The Rise Of Australasia-Chapter 1022 - 770: Complete Localization of the Colony

Although Arthur already harbored the idea of establishing an empire, Australasia would certainly not act until after the demise of the Russian Empire.

Even if the Russian Empire perished, the establishment of a new empire would require waiting for a certain period of time.

For one thing, Arthur and the Australasian Government needed to prepare, allowing the people to better accept the establishment of the empire.

Secondly, it was to avoid discontent among the Russians within Australasia. After all, it would indeed sting a bit for Arthur to establish a new empire right after the fall of the Tsardom of Russia.

However, before taking action for this purpose, certain preparatory work was still very necessary.

Beginning in November of 1930, when reporting various official news, the civilian media in Australasia would subtly describe Australasia as a great nation and empire, using this to gauge the reaction of the people of Australasia.

The result was quite clear; the overwhelming majority of Australasians acknowledged such appellations, just as people recognized the contributions Arthur had made to the nation.

With the positive response from the populace, the government was highly motivated. Complying with Arthur's orders, conforming to the will of the people, and even creating substantial merits for themselves – wasn't this a good thing?

Under these circumstances, Arthur had already resolved the internal conflicts regarding his self-coronation as Emperor. Now, all that was needed was to wait for the downfall of the Russian Empire and then carry out an exchange of interests with Nicholas II, to obtain the legal rationale from the Eastern Roman Empire.

Since the government internally had not much public affairs to deal with, the nation's development progressed steadily every day.

Arthur then focused on the localization of the colonies, deciding to promote the localization of all colonies before the establishment of the empire.

The most important aspect of colony localization was to have distinctive economic industries in each region.

Since the goal was to achieve localization, either various resources had to be self-sufficient or there had to be a decent scale in some industrial sector.

Timor managed to localize quickly because it was initially small in size, and as the pilot region for national localization, it quickly met the first requirement for localization with the government's full support – that of resource self-sufficiency.

The next ones, New Guinea and Java Island, fulfilled the second requirement for localization; they possessed unique economic products and had already reached a certain scale.

Java Island needs no elaboration. As the shining jewel of the Southeast Asian Region, its geology is fertile, particularly suitable for cultivating grains.

Also, due to being in the tropics, Java Island can achieve the output of three crops a year, making it Australasia's most outstanding grain-producing area.

Additionally, with large-scale rubber planting areas, Java Island has formed an excellent economic industrial scale.

Thanks to the large volume of grains and rubber exported each year, Java Island's economic scale is comparable to some of the administrative districts of the native land and ranks among the top in the localization of all colonies.

New Guinea may not be as exemplary as Java Island, but it holds advantages compared to some of the administrative districts of Australia.

Firstly, New Guinea's natural rainfall is abundant. This alone has determined the significance of New Guinea for the entire country.

Because of this, Arthur designated New Guinea as the focal area for future North Water South Transfer projects.

New Guinea's water resources are destined to be transferred to the Australian Region, which means that New Guinea cannot build too many industries, especially in heavy industry and highly polluting industries.

To some extent, this has also affected industrial construction and economic development in New Guinea. To compensate the region and prevent future discord between New Guinea and the Australian Region, the Australasian Government encouraged and promoted the cultivation of related economic crops in New Guinea, vigorously developing agriculture.

At present, in addition to the rubber industry, New Guinea grows and exports large quantities of yams, taro, sago, bananas, and sweet potatoes, and also raises livestock selectively in the mountainous areas.

These relatively rare food crops have greatly enriched the food diversity of Australasia.

This is also the government's compensation for New Guinea; the region has made significant strides forward in these uncommon food crops. Coupled with a substantial rubber planting area and mineral resources, New Guinea's economy is fairly acceptable, and its localization is also quite successful.

Beyond these two focal localization areas, the localization of Sumatra Island and Sulawesi Island also proved very successful.

Sumatra, apart from New Guinea Island, is the largest colony with considerable potential for development.

However, due to its insufficient population and its proximity to the Malacca Strait, it's more often utilized for its strategic defensive military base.

Currently, the development of Sumatra Island largely focusses on some of the pre-existing urban cities.

