the bloodline of native working horses in Australia.

The remaining two native Australian horses have been preserved in the long European history because they have excellent speed and endurance. They have become one of the few excellent horses preserved among the many horse races in Australia.

These three horse groups are suitable for becoming military horses, and are also the main breeding targets of Arthur's horse farm.

At present, Arthur's private horse farm has more than 500,000 Australian horses in total, making it the largest horse breeder in Australasia. The total number of horses owned can even directly arm at least 100,000 cavalry troops.

As the monarch of Australasia and the real owner of the horse farm, Arthur has ridden more than ten horses, all of which are the best among all horses in Australia.

As the largest horse breeder, Arthur's horse farm also holds horse racing competitions. Although it was not Arthur's instruction, for most large horse farms in the West, holding horse racing competitions is even more normal than eating and drinking.

Arthur's largest horse farm in Australasia, Kent Racecourse in Victoria, holds the largest horse racing competition in Australasia every year.

Of course, Kent Racecourse has nothing to do with Kent's butler and his son. This is because the area where Kent Racecourse is located is Kent Town in Victoria, which is the birthplace of Victoria Kent Horse, so the horse farm is named Kent Racecourse.

There are more than 100,000 Victoria Kent horses and tens of thousands of horses of other races raised at the Kent Racecourse. It is not only the largest horse farm under the royal consortium, but also the largest horse farm in Australasia.

Whenever the horse race is held at the Kent Racecourse, tens of thousands of onlookers often gather around the racecourse.

Many people come just to have fun and find a lively and cheerful atmosphere. But some people want to get rich overnight and use gambling to realize their fantasies through horse racing.

Fortunately, Arthur's racecourse has regulations that the maximum bet amount for each person will not exceed ten Australian dollars.

Gambling is still a matter of luck after all. Although there will be no cheating at the Kent Racecourse, who can guarantee that these gamblers will not lose money?

In order to avoid the current situation of family ruin and death due to gambling as much as possible, the staff of the racecourse have come up with a solution to set a maximum bet amount for each person.

Of course, for nobles and capitalists with truly noble status, this restriction does not actually exist.

Because nobles and capitalists will not bet with common people, this restriction will only apply to common people.

Actually, think about it, ten Australian dollars is not a small amount. According to the current per capita income in Australasia, ten Australian dollars is equivalent to more than two months' salary per capita in Australasia, which is a huge sum of money for civilians.

Of course, there are far more ways for Australasia civilians to spend their leisure time.

In addition to the annual horse racing at the racecourse, Arthur also built many zoos of various sizes in Australasia, where tourists and citizens can buy tickets to watch.

Zoos were originally entertainment exclusively enjoyed by ancient nobles and monarchs in the East and the West. They enclosed a garden with different scenery, and then released various rare animals and provided them to nobles and monarchs for play and hunting.

The earliest zoos were more like an evolution from hunting grounds. At first, they only placed some common wild animals for hunting by nobles.

With the development of time, some zoos became more formalized, planted trees, flowers and plants, and raised more precious wild animals, and the purpose was only for play and viewing.

In Europe, this kind of zoo first appeared in the late 18th century, more than 100 years ago.

With the development of zoos, some zoos have even begun scientific research on biology.

Zoos in Australasia were developed relatively early, but because there were too many wild animals in Australia and the previous colonial policy did not support this aspect, the development of zoos was not fast.

After Arthur arrived, two large zoos were established in the Capital Territory and Victoria, and then a large zoo was established in New Zealand.

There is good news, that is, there are many species of wild animals in Australia, and each of the three major zoos has at least hundreds of animal species.

Of course, zoos in Australasia do not exhibit venomous snakes. Although there are a wide variety of venomous snakes in Australia, Arthur has no interest in such animals that can easily kill people.

The largest zoo in Australasia, the Royal Sydney Zoo, currently has more than 300 species of animals and plants and receives more than 5,000 visitors a day.

Based on the ticket price of 0.5 Australian dollars per person, the daily ticket revenue of the Royal Sydney Zoo alone exceeds 2,500 Australian dollars.

However, with more than 300 species of animals and plants and more than 5,000 animals in the zoo, the daily feed costs are far more than this figure.

The good news is that there is a ranch belonging to the royal consortium near the zoo, which can provide some meat for the wild animals in the zoo.

Of course, there are also many vegetarian animals in the zoo. Their daily food depends partly on the extensive vegetation in the zoo and partly on the feeding of the zoo.

It is worth mentioning that the reception time of the Sydney Royal Zoo is only from Sunday to Friday every week, and Saturday is specially reserved for serving the royal family and nobles.

Even if there are royal family members who want to visit at other times, in theory, they should clear the place to serve the royal family.

However, after Arthur visited once or twice, he was not very interested in the animals and plants in the zoo.

Instead, Queen Mary and the two little guys would go to the zoo from time to time to have a look.

This also reminded Arthur that since Australasia’s own zoo does not have animals and plants from other regions, why not get some rare animals and plants from other regions and reproduce in specific places in the zoo?

Especially some rare wild animals and plants in later generations, if they can be planted and raised in Australasia in advance, it can also be regarded as a kind of advance layout and investment.

Arthur spent a few days thinking about some rare animals and plants in the future, and then submitted a list to Kent, asking Kent to use the power of the royal consortium to purchase them from all over the world.

For the royal consortium, it is not difficult to get some rare wild animals and plants from all over the world and then transfer them to Australasia for planting and cultivation.

Compared with the future, because it was a hundred years ago, some of the more precious wild animals and plants in the future are not so precious now.

Moreover, in this era, the concept of protecting rare wild animals and plants has not been popularized, and even because the pollution of the environment by industry is not so serious, hunting in Europe is also very common.

For Australia, where industrial development is relatively slow, this phenomenon has become more obvious.

Most of Australia's land is currently in an undeveloped and barren state, with a large number of virgin forests, wild animals and plants, etc.

Australasia previously implemented a ban on long guns for a period of time, but Arthur regretted his mistake and changed it to ban short guns instead of long guns.

Of course, most of the firearms that can be circulated in the Australasia civilian market are ordinary quality hunting rifles, muskets, etc.

The more advanced Lee Enfield rifle, Gew-98 rifle, and other countries' standard rifles, submachine guns, light and heavy machine guns, grenades and larger caliber weapons are all under strict control.

Even the fully automatic pistols that are more popular abroad need to be strictly managed before they can be prepared in Australasia.

Of course, this does not mean that Arthur is afraid of assassination. In fact, under the protection of a large number of intelligence personnel and guards, security guards, and defense forces, Arthur is in Australasia, and there is no possibility of any accidents or dangers.

You know, even if it is just a simple trip of Arthur, the security force following him is as high as thousands of people.

It is no exaggeration to say that within the two or three hundred meters around Arthur, anyone who makes a rash move will be subdued by the security forces immediately.

For these exclusive security personnel of Arthur, they adhere to the principle of rather killing ten people by mistake than letting one go.

After all, Arthur's safety is the most important thing, and everything else must stand aside.

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