Chapter 559 Timor State
As time came to September 1, 1921, the scheduled voting time for the new administrative division officially ended.
The result was as expected by Arthur and the government. The highly recognized administrative division design received more than 79.4% support from 4.87 million votes and was officially determined by the Australasian government as the new administrative division design.
Now that the new administrative division design has been determined, there is a more important thing to do next, which is to improve the governance system of the newly established Northern Australia and the Capital Territory, and to effectively implement the scope of each state and clarify the ownership of the land.
Among all the states in Australia, South Australia and Southwest Wales are the two states with the biggest changes.
The areas of these two states have been divided by more than half, and they will also face considerable political reforms.
However, the good news is that the capitals of the newly established Northern Australia and the Capital Territory have been determined. It only needs to establish corresponding state governments in Darwin and Fort St. Arthur, and the administrative systems of these two states can be established accordingly.
Northern Australia is not bad. Darwin is the largest city in northern Australia, and such changes are completely acceptable.
The National Capital Territory does not have a so-called capital. It is a special administrative region established specifically for the capital, and its political core is in Fort St. Arthur, the new capital of Australasia.
But there is a problem. The construction of Fort St. Arthur is still in progress, and the establishment of the state government is somewhat difficult.
However, within the scope of the National Capital Territory, because most of it is the plains of the Murray River Basin, the population is not large and it is relatively simple to manage.
But it only needs to establish a relatively simple state government to manage some small cities in the National Capital Territory.
It is also possible to wait until the construction of Fort St. Arthur is completed before properly controlling the entire National Capital Territory. After all, the National Capital Territory serves the capital. If the capital is not built, other work will naturally be postponed.
In fact, most of the people who disagree with this new administrative division are from New South Wales and Sydney.
This is actually easy to understand. This new administrative division has caused New South Wales to lose most of its land in the west and Sydney to lose its status as the capital.
Although this is a change made with the overall situation of the country in mind, the people will not think so much.
Especially for the people of Sydney, after Sydney is no longer the capital but a special economic city, the treatment enjoyed by Sydney will naturally be one level lower.
Although no city can compare with Sydney in a short period of time, Sydney's glory is no longer the same as before.
Even if these people oppose it, they cannot change the fact that the administrative division has become a foregone conclusion.
On September 2, 1921, the Australasian government officially issued a notice on the change of administrative divisions. Arthur also officially announced the establishment of the Capital Territory and the Northern Australia State, and changed the Capital Territory to the Sydney Territory.
Two new state-level administrative regions have been added, and two new state parliaments have been added accordingly, and the proportion of the states in the House of Representatives has also been adjusted.
However, the number of members of the House of Representatives will not be changed. 298 people are already a large scale.
Of course, taking this opportunity, this also took the opportunity to announce the localization of Timor.
Starting from September 2, the Australian Timor Colony was officially renamed the Timor Direct State. Together with the Northern Australia State and the Capital Territory, it will establish a corresponding state government and state parliament to become a new state-level administrative region in Australasia.
This is the first step in the localization of the Australasian colonies. Next, many colonies, including New Guinea, will also become an important part of localization.
However, the localization of colonies is not that simple. In addition to having its own industrial scale, the corresponding infrastructure, as well as the popularization of medical care and education must keep up with the pace of the local area.
I believe that under the government's vigorous development, the localization of New Guinea, the Royal Territory, and many nearby islands is inevitable, and it is nothing more than a matter of time.
Because the capital Fort St. Arthur is still under construction, the capital of the Capital Territory is temporarily located in Broken Hill, a small city in the north of Fort St. Arthur.
Broken Hill was originally a famous mining city in New South Wales and the largest inhabitant in the arid area of eastern Australia.
After being assigned to the National Capital Territory this time, Broken Hill naturally became the largest and most famous city in the National Capital Territory besides the city under construction.
Of course, because it is a mining city, Broken Hill's population is destined not to be too large, and currently there are only over 7,000 people.
Setting up the capital of the National Capital Territory here is only temporary, and it will be relocated as soon as Fort St. Arthur is built.
In fact, there are many mining cities like Broken Hill in Australasia. Although their population size is not large, they are internationally renowned in terms of minerals.
Broken Hill is the largest silver, lead and zinc mining center in Australasia, and is also a world-famous silver, lead and zinc mining area.
Most of the minerals produced here are transported to Port Pirie by rail, where they are smelted or exported abroad.
Because of the minerals, Broken Hill has a developed railway, which is also the reason why the government decided to temporarily use Broken Hill as the capital of the National Capital Territory.
After all, as the capital of a state, the transportation conditions must be good, at least it must be able to communicate quickly and effectively with the government.
Other small cities were not on the original railway line plan of Australasia. If they were set as the capital, corresponding railways would have to be built for the temporary capital, which would not only be time-consuming and labor-intensive, but also uneconomical.
