Chapter 217: Continuous Growth of Finance
Most of these universities were established only in the past two years, so it will take at least another year or two for them to graduate their first batch of students.
Currently, Australasia's university programs are already quite diverse, with different universities specializing in their own areas of expertise.
For example, Australasia National University has strong programs in Physics, Chemistry, and Architecture, and its student enrollment reflects this.
Arthur's first instruction to the Minister of Education, Richard, was to expand the current universities as much as possible, while also further improving the quality of education and teaching standards.
This means that Australasia needs to introduce more university professors and lecturers from Europe to meet the teaching needs of its growing universities.
Currently, Australasia does not have a formal military academy to train military personnel in various fields.
After careful consideration, Arthur ultimately decided to establish a military academy under the royal name, called the Royal Military Academy of Australasia.
The academy will consist of three main colleges: the Army College, the Navy College, and the Air Force College, forming a complete Royal Military Academy of Australasia.
The Royal Military Academy will be funded by the royal family to the tune of 5 million Australian dollars, and Arthur will serve as the honorary president to help train various types of military talents for Australasia.
Among the three colleges, the Air Force College is quite simple to set up—this can be achieved by transferring the personnel from the Aviation Laboratory, thus quickly establishing the basic scale of the Air Force College.
For the Army College and Navy College, aside from recruiting from the army, Arthur also plans to offer high salaries to recruit experts from Europe.
Anyone with capability will be invited to the military academy as high-paying faculty members.
The Royal Military Academy will have two main recruitment channels: one is for high school graduates who enter through an exam, becoming traditional students of the academy. The second method is to select soldiers with potential from the military.
Regardless of how they enter, as long as they graduate successfully, they will be able to become officers in the Australasia military.
To accelerate the establishment of the Royal Military Academy and improve its teaching facilities, Arthur also plans to invite a large number of experts from Germany and the UK to help establish the academy smoothly.
After all, in terms of the army and navy, Germany and the UK are currently the most powerful.
Whenever a country's army shows strong potential and power, it is often praised as the "Prussia" of its region.
This shows how deeply the strength of the German Empire's army is ingrained in people's minds and serves as the highest praise for the German army.
Compared to the development of universities, the development of technical schools is much simpler.
Because the goal of talent development is different, technical schools only need some experienced personnel to establish them, and the students usually only need to master one skill to graduate.
Currently, Australasia's three technical schools are capable of training thousands of technical workers and talents.
When factoring in various civilian technical training programs, this number becomes even larger.
But Arthur is not satisfied with this number and has specifically instructed Minister Richard to expand the size of Australasia's technical schools and establish more of them.
In terms of technical workers and talents, Australasia is not one to shy away from expansion, and it plans to train as many as possible.
After more than six years of development, Australasia's transportation system has gradually improved.
Firstly, the longest industrial railway in Australasia has now largely completed its single-line operation, and the double-track completion is only a few months away.
This industrial railway has greatly improved the transportation environment of the Australian continent, making communication between the western and eastern parts of Australia much more effective.
Secondly, in New Zealand, the railway construction on the North Island is now mostly completed, and the circular railway has made transportation on the North Island incredibly developed.
Currently, New Zealand's South Island only has one railway line running from Picton in the north to Invercargill in the south.
Of course, this scale of railway is not satisfactory to Australasia. Arthur has outlined the next phase of railway construction plans for the transportation department: a northern railway in Australia, connecting the entire northern region and complementing the southern industrial railway, forming a network around the whole of Australia.
The length of this railway is comparable to the industrial railway, and Arthur has given the department eight years to complete it.
Fortunately, Australia has enough manpower and funds to support the northern railway construction plan, and everyone has agreed to it.
As for New Zealand's railway system, it is almost complete. In other areas that lack railway infrastructure, they are mostly remote mountainous regions where constructing railways would not be practical or necessary.
Thus, in New Zealand, the most important task for the transportation department is to build more roads, ensuring that the road network reaches all cities and towns, allowing the people of New Zealand to truly benefit from the development of transportation.
The final report was from the finance department.
In 1906, the total fiscal expenditure of the Kingdom of Australasia was 29.31 million Australian dollars, while the total fiscal revenue was 21.2 million Australian dollars, resulting in a fiscal deficit of about 8.1 million Australian dollars.
The reason for such a large fiscal deficit is largely due to the ongoing industrial construction projects across Australasia.
However, if we look at fiscal revenue alone, the government's fiscal income in Australasia has been steadily increasing, with the fiscal deficit shrinking year by year.
This is evident from the available funds in the government's treasury. Currently, the Ministry of Finance has available funds of 234 million Australian dollars, which is only 60 million Australian dollars less than four years ago.
But over these four years, Australasia's economic development has far exceeded that figure, with total fiscal revenue having increased by half compared to four years ago.
In addition to industrial development, Australasia's agriculture has also seen significant progress.
Due to the large number of indigenous people involved, the amount of arable land in Australasia has increased by 50% compared to four years ago, and per capita arable land has increased by 30%.
Also, in terms of livestock, Australasia has over 160 million sheep. If the number is divided by the population, each person could have 24 sheep.
This figure highlights just how dominant Australasia's livestock industry is, making it completely justified to call it a major livestock power.
This doesn't even count the cattle and other animals in Australia. Wool, beef, lamb, milk, and other livestock products are Australasia's key export agricultural products, generating a considerable income every year.
This brings us to the British Empire. Initially, the British Empire's livestock products came from New Zealand, but eventually, they were replaced by Australia as it developed.
After the establishment of Australasia, it naturally inherited Australia's role, becoming the supplier of livestock products for the British Empire and many European countries.
Because of the highly developed livestock industry, in Australasia, meat is cheaper than grain, and meat products make up a significant part of the people's diet.
(End of Chapter)
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