The farmlands surrounding these cities have been well cultivated and distributed by the government of Sumatra Island to immigrants arriving at Sumatra.

It's worth mentioning that the number of Asian immigrants on Sumatra Island is currently second only to the Hawaii region.

Moreover, Sumatra Island has a broad area and is rich in mineral resources. As one of the best rubber-planting regions in Southeast Asia, Sumatra Island's rubber planting industry alone has ensured that localization will not fail.

Compared to the aforementioned large islands, Sulawesi Island doesn't have as many advantages. Being an island in Southeast Asia with a relatively high proportion of mountainous areas, Sulawesi Island's economic size is not as significant as one might imagine, even in later generations.

However, being a tropical island, it's still quite suitable for food cultivation.

Given the sparse population on Sulawesi Island, it will be easy to achieve localization by attaining self-sufficiency.

However, the push for localization stops at these islands. Beyond these large colonies, localization is still very difficult for smaller island colonies.

First and foremost, these small colonies don't have large populations, which is the main obstacle to achieving localization.

Because localization requires a considerable amount of infrastructure development, including education and medical care, among other things, this is very important.

However, with populations in these colonies amounting to only tens or even just thousands, their colonial governments clearly do not have the funds to push for extensive infrastructure development.

Kingdom Government finances will inevitably prioritize construction in key areas, and to some extent, will overlook the development of these areas.

This is precisely why it's the large-scale colonies that have succeeded in localization, while the small colonies still linger between being colonies and localized lands.

Since the decision has been made to promote localization across all colonies, these smaller colonies must also be considered.

On November 25, 1930, Arthur called a Cabinet Meeting to discuss promoting localization across all colonies.

During this Cabinet Meeting, Arthur specifically mentioned many small island colonies, including the Solomon Islands, and made his demands clear.

"Whether it's Australia or New Zealand, whether it's the Solomon Islands or New Caledonia, they are all lands ruled by Australasia.

Now, at this great moment when our policy of localizing our colonies is about to be realized, it is imperative for our nation to advance the localization of all colonies.

It ought to be the government's primary task to consider the interests of all people thoroughly and to build more comprehensive infrastructure for inhabitants of numerous small colonies."

The officials in the Cabinet Government were not fools and quickly understood Arthur's intention behind these words.

Achieving localization across all colonies is indeed a monumental task. If it could be accomplished before establishing the empire, Arthur's throne as Emperor would undoubtedly be even more secure.

Understanding this, the officials naturally did not dare to take Arthur's demands lightly. Any issues with colony localization could, at the least, delay significant government projects, and at worst, jeopardize Arthur's opportunity to be crowned Emperor—a potentially fatal outcome!

Knowing full well that Arthur was not a lenient Monarch, the Cabinet officials unanimously agreed that Arthur was doing the right thing and committed to allocating part of the finances to assist the colonies in building their infrastructure.

Shortly after the conclusion of this Cabinet Meeting, on November 27, 1930, the Australasian Government published the results of the Cabinet Meeting discussions, namely the Support Construction Plan for Backward Regions.

New novel chapters are published on freewёbn૦νeɭ.com.

According to this plan, the Kingdom Government will set aside 35 million Australian Dollars over two years to help regions that have not yet perfected their infrastructure build a more comprehensive infrastructure to safeguard the interests of local residents.

In the entire Australasia, the areas that have not fully established their infrastructure are those small colonies.

Even relatively small native lands, such as Tasmania State, had long established comprehensive infrastructure and even boasted a fairly strong economy.

35 million Australian Dollars seem like a modest sum, but it's entirely adequate to improve the infrastructure of these small colonies.

Once the plan was announced, the government quickly put the corresponding actions into motion.

In terms of infrastructure, the focus was primarily on the three essentials: education, medical care, and transportation.

Clinics must be established where there are residents on the island. A school at least up to junior high must be built where the population reaches the level of a village or town.

In their commitment to achieving the localization of all colonies, the Cabinet officials were indeed all in.

After all, accomplishing this task would be an impressive achievement, and they might even gain Arthur's approval for this feat. In Australasia, this is more important than anything else and could also determine whether these Cabinet officials can proceed further and have even more brilliant political careers.