Chapter 230: Chapter 215: The Development of University

“Our current population is still too small, and there are many disadvantages compared to even the second-tier countries in Europe. If Australasia wants to become a powerful country, having a population of tens of millions is the minimum guarantee.” Arthur shook his head and said, “In the new year, I hope that all departments can work together to vigorously carry out the immigration program. British immigrants, German immigrants, Russian immigrants, and even European immigrants are our targets. I hope that the population of Australasia can break through tens of millions as soon as possible, and possess the real potential to become a strong country.”

At any time, the population is a very important resource for a country.

Looking at all the great powers in the world at the moment, their populations are in the tens of millions, sometimes hundreds of millions or even billions.

These populations bring these countries a lot of development potential, and it is one of the fundamental reasons why they can become world powers.

A country with a population of less than ten million, no matter how developed, can at most only become a regional power, and will still be somewhat restricted by other countries.

According to Arthur’s development goals, Australasia needs a population of at least tens of millions in order to become a powerful country.

If Australasia wants to strive to be among the great powers, it needs at least 20 million or even 30 to 40 million people.

Such a population target cannot be achieved in a short period of time, but efforts must be made now, with the first step being to vigorously promote the immigration program.

In fact, Australasia’s immigration program is already ahead of Australia’s historical program by a lot.

Demonstrating this is the more than one million increase in the population of the Australian region over those six years, with an average growth of two to three hundred thousand people a year.

However, such growth rates clearly do not meet Arthur’s expectations. According to Australasia’s current needs, the more immigrants, the better, and there is no such thing as too many.

“Yes, Your Majesty!” Minister Walter nodded repeatedly, and the other ministers followed suit.

“Continue!” Arthur motioned.

“Your Majesty, while our population has grown, our per capita income has not decreased as a result. As of now, the kingdom’s per capita annual income is about 40 Australian dollars. Among them, the Australian region’s per capita annual income is 41 Australian dollars, the New Zealand region’s per capita annual income is 37 Australian dollars, and the New Guinea Colony’s per capita annual income is 33 Australian dollars,” continued Minister Walter.

Due to the majority of Australasia’s construction being located in Australia, Australia’s per capita income is also the highest.

To cater to the feelings of the people of New Zealand, construction has already begun in the two states of New Zealand, but it may take another year or two before results can be seen.

As for the New Guinea Colony, as Australasia’s only colony at present, it has not received much attention because the entire Australasia is undergoing comprehensive construction.

In addition, more than one-sixth of the indigenous population in New Guinea has been sent to the mainland for construction, resulting in a low increase in the colony’s income.

There is also another factor: the mining resources in the New Guinea region are entirely state-owned, and the main economic source of the colony’s population is agriculture.

This is an area suitable for agricultural cultivation, and the agricultural output here accounts for one-fifteenth of the total output of the Kingdom of Australasia.

Although this ratio is not very high, the population of the New Guinea Colony is less than forty thousand, and the per capita grain production is much higher than that of the native Australasian population.

Due to the shortage of population in the New Guinea Colony, the kingdom’s government has also introduced some policies to attract immigration, encouraging a small proportion of the population to move to the colonial area.

Each person who moves to the New Guinea Colony can gain about ten acres of land and rent indigenous workers at a very low cost from the colonial government.

If it were not for the current lack of population, Arthur would have planned to extensively cultivate crops in New Guinea, developing it into a major granary for Australasia.

In fact, while a large proportion of Australasia’s vast territory is desert or not suitable for cultivation, there is still a lot of arable land in the entire Australasia Kingdom.

Currently, there are not many indigenous people involved in agriculture in the Kingdom. Even counting the New Guinea Colony area, there are less than 100,000 indigenous people engaged in agriculture.

In addition to Australasia’s agricultural population, they can produce more than 5.5 million tons of food per year.

If the numbers of livestock and dairy products from the developed animal husbandry industry are also included, this food is enough to feed more than 20 million people.

If it weren’t for the current lack of agricultural population and immature agricultural technology, the entire Australasian region could feed a population of hundreds of millions without any problems.

It is precisely because of the abundant food supply that the impoverished population in Australasia can now obtain sufficient food.

