Chapter 117 Arms Procurement (Please subscribe!)

In more than ten days from the end of April to the beginning of May, Arthur traveled almost throughout the North Island of New Zealand, inspected most of the various constructions that New Zealand had previously owned, and personally presented them to the New Zealand government. Most of the funds were also spent.

Although colonial officials looked increasingly distressed, the results achieved were good for New Zealand.

Under Arthur's order, not only a maintenance and restart plan was launched for all railways in New Zealand's North Island, but also some important roads, public facilities and important buildings throughout New Zealand.

At the same time, the New Zealand colonial government will also contribute 200,000 pounds to fund New Zealand's medical and education industries.

Part of the funds will be used to improve existing schools and hospitals in New Zealand, and the remaining funds will be divided into two parts.

Half is used to attract education and medical talents from Europe to join New Zealand, and the other half is invested in preferential policies in education and medical care to reduce the financial pressure on New Zealanders in education and medical care.

These plans directly cost the colonial government more than a million pounds, more than half of all available funds.

Although the results cannot be seen yet, with the construction of these plans, most of the construction will be successfully completed in one to two years, and the effects of these plans will be reflected by then.

This coincides with Arthur's two-year development plan for the Alliance Party. Two years later, various construction projects in New Zealand have been completed, and New Zealanders can more effectively feel the benefits of these plans.

At the same time, with the development of the Alliance Party, more and more New Zealanders will support union or even merger with Australia.

After arranging the affairs of the colonial government, Arthur had final conversations and instructions with Mayor Grant to ensure that after Arthur left, his various plans and arrangements in New Zealand could proceed smoothly.

In order to ensure that Mayor Grant can still contact Arthur after Arthur returns to Australia, Joshua Bullock, the head of the Royal Relief Committee in New Zealand, will become the bridge between Mayor Grant and Arthur.

As the head of the Royal Relief Committee in New Zealand, Joshua Bullock is bound to travel between Australia and New Zealand, and it is very appropriate for him to be responsible for delivering the message.

Joshua Bullock is naturally very happy to take on this arduous task. Joshua Bullock is still very happy to do anything for Arthur.

After giving all the instructions, Arthur went to the last stop in New Zealand, which was the headquarters of the New Zealand Garrison located on the South Island of New Zealand.

Although the New Zealand garrison has a total size of 3,000 people, it is less than a regiment.

But in fact, in addition to the more than a thousand soldiers stationed at the headquarters of the three thousand garrison, other soldiers were dispersed and dispatched to various parts of New Zealand, responsible for maintaining order throughout New Zealand.

Especially in Wellington, the capital of New Zealand, not only General Pierce, the commander of the New Zealand Garrison, has a permanent residence here, but the New Zealand Garrison also has more than 500 troops stationed here.

After landing at the port on the South Island of New Zealand and riding a carriage for several hours, Arthur arrived at the garrison headquarters located in the mountains of the South Island of New Zealand.

Although colonial garrisons such as the New Zealand Garrison were under the jurisdiction of the British Empire, in fact much of their logistics was provided by the local colonies.

Naturally, distant New Zealand cannot get much support. Although the equipment of the New Zealand garrison looks neat, in fact, the supply of ammunition is insufficient, and the training of the soldiers is also insufficient.

The New Zealand garrison gave Arthur a good first impression. If he hadn't betrayed them at target practice, Arthur would have really thought that this was a powerful army.

Although, European countries generally do not require hit rate. Even in a brutal battle in the future, on average, only one soldier will be killed for every 10,000 bullets fired.

But this does not mean that the soldiers' daily target training will be so poor. The New Zealand garrison's target shooting can't even hit one target in ten shots.

Arthur's question was quickly answered.

While chatting with General Pierce, General Pierce raised a problem with Arthur about the current problem of the New Zealand garrison, which is the insufficient supply of weapons, equipment and ammunition for the New Zealand garrison.

It was unrealistic to transport weapons, equipment and ammunition from the British Empire to New Zealand. The time and freight consumed on the road were even higher than the value of the materials transported.

When New Zealand's major factories were at their peak, they were able to produce some weapons and equipment and deliver them to the New Zealand garrison.

Since New Zealand's economic downturn, major factories have generally given up on low-market military production, switched to civilian production, and even directly reduced the number of workers on a large scale.

This also led to the fact that the New Zealand garrison wanted to obtain weapons, equipment and ammunition supplies. In addition to purchasing from the relatively nearby Australia, it could only purchase from the more distant India and British Southeast Asian colonies.

But the current Australian military factories cannot even meet the needs of the Australian military, let alone export weapons and ammunition to New Zealand.

Although India and British Southeast Asia can provide the weapons and equipment needed by the New Zealand garrison, due to the long distance, the cost is too expensive. For the New Zealand garrison, which has relatively clean funds, it can only meet the temporary needs, but cannot Eradicating logistical difficulties.

Now that Arthur is coming to New Zealand, General Pierce sees it as an opportunity to seek logistical support from Australia.

Although Australia's military is also expanding, the demand for weapons and equipment is much greater than that of New Zealand.

However, various factories in Australia, including military factories, are also expanding, and production volume will increase sooner or later.

For New Zealand, Australia, which is the closest, is the best choice for purchasing weapons and ammunition. The difference in shipping costs is enough for New Zealand to purchase more weapons and equipment.

After hearing General Pierce's request to purchase a batch of weapons, equipment and ammunition from Australia, Arthur nodded in agreement without thinking.

At present, it seems that the combat effectiveness of the New Zealand garrison is indeed not good, and it cannot even compare with the combat effectiveness of the previous Australian garrison.

New Zealand is bound to be annexed. After Australia annexes New Zealand, these garrisons will also become the Australian army.

Rather than waiting until then to train these soldiers, it is better to provide them with some weapons and equipment now and let them train in advance.

Anyway, Australia currently still has a batch of old equipment, which is just for use by these New Zealand soldiers.

As for Australian soldiers, they naturally use brand-new weapons produced by military factories.

Second update, please support! This is the end of the story in New Zealand. The carwin has been a bit serious these past two days, so I can barely manage to update twice a day. Let's go back to the Australian plot. We will continue with the third update tomorrow. I beg for your support!