Chapter 175 Stable reconstruction, turbulent situation

On December 1, 1903, with Arthur's brokerage, New Zealand obtained a loan of two million pounds from Australia to restore New Zealand's post-disaster economy and construction.

Reflecting the good relationship between Australia and New Zealand, the loan is interest-free and has a repayment date of twenty years.

The news was also widely publicized by New Zealand newspapers and was promoted as testimony to further ties between Australia and New Zealand.

It is precisely because of this huge amount of funds that New Zealand's reconstruction work has made very good progress, and the reconstruction of towns and livestock areas is proceeding in an orderly manner.

On December 3, Arthur decided to designate the day when the typhoon landed in New Zealand, which is November 8 every year, as New Zealand’s Disaster Memorial Day, and held the first place where the typhoon landed, Opunaki. A memorial to the disaster was erected.

The monument clearly engraved the specific time and place of the typhoon, as well as all the losses and damage caused by the typhoon disaster to New Zealand.

On the day the Disaster Memorial was set up, Arthur attended the ceremony and personally expressed his condolences to all New Zealanders.

This move also won the favor of all New Zealanders. They immediately provided assistance when the disaster occurred, and soon came to New Zealand in person.

He also donated funds to the New Zealand government in his capacity as the Australian royal family and the Governor-General of New Zealand. At the same time, he mobilized a large amount of manpower and material resources from Australia to save New Zealanders in disaster as much as possible.

Arthur's emphasis on New Zealand also made New Zealanders feel how wonderful it is to have an excellent ruler.

Folks in New Zealand gradually began to spread the word that it would be great if Arthur was their monarch.

Although Arthur is now the Governor of New Zealand, his term is only twenty years, and New Zealand is still nominally under the management of the British Empire.

With Arthur, Australia's current development momentum is unstoppable, and its achievements have surpassed New Zealand's best in history.

Coupled with the completely different attitudes towards New Zealand between Australia and the British Empire during this disaster, most New Zealanders gradually had other ideas in their minds.

On 13 December 1903, Arthur merged the Suffrage with New Zealand's House of Commons and renamed the House of Commons the House of Representatives.

At the same time, Grant and Joshua were appointed as life members of the House of Lords.

The Law Commission is New Zealand's upper house, appointed directly by the Governor of New Zealand and has a lifelong tenure.

As can be seen from the name, the functions of the Law Commission probably include formulating and amending existing New Zealand laws and supervising the powers of New Zealand officials.

Since Arthur became Governor-General of New Zealand, there have been no changes to the Law Commission.

There are currently six members in the Legal Committee. Except for Pierce, the commander of the garrison, and Grant and Joshua, the other three are all lifelong members left by the previous governor.

Fortunately, these three people were also very obedient to Arthur, because they also knew that life-long parliamentarians were just a matter of words to Arthur. Even as the governor of New Zealand, Arthur could control them. The power of life and death.

This was actually a check and balance measure by the British Empire against colonies like New Zealand that already had autonomy.

In a colony like New Zealand, the governor's position and power are basically equivalent to the head of state, and represents the British royal family and the British king.

The Governor is appointed directly by the King of England and is not elected from among New Zealanders. This also means that the measures formulated and implemented by the Governor must be biased towards the British Empire. After all, everyone knows who their immediate boss is.

This actually gave Arthur an advantage. As the irreplaceable governor of New Zealand, Arthur's rights in New Zealand were also very huge. There was no force or individual in New Zealand that could resist Arthur's rights.

The garrison commander Pierce may be one of them, but Pierce also knows his abilities very well. So far, he has not had any conflict with Arthur.

Under the premise that the New Zealand government is full of smart people, no one can stop Arthur from merging the suffrage group and the House of Commons. This is equivalent to Arthur's success in installing a large number of people loyal to him in the New Zealand House of Commons.

As New Zealand's reconstruction efforts stabilize, New Zealand's political situation becomes increasingly volatile.

On December 17, a member of the Alliance Party delivered a speech that shocked the entire New Zealand in his hometown town, trumpeting the greatness of Arthur and believing that New Zealand should join Australia, just like it did sixty years ago.

This is not unfounded. I don’t know where this member obtained the information, but he did provide a very detailed information on the development of each Australian state, starting from the time when Australia was not independent until the latest this year. In summary of the third quarter, various data confirm the reality that all six states in Australia are experiencing high-level and high-speed development. Australia’s current development results and potential have far exceeded New Zealand.

Of course, this is not what New Zealanders pay attention to, but another reality confirmed by this piece of information.

Australia has achieved common development among six states. Even in Tasmania, the state with the smallest population, people's living standards have been greatly improved.

Although Tasmania has the smallest population, this also means that economic improvement has been very rapid and effective.

With the construction of hospitals and schools, as well as nursing homes, orphanages and some roads in Tasmania, Tasmania's living standards and people's income have experienced explosive growth. The current per capita annual The income has reached fifteen pounds, already exceeding the New Zealand level.

Not to mention other states in Australia. Because they are generally rich in mineral resources, the five states in the Australian continent are developing rapidly. Even South Australia, which has the lowest per capita income, has now reached 14 pounds. above.

This level of income is truly enviable for New Zealanders. Since New Zealand separated from Australia, the highest per capita income was only sixteen pounds, and it has been gradually decreasing with New Zealand's sluggish economy.

Especially after this typhoon, it has dealt a serious blow to New Zealand's economy, and New Zealand's per capita income will see a cliff-like drop.

According to bold predictions by some New Zealand newspapers, New Zealand's per capita annual income would drop to eleven pounds by the end of 1903.

This is not over yet. The year that will be most affected must be 1904. It is expected that the per capita annual income of New Zealanders will not exceed eleven pounds in 1904. Even being able to maintain it at ten pounds is a relatively good result.

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