Chapter 178 New Zealand Referendum

As New Zealand prepares for the referendum, Australia also celebrates its fourth National Day, which also represents four years since the founding of Australia.

This National Day event was not as grand as in previous years because the new palace and the new government building were under construction, and there was no military parade.

It was mainly about flag-raising and the government's annual speech, and Arthur did not rush back to Australia.

After half a month of preparation, on January 15, 1904, the New Zealand-wide referendum officially began.

In order to ensure the fairness of this referendum, New Zealand dispatched almost all colonial government officials and all garrison soldiers to resolutely resist any unfair behavior.

New Zealand also invited officials from the German Empire, the British Empire, France, Australia and the Kingdom of the Netherlands as witness groups to ensure the fairness of this referendum.

Of course, these officials were actually colonial officials from around New Zealand, which was why they were able to arrive in New Zealand quickly.

However, these people actually do bear the orders of their respective countries, and they do have the right to represent their respective countries.

In order to ensure the fairness of this referendum, the referendum will last from January 15th to February 15th, a full month.

During this period, New Zealand will invite the entire witness team to conduct random inspections in all cities and towns in New Zealand to ensure the fairness of this referendum.

There are three options in this referendum, namely New Zealand's independence, continuing to be ruled by the British Empire as an autonomous colony, and joining Australia.

Looking at these three options, the most unpopular one is New Zealand independence.

In this typhoon crisis, New Zealanders have seen the shortcomings of New Zealand's individual strength.

If it were not for the help of Australia and European countries, New Zealand would probably have a headache just in the rescue process after the disaster, and there would even be more casualties and losses.

This is actually a common problem around the world. Weak regions and countries are like meat on the hunter's table and can only wait to be divided by the powerful countries.

Judging from the size of New Zealand, even if it succeeds in becoming independent, it will only become a joke.

Although it is much better economically and industrially than Asian countries of the same size, it is not at all comparable to European countries.

And although New Zealand has gained complete independence from the control of the British Empire, it will also be coveted by other powers.

New Zealand's size is simply not enough to resist any major country, not even secondary powers such as Spain and the Netherlands.

Such an ending may not be better than remaining in the British Empire. At least the British Empire is still the world's largest power and has the ability to protect all its colonies.

With the anticipation of all New Zealanders, the New Zealand referendum has officially begun.

A total of hundreds of collection points have been set up across New Zealand to collect the referendum choices of all New Zealanders.

In addition, the New Zealand colonial government will also organize personnel to go to some relatively remote areas to collect the opinions of New Zealanders, and try to allow all eligible New Zealanders to participate in this referendum.

Because New Zealand's land area is not large, the referendum lasted only one month.

But there will be a statistical period of up to half a month after that, and then the results of New Zealand's referendum will be officially announced on March 1, one and a half months later.

New Zealand's referendum has attracted attention from some regions around the world. After all, apart from Australia, which is relatively special, this is also the first incident in New Zealand where colonial residents have control over the destiny of their own region.

This even gave some countries in colonial areas the hope of independence, and they also wanted to instigate a referendum so that the country could gain independent status.

Unfortunately, their rulers did not have the evidence that Arthur had, and their actions were destined to fail.

European colonial countries that had not been weakened by World War I and World War II would never have given up the colonies they owned.

Even some small countries in Europe regard their own colonies as very important, not to mention the established powers that rely on their colonies to absorb large amounts of profits and resources.

Politicians in these countries have even anticipated the harm that events like New Zealand will bring to their colonies, and therefore have already placed colonial armies on standby to suppress possible colonial rebellions.

At this time, the attitudes of various countries towards colonial residents were still relatively cruel. For colonial residents, human rights were something they could only hope for half a century later.

Arthur did not appear in the referendum, but Joshua, representing Arthur, still represented Australia and toured all New Zealand cities.

This referendum attracted enthusiastic participation from New Zealanders. It can be seen from the often full collection boxes in various towns that there are not a few people participating in this referendum. This can also better reflect the true opinions of the New Zealand people. .

Wellington and Auckland, including the four cities of Christchurch and Invercargill in the South Island of New Zealand, are the places visited most frequently by the entire Witness Corps.

Because these four cities are the four most populous and relatively most economically developed cities in New Zealand.

Among them, Wellington and Auckland are located on the North Island of New Zealand, and Christchurch and Invercargill are located on the South Island of New Zealand.

However, compared with Wellington and Auckland, the two cities in the South Island lag far behind in terms of population size and economic development.

The populations of Wellington and Auckland in New Zealand have both exceeded 100,000. In particular, Wellington, New Zealand, has a population of more than 150,000.

It is worth mentioning that when New Zealand first separated from Australia, its colonial capital was Auckland.

It wasn't until 1865 that the colonial capital of New Zealand was moved from Auckland to Wellington, the southernmost area of ​​New Zealand's North Island, across the sea from the northernmost part of the South Island.

But at this time, Wellington was still a backward town, and the choice of Wellington as the capital was based on the opinions of Australian parliamentarians (because Australian parliamentarians were relatively neutral and maintained good relations with New Zealand.)

The reason for choosing to move the capital is not that Auckland's location is not good.

On the contrary, Auckland, including nearby urban areas, was located in the plains and had the largest population and the most developed economy in New Zealand at the time.

However, because of the discovery of gold mines in the South Island of New Zealand, the colonial government of New Zealand was worried that the discovery of gold mines in the South Island of New Zealand, coupled with the fact that the capital was located in Auckland, the northern end of the North Island of New Zealand, would lead to the collapse of the South Island. The people had an independent mentality and separated from New Zealand to establish a new colony. Therefore, the colonial capital was moved to the relative center of New Zealand, Wellington, the southernmost tip of the North Island.

When Wellington became the capital of New Zealand, it was just a small town with a population of less than 5,000.

With the development of New Zealand by successive governors of New Zealand, Wellington gradually grew into a city and became the second largest port city in New Zealand after Auckland.

Wellington is now the political, industrial and economic center of New Zealand, and has surpassed Auckland to become New Zealand's largest city.

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