At least Arthur is confident that there will be no incidents of starvation within the Kingdom of Australasia.

Since the establishment of the Royal Relief Committee, the living standards of the people within Arthur’s jurisdiction have been getting better and better.

At least within the Kingdom of Australasia, the word hunger is becoming more distant for people, and starvation has even become a rumor.

In this era, it is actually quite simple for a monarch to win the hearts and minds of the people, and Arthur has a deep understanding of this.

All it takes is a promise, a promise to let people eat well and dress warmly, and lead a happy life.

Then, they gradually realize this promise from nothing. As long as this promise is fulfilled, they will gain the approval and love of most people, and naturally, they will gain the hearts and minds of the people.

Arthur provides the people of Australasia with a good life, and naturally, these people would do their utmost to support Arthur to protect their good life.

After Minister Walter finished his report, Minister Willy of Health stood up and reported on the situation of the Ministry of Health.

“Your Majesty, our medical work has made significant progress. Up to now, there are a total of fourteen large hospitals within the Kingdom of Australasia, distributed in all states and colonies of the Kingdom. Our plan to encourage private medical professionals to establish small clinics and private hospitals has achieved good results. The number of small clinics and private hospitals that have been statistically recorded has exceeded one hundred, most of which are distributed in Australia and New Zealand,” said Minister Willy with a smile.

The development of medical care has reduced the mortality rate of the population in Australasia and significantly alleviated the medical environment in Australasia.

With the development of transportation, people can go to hospitals very conveniently. In addition, the establishment of various small clinics and private hospitals has made people’s medical needs well met.

“Your Majesty, there is another issue that must be mentioned. During this period of medical development, we were surprised to find that some medical techniques from East Asia have a good alleviating effect on some conditions we do not understand. They can even better solve some intractable diseases that even current Western medicine does not possess,” said Minister Willy hurriedly.

Arthur immediately understood what Minister Willy was saying.

This is a medical system with a much longer history of development than Western medicine. The reason why this medical system declined in later generations is first, because it was suppressed, and second, because many advanced medical techniques and medical books disappeared in the course of history.

“Whether a medical technique is effective or not is not something that can be determined by talking. We have many indigenous people, right? First, try it on them. If it is confirmed that this medical technique can cure many intractable diseases that Western medicine cannot treat, then it is a good medical technique. If this medical technique is confirmed to be useful, then we don’t mind promoting it extensively and learning from it. In any case, Australasia needs an excellent medical system, and we should learn from the excellent aspects of other ethnic groups.” Arthur had an open attitude towards the development of Australasia’s medical system.

Perhaps the integration of Chinese and Western medicine is the most suitable medical development. Moreover, at this time, many traditional Chinese medical knowledge has not been lost. Perhaps Australasia can also become a major country in traditional Chinese medicine.

With Arthur’s attitude, Minister Willy was relieved, and he was curious about how far the excellent medical techniques of other ethnic groups could go and what help they could provide for the growth of Western medicine.

Along with the significant development of medical care, the education industry in Australasia has also made great strides.

After more than six years of painstaking development, the universities in Australasia have also ushered in significant growth.

Currently, Australasia has a total of six universities, three technical schools, and numerous primary and secondary schools.

The construction of primary and secondary schools has basically met the needs of the population of Australasia, and the per capita education level of Australasia has grown to the level of junior high school.

As for universities, there are currently three in the Australian region and three in the New Zealand region.

The three universities in the Australian region are Victoria University in Melbourne, the University of New South Wales in Newcastle, and the National University in Sydney.

While the universities in the New Zealand region are Oakland University in Oakland, Otago University in Otago, and Victoria University of Wellington in Wellington.

Although there seem to be many universities, only the National University and Victoria University of Wellington can truly connect with the international community.

Other than these two universities, the other four universities have an annual enrollment of just under four hundred students and are relatively small public universities.

As the largest university in the Australian and New Zealand regions, Australasia National University currently has an annual enrollment of nine hundred students, while Victoria University of Wellington has an annual enrollment of six hundred students.

All these various universities combined can produce nearly three thousand university students for Australasia each year, making them the most promising source of talent for Australasia.