Chapter 487 Fort St. Arthur

The controversy over the food safety bill continued, and Arthur also established the Food Safety Administration to supervise and manage the safety of food and catering.

Regarding food safety, Arthur welcomes and encourages Australasians to actively report companies suspected of violating the Food Safety Act. Once verified, they can receive a reward of up to 1,000 Australian dollars.

Although Arthur encourages everyone to report actively, it cannot be ruled out that some people report maliciously. For malicious reporting behavior, especially continuous malicious reporting behavior, the government will also impose fines based on the actual situation.

But generally speaking, ordinary people will not continue to maliciously report food companies. After all, they have no hatred and no hatred. Malicious reporting will put themselves at risk.

While the nationwide food safety inspection campaign was still in progress, Arthur took a special train and prepared to go to the location of the new capital, the Murray River Basin.

Accompanying Arthur were Laurent, the Minister of Transport, Kevin, the Minister of Finance, and a portion of the Guards.

Even before construction of the new capital began, a nationwide consultation process was held.

After all, it is a brand new capital, built in a wilderness, and it should also have a brand new name.

Arthur handed over the naming rights to all Australasians, solicited Australasian opinions in major newspapers, and voted to choose the most popular name for the new capital.

In the end, St. Arthur's Castle emerged as the official name for the new capital.

Major newspapers received a total of more than 5 million name suggestion letters and selected 100 names that seemed more reliable for public voting.

St. Arthur's Castle received a support rate of 49.3%, with more than 3 million people voting for St. Arthur's Castle.

Arthur's English name is Arthur, which is translated as Arthur or Arthur. The famous British mythological and historical monarch King Arthur also has this name.

St. Arthur's Castle (St. Arthur's Castle) can not only commemorate Arthur's great contribution to Australasia, but also commemorate this famous figure in Celtic mythology.

It is unknown whether the story of King Arthur is true, but the legendary story of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table is something that all British people are proud of and often remember.

It may be controversial to put the word "holy" in front of Arthur's name, but there is no objection to adding the word "holy" in front of King Arthur's name.

Anyway, Arthur comes from the British royal family, and there is nothing wrong with saying that Australasia has inherited the cultural heritage and mythology of the British Empire.

Fort St. Arthur is located at the junction of the Murray River and the Darling River. The current permanent resident population has exceeded 1,000 people.

After a day of hurrying and hurrying, Arthur finally arrived at the new city before dark.

After all, this was Arthur's first time in this area. Before this area was identified as the site for the new capital, there was not even a railway line.

Even in Australia in later generations, this area was not developed. The vast plain areas were gradually abandoned, and hundreds of thousands of square kilometers of land were wasted.

The situation now is much better than it was 100 years ago. From the moment you enter the Murray River Plain, you can see an obvious lush plain.

Because it had long been identified as the site of the new capital, a railway connecting Adelaide and Melbourne was built in this area.

There is a brand new highway next to the railway, prepared for the new capital. It is a large two-way four-lane highway up to 12.5 meters wide.

It can be seen from the administrative map of Australasia that the capital is located exactly at the border of New South Wales and Victoria, and the entire Murray River Basin is also distributed on the border of the two states.

Like the previous capital territory, it is destined to be additionally divided, new administrative regions will be established, and the southeast will be divided more finely.

As a country with a land area not much different from that of the United States, Australasia has only a dozen administrative divisions, and the mainland (Australia and New Zealand) has only nine administrative divisions.

Although it seems that the maximum area of ​​a single state is even up to millions of square kilometers, such a huge administrative division is not an advantage, but a flaw in the country's administrative divisions.

Especially the southeastern states of New South Wales and Victoria, the combined size of these two states far exceeds the sum of the other states in Australia.

New South Wales and Victoria combined would have twice as much land as any other state, were it not for the extra land around Sydney that was divided into the ACT.

With the development of the times, big cities have become the current international mainstream. But that doesn't mean the divisions in states like Victoria and New South Wales, which make up a significant portion of the country's population and size, are healthy.

Even considered seriously, these two states can affect the entire country at any time, which can easily cause an imbalance in national political power.

Returning to St. Arthur's Castle, after Arthur arrived at the planned urban area, he did not rush to inspect the construction progress of the capital. Instead, he followed the Murray River and the Darling River to actually observe the flow conditions of these two rivers.

These two rivers are definitely the two most important rivers in Australasia, with a drainage area of ​​1.64 million square kilometers, and most of them are flat plains.

If the basins of these two rivers can be fully developed, it will be a huge boost to Australasia's agriculture, animal husbandry and development.

The Australian region will also completely widen the gap with future generations. Australia alone has the basic guarantee to become a powerful country.

It is no exaggeration to say that the Australian region that has developed the Darling and Murray river basins already has the capacity to accommodate hundreds of millions or even 200 million people.

Coupled with lands such as New Zealand and New Guinea, Australasia will have no problem accommodating a population of more than 300 million in a healthy way.

Pay attention to healthy tolerance. If the gains and losses of resources are not calculated, there is no problem in accommodating a population of more than 500 million, but it will significantly reduce the number of resources per capita.

But having said that, an immigrant country like Australasia would not have a population of hundreds of millions without hundreds of years of precipitation and development.

Based on the calculation of 2 million immigrants and 500,000 newborn babies every year, it will take at least more than 30 years for Australasia's population to reach hundreds of millions.

This still does not count the number of deaths. The number of immigrants must be maintained at more than 2 million.

Ideally, being able to increase the population to about 50 million before World War II would already satisfy Arthur's appetite.

After all, 50 million is considered the threshold for a superpower and a powerful country. Only a population of more than 50 million can form an army of millions and become one of the protagonists in super wars such as World War I and World War II.

