Chapter 118 Return to Australia (Please Subscribe!)

On May 11, 1902, after making all the arrangements in New Zealand, Arthur left New Zealand on a warship and embarked on the journey back to Australia.

This trip to New Zealand took one and a half months and consumed a lot of manpower and material resources.

Of course, all of this is worth it. If all the plans in New Zealand can be successfully completed, then not only will Australia have a chance to annex New Zealand, but Arthur will also gain a large territory.

New Zealand currently has three forces: the garrison, the colonial government and the political group. The checks and balances between them can also make New Zealand more stable.

In addition, Arthur arranged an eyeliner in New Zealand, that is, Joshua Bullock, the head of the Royal Relief Committee in New Zealand.

Under various guarantees, it can be ensured that the development of New Zealand will not exceed Arthur's control.

Three days later, on May 14, Arthur successfully arrived at the port of Sydney, Australia, and returned to Australia.

Every time Arthur returned from abroad, the port of Sydney was surrounded by people who came to greet him.

This time was no exception. In addition to the welcoming team arranged by the government, the port of Sydney was also surrounded by spontaneous crowds.

There was no speech this time, because Arthur's reputation in Australia had reached its peak and did not need to rely on frequent speeches to maintain it.

After returning to Australia, Arthur's first stop was the gold mine on the border of New South Wales.

It has been three months since the discovery of this gold mining area.

During these three months, the Ministry of Industry conducted detailed surveys and divisions of the gold mining area, and sealed off the specific scope of the gold mining area, and no unrelated people were allowed to enter.

It took a month to survey the specific scope, and it took nearly a month to prepare for mining and mobilize the indigenous people.

At present, after more than a month of mining, tens of thousands of tons of gold ore have been stockpiled and are already being refined.

There are many gold mines in Australia, which also leads to many factories that can refine gold.

Although many of them are private workshops of gold diggers themselves, there are also large factories belonging to the Australian government.

The closest refinery to the new gold mining area is the refinery in southern New South Wales, which is also the second largest gold mining refinery in Australia.

The largest gold mining refinery is located in Victoria, which is also the only state that can compete with New South Wales economically.

After arriving at the gold mining area, Arthur first met with the troops stationed in the gold mining area.

Originally, the troops of the First Division should have been stationed here, but because the troops of the First Division had just been reorganized and were still intensively trained, the task of protecting the gold mine was handed over to the Guards.

Currently stationed near the gold mining area is the First Infantry Battalion of the Guards Division Infantry Regiment.

The garrison of the gold mine adopted a rotational stationing strategy, changing posts every once in a while and mobilizing new troops.

Under the protection of the army, Arthur successfully entered the large storage area of ​​the gold mining area, where all the gold-bearing ores mined from the gold mining area are stored.

These gold ores will be loaded here and transported to a refinery not far away to be refined into pure gold, then melted into gold bars of fixed weight and transferred to a more confidential place.

Although the storage area is only a few dozen kilometers away from the refinery, it only takes four or five hours even if a horse-drawn carriage is used.

But for the sake of safety, each time the gold ore is transported, in addition to the protection of at least hundreds of cavalry troops, at least one hundred stationed troops will be mobilized to follow and protect it.

With such security forces, it is impossible for any force in Australia to snatch this batch of gold ore from the army. Arthur and the government both agreed to protect their own interests.

Needless to say, the refinery, in addition to the security forces of the refinery itself, also has a military force of hundreds of people stationed nearby, the purpose is just to protect this refinery that can produce gold.

These golds are related to the success rate of Arthur's next step in issuing his own currency, and Arthur cannot help but pay attention to it.

With the input of several thousand natives, the current mining efficiency of the gold mine is very good. The maximum daily mining volume can reach 7,000 tons of gold ore, and each native can mine more than two tons of ore per day on average.

It is precisely because of the input of these large numbers of natives that the mining efficiency of the gold mine has developed rapidly in a short period of time, and the mining cost of the gold mine has not actually increased much.

There is indeed a disadvantage to doing this, that is, the loss of natives is too high, and even dozens of natives die in the gold mining area every day.

But such consumption is far less than the purchase volume of thousands of natives every month, not to mention that few Australians care about the life and death of these natives.

Born in this society where the strong prey on the weak, the only thing to blame is that their nation and country are not strong enough.

After visiting the gold mining area, Arthur took his own special car to the gold mine refinery.

It has been a week since the first batch of gold ore was delivered to the refinery, and now it is the day when the first batch of gold bricks are made and accepted.

Accompanying Arthur to the refinery were Prime Minister Evan and Minister of Industry Pierre.

Compared to horse-drawn carriages, cars are much faster.

Arthur, who could only ride in horse-drawn carriages in New Zealand, was finally able to experience the speed and convenience of cars again.

The gold mining area is about 60 kilometers away from the refinery. A horse carriage may take three or four hours, but for a car, it can arrive in more than an hour.

Of course, this is also based on the premise that a flat road is built. If there is no smooth and flat road, then the current car can only be exhausted.

Just over an hour later, Arthur and his party arrived at the refinery.

This refinery is close to the industrial area of ​​New South Wales. This is an industrial area owned by Australia during the colonial period. The scale is not large, but the variety is quite complete.

At the gate of the refinery, the person in charge had already been waiting at the gate with the employees of the refinery.

Seeing Arthur and others get off the car, Adam Root, the head of the refinery, hurried forward and respectfully said to everyone: "Your Highness, Prime Minister Evan, Minister Pierre, welcome to the refinery for inspection!"

Arthur nodded and said: "The first batch of gold has been successfully refined, right?"

"Of course, Your Highness. We have successfully refined the first batch of about 4,000 tons of gold ore and obtained a total of 48 500-gram gold bars. In the process of refining gold ore, at least 50 grams of gold was lost due to wear and tear. This is because our refining equipment is relatively backward." Adam Root introduced.

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