Chapter 216: The Development of Universities
"Our current population is still too small. Even compared to the secondary powers in Europe, we have many disadvantages. If Australasia wants to become a powerful country, having a population in the tens of millions is the bare minimum," Arthur shook his head and said, "In the new year, I hope all departments can work together and launch an aggressive immigration plan. British immigrants, German immigrants, Russian immigrants, and even European immigrants are all our targets. I hope Australasia's population can surpass ten million as soon as possible, reaching the true potential of a great power."
Population has always been a very important resource for any nation.
Looking at the current global powers, their populations are all in the tens of millions, often numbering in the tens of millions or even over a hundred million.
These large populations bring these countries immense potential for development and are one of the fundamental reasons why they are able to become global powers.
A country with fewer than ten million people can only be a regional power at best, and still, it would be constrained by other countries in certain areas.
According to Arthur's vision for development, if Australasia wants to become a great power, it must at least have a population of ten million.
If Australasia aspires to become one of the major powers, then it needs a population of at least twenty million, or even thirty to forty million.
Such a population target, of course, cannot be achieved in a short period of time, but efforts must start now. The first step is to aggressively push forward with the immigration plan.
In fact, Australasia's immigration program has already surpassed what was done historically by Australia.
Over the past six years, the population of the entire Australian region has increased by more than a million, with an average annual increase of two to three hundred thousand people, which is the best proof.
But such a growth rate is clearly not enough to meet Arthur's expectations. Based on Australasia's current needs, the more immigrants, the better. There is no such thing as too many immigrants.
"Yes, Your Majesty!" Minister Walter nodded repeatedly, and the other ministers responded in kind.
"Go on," Arthur signaled.
"Your Majesty, although our population has grown, our per capita income has not decreased. As of now, the kingdom's per capita annual income is around 40 Australian dollars. Of this, Australia's per capita income is 41 Australian dollars, New Zealand's per capita income is 37 Australian dollars, and New Guinea's per capita income is 33 Australian dollars," Minister Walter continued.
Because most of Australasia's infrastructure is located in Australia, the per capita income in Australia is also the highest.
To take care of the people in the New Zealand region, the construction of two states in New Zealand has begun, but the effects may not be visible for another year or two.
As for the New Guinea colony, being Australasia's only colony, it has not been given much attention because of the ongoing full-scale construction projects in Australasia.
Additionally, more than one-sixth of New Guinea's indigenous population has been sent to the mainland for construction, resulting in low income growth in the colony's population.
Another factor is that all the minerals in New Guinea are state-owned, and the primary economic activity of the indigenous population is agriculture.
This region is suitable for agricultural cultivation, and its crop production accounts for one-fifteenth of the total output in the Kingdom of Australasia.
Although this proportion is not particularly high, the population of New Guinea is under 40,000, and the per capita crop yield is much higher than in mainland Australasia.
Because of the population shortage in New Guinea, the kingdom's government has introduced certain immigration policies to encourage a small number of people to migrate to the colony.
Each person who moves to New Guinea will be granted about ten acres of land and will be able to rent indigenous workers from the colony government at a very low cost.
If it weren't for the lack of population, Arthur had planned to expand crop cultivation in New Guinea and turn the colony into Australasia's major granary.
In fact, even though much of Australasia's vast territory is desert or unsuitable for farming, there is still a large amount of arable land available.
The kingdom currently has a relatively small number of indigenous people involved in agriculture, even when including New Guinea, the total number of indigenous agricultural workers is under 100,000.
In addition to these, Australasia's agricultural population creates over 5.5 million tons of food annually.
If you include the meat and dairy products from Australasia's well-developed livestock industry, these foods can feed over 20 million people.
If it weren't for the current small agricultural population and the relatively underdeveloped agricultural technology, Australasia could easily feed over 100 million people with its agricultural output.
This abundance of food supply also means that the impoverished population in Australasia can receive sufficient food.
At least, Arthur is confident that in the Kingdom of Australasia, there will never be incidents of people dying from hunger.
Since the establishment of the Royal Relief Committee, the living standards of the people in Arthur's realm have greatly improved.
At least within the Kingdom of Australasia, the word "hunger" is becoming increasingly distant, and starvation has turned into just a rumor.
In this era, for a monarch, winning the hearts of the people is quite simple, and Arthur deeply understands this.
All it takes is a promise—a promise to make sure people have enough to eat, are warmly clothed, and live happy lives.
Then, little by little, that promise is fulfilled from scratch. Once that promise is realized, most people will recognize and love you, and you will naturally win the people's hearts.
Arthur gives the people of Australasia a good life, and these people will naturally do everything they can to support Arthur in protecting their happy lives.
After Minister Walter finished his report, Minister of Health, Willy, stood up to present the situation of the Ministry of Health.
"Your Majesty, our health initiatives have shown significant results. As of now, the Kingdom of Australasia has fourteen large hospitals distributed across all the states and colonies. We encourage private medical professionals to establish small clinics, and the private hospital initiative has also achieved great success. There are now more than 100 small clinics and private hospitals, most of which are located in Australia and New Zealand," Minister Willy said with a smile.
The progress in healthcare has reduced the mortality rate in Australasia and greatly improved the healthcare environment.
Along with the development of transportation, people can now conveniently access hospitals. The establishment of various small clinics and private hospitals has also met the healthcare needs of the people.
"Your Majesty, there's another important matter I must mention. During this period of healthcare development, we were surprised to find that some medical practices from East Asia have proven to be very effective in addressing certain conditions that we were previously unable to treat. They can even solve some difficult diseases better than Western medicine currently can," Minister Willy said, as if remembering something important.
Arthur immediately understood what Minister Willy meant.
This was a medical system that had a much longer history than Western medicine. The decline of this system in later years was due to suppression and the loss of many advanced medical techniques and texts in the course of history.
"Whether a medical practice is effective or not is not determined by words alone. Don't we have many indigenous people? Let's try it on them first. If this medical practice can treat many diseases that Western medicine cannot, then it is indeed good. If it proves useful, we will not hesitate to widely adopt and study it. In any case, Australasia needs an excellent healthcare system, and we should draw from the best practices of other cultures," Arthur said, maintaining an open attitude toward the development of Australasia's healthcare system.
Perhaps combining Eastern and Western medicine is the most appropriate path forward, and since much of the Eastern medical knowledge has not yet been lost, Australasia may one day become a country well known for its expertise in Eastern medicine.
After receiving Arthur's stance, Minister Willy felt reassured, and he was eager to see how much Eastern medicine could help the development of Western medicine.
Similar to healthcare, the educational sector in Australasia had also seen significant progress.
After more than six years of development, Australasia's universities had also grown considerably.
Currently, Australasia has six universities, three technical schools, and several primary and secondary schools.
The development of primary and secondary schools has already met the population needs of Australasia, and the average level of education has reached junior high school.
As for universities, among the six universities, three are in Australia and three in New Zealand.
The three universities in Australia are Victoria University in Melbourne, University of New South Wales in Newcastle, and National University in Sydney.
The universities in New Zealand are Auckland University, University of Otago, and Victoria University of Wellington.
Although the number of universities appears to be large, only National University and Victoria University of Wellington are truly capable of competing internationally.
Besides these two universities, the other four universities admit fewer than 400 students each year and are relatively small public universities.
As the largest universities in both Australia and New Zealand, National University in Australasia currently admits 900 students annually, while Victoria University of Wellington admits 600 students annually.
Together, these universities produce nearly 3,000 university graduates each year, serving as the most promising source of talent for Australasia.
(End of Chapter)
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