Note that the army here is the local army in the true sense, that is, the National Defense Force composed entirely of citizens.

If you want to use those indigenous armies to make up the numbers, Australasia can easily form millions of troops now, but the real combat effectiveness is worth pondering.

You know, with the development of time and technology, the impact of manpower on war is actually decreasing.

In particular, the impact of the indigenous army composed of indigenous people on the war is actually decreasing.

During the First World War, the British and Australasian armies were generally composed of indigenous troops. Especially in Australasia, the defense force only numbered over 100,000, but more than 1 million troops were sent to the European battlefield in World War I.

The big reason for this is that the weapons used in World War I were not very advanced. The reliability of aircraft and tanks was not high. The real lethal weapons were machine guns and artillery.

This simplest heavy firepower weapon can be stacked with human life, and most of the time even a desperate charge will have miraculous effects.

However, the performance of aircraft and tanks in World War II was greatly improved, and their damage to ordinary people was also greatly increased.

More often than not, those ordinary indigenous soldiers are cannon fodder in the true sense, and can only delay the war a little.

The war at this time was not only a competition of manpower and materials, but also a competition of technology.

Especially after World War II, after several powerful countries mastered nuclear weapons, manpower became less popular.

After all, if a war broke out, an atomic bomb would be enough to kill hundreds of thousands of people. The millions of troops who were proud of World War I were nothing more than paper in the face of the atomic bomb.

Especially after Australasia's population exceeds 20 million, it can form an army of more than one million based on its own population alone.

At this time, the role of indigenous people is not that high. A large number of indigenous people will also take jobs from Australasians, which will be counterproductive.

Therefore, Australasia's next goal is to develop a large number of military technologies. Especially when it comes to tanks and aircraft, you have to stay ahead of the curve.

Compared with the Murray River, the water volume of the Darling River is too dependent on the seasons. The amount of water in the Darling River is still very abundant during the rainy season, but during the dry season the amount of water will be reduced by more than half, which has certain restrictions on the development of agriculture.

However, the current water volume of the Darling River is still completely sufficient. Before this area is fully developed, there will not be such a high demand for water.

Arthur looked at the relatively detailed geographical drawings drawn by the survey team. The basin centered on the new capital was almost covered by the Murray River and the Darling River. As long as it was managed well, there would be no shortage of water resources.

This is encouraging news, after all, the development of industry, agriculture, and even cities require large amounts of water, which is scarce in much of Australasia.

There is a peculiar phenomenon in Australasia. Whether a region is suitable for urban development is not based on the resources and development potential of the region, but on the water resources the region possesses.

Sydney and Melbourne, the two most populous cities, are both located on the seaside, in the southeastern part of Australia, east and south of the Great Dividing Range, with abundant rainfall and no shortage of water resources.

The southeastern region, which has relatively high development, is also due to its large amount of water resources.

The reason why South Australia and Western Australia cannot develop is precisely because these two states have large areas of desert, a very arid climate, and a considerable lack of water resources.

The Leonora Industrial Base constructed in Western Australia has almost exhausted the water resources of the entire state of Western Australia, and water resources issues have also caused a headache for both the state and national governments.

The North-to-South Water Diversion Project that Arthur is so obsessed with cannot be completed in a short time, not to mention that the submarine pipeline technology has not been cracked so far.

Taken together, the only areas in Australasia that can and are suitable for vigorous development are the Murray and Darling river basins.

As long as these more than 1.6 million square kilometers of land are fully developed, Australasia's agriculture, animal husbandry and industry will advance further, and the country's development potential will also be greatly increased.

Arthur was very satisfied with the first day's itinerary. The attendants camped on the spot and built a temporary campsite for Arthur and the soldiers to live.

This trip to inspect the new capital will take at least several days, so the soldiers are quite well prepared.

After tasting a steak and a can of canned fruit, Arthur fell asleep in a hurry, ending his busy day.

The canned fruit Arthur enjoyed was specially made by the Royal Food Cannery and specially supplied to the royal family to ensure that there would be enough fruit for consumption during the long journey.

Such cans do not have any additives and pursue the taste of the food itself. They are very healthy and Arthur will occasionally taste them.

Of course, the absence of additives makes the shelf life of this kind of canned food very short. The shelf life of ordinary canned fruits is no more than 15 days at most, and it must be eaten within 7 days at the shortest.

In addition to the cans specially supplied to the royal family, there are also some higher-end cans on the market, which also have no additives or only very few additives.

The price of this kind of can is much more expensive than ordinary cans, and the main focus is health.

It is worth mentioning that this relatively expensive can is provided to the nobles free of charge, but in limited quantities.

This can be regarded as an additional benefit for the nobles. The nobles can also choose to buy it themselves. Anyway, no nobles in Australasia are short of money.

Arthur's campsite is near the Murray River Basin, and the sound of the rushing river can even be heard.

Accompanied by the fresh air and the sound of water flowing, Arthur quickly fell asleep, with only the chirping of insects and gusts of night wind in his ears.

Although Arthur fell asleep, the soldiers on guard did not dare to blink. Australia's wild environment is relatively poor. Although there is a lack of large carnivores, there are still many poisonous insects and snakes.

Although the team will carry insect repellent and snake repellent medicine with them, no one can guarantee whether there will be an accident.

The best way is to stay by Arthur's side at all times to ensure that poisonous insects and snakes don't suddenly get into the tent. After all, this is no joke.

There are several professional doctors accompanying the team, and no one can guarantee whether there will be a special poisonous insect. It was about Arthur's life and safety, and no one dared to let down their guard.

Fortunately, there were still a lot of Guards soldiers who came over. A group of 20 people protected Arthur's tent. They rotated every hour, and the night was quickly passed.

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