In order to show his importance to the three newly established states, Arthur attended the establishment ceremony of the state governments of the Capital District, Northern Australia and Timor, as well as the election ceremony of the state parliament.
The governor also needs to be elected by the state parliament, so the mayor of the capital city can only serve concurrently, or like Timor, the former colonial governor temporarily serves as the governor, waiting for the final election of the state parliament.
Finally, Arthur, who returned to Sydney, also appeased the people of Sydney. As the largest city in Australasia, Sydney has a population of more than 3 million, and the emotions of these people still need to be taken care of.
Arthur made a public speech, repeatedly guaranteeing that even if Sydney is no longer the capital of Australasia, it will still be the most important city in Australasia.
And Sydney's welfare policies will not be reduced in any way, Sydney Palace will be retained, and Arthur will come to live from time to time.
With Arthur's various assurances, the Sydney people were appeased and the administrative division change was carried out smoothly. The Sydney people also accepted the fact that Sydney would not be the capital in the future.
In fact, for these Sydney people, they still have a choice, that is, to follow Arthur to Fort St. Arthur.
As a newly developed city, the land value of Fort St. Arthur is naturally not as high as that of Sydney.
And because the government vigorously develops the new capital, it encourages the Australian population to move to the new capital Fort St. Arthur. The government will provide land at a lower price to ensure that the population of the new capital has a residential area.
This option is divided into two types, one is the agricultural population of Fort St. Arthur and nearby agricultural cities.
Because of the vast Murray River basin, every agricultural population who goes to the agricultural city can get at least 5 acres of land, which is far more than the per capita cultivated land area in Australasia, and can also guarantee the income of these agricultural populations.
Secondly, it is to buy real estate in Fort St. Arthur, including land, built houses, etc.
People can choose to buy ready-made houses or buy land and build houses by themselves, and turn themselves into residents of the new capital through real estate.
At present, the housing prices in the new capital are much lower than those in Sydney, which means that some people can easily sell their properties and live in Fort St. Arthur without considering the losses.
Of course, in order to ensure that the real estate prices in Fort St. Arthur will not grow uncontrollably and that the economy of Sydney will not fall into a downturn due to the loss of a large number of people, the government has also set a number limit for the first batch of population in Fort St. Arthur.
The first batch of residents in Fort St. Arthur is about 100,000 people, all of whom immigrated from big cities such as Sydney and Melbourne to ensure that the economy and order of other small cities will not be affected.
When the construction and development of Fort St. Arthur enter a stable state, the second batch of immigrants will be considered, but the final population of Fort St. Arthur will not exceed 300,000.
After the number of people is guaranteed to be at the level of 300,000, the next development will depend on Fort St. Arthur itself.
However, because of the reputation of the capital of Australasia, I believe that Fort St. Arthur will develop very fast.
Although it will not become a big city with a population of one million in a short period of time, it is still no problem to become the largest and most developed city in the capital special zone.
At present, the construction of the new capital has been going on for more than two years. In fact, various construction projects have already taken shape. The construction of the city center has already had a basic framework, and some houses have even begun to be occupied.
However, as the capital of a country, the construction of Fort St. Arthur is far from enough.
First of all, the construction of the State Council, the seat of the national government. At present, the total construction progress of the State Council has been more than half completed, and it is expected to be completed around 1923.
This also means that the cabinet government can move to Fort St. Arthur as early as 1924, thus realizing the actual relocation of the capital to Fort St. Arthur.
The construction of the palace will lag behind a lot. This is not to say that the construction of the palace has been delayed. Compared with the construction of the State Council, the construction of the palace is larger and more expensive.
Arthur's budget for the new palace is as high as 150 million Australian dollars, which is not much different from the 500 million US dollars of funds that the government has put in for the development of the new capital and the Murray River Basin. (500 million US dollars is equal to 200 million Australian dollars)
The funds for building an entire area are used to build a palace. The luxury and size of the new palace can be seen.
It is precisely because the construction of the new palace is too large that the current construction progress of the new palace is only about one-third, and it is expected to be completed around 1925 at the earliest.
Considering the construction progress of the new palace and the State Council, the government moved the capital around 1926. From the decision to move the capital, it took at least 8 to 9 years to complete the entire relocation.
It has only been less than three years, and the relocation of the capital still needs a longer time to proceed, which is also a common problem in modern countries.
The relocation of ancient countries was much simpler. After all, the political system of ancient countries was simpler than that of modern countries, and the political institutions were not so complicated.
However, the relocation of modern countries must take into account the coordination between complex political institutions and the impact on the economy of the two places where the capital is moved.
Generally speaking, relocating the capital in about ten years is considered relatively fast. For some cities with grand goals for the construction of a new capital, it may take decades to complete the relocation.
Arthur does not have such a goal. Compared with building a new megacity, Arthur prefers the medium-sized population of hundreds of thousands in the design of the new capital.
Too many people will also create problems of one kind or another. A large population will inevitably develop industries and other industries, which will cause serious pollution to the city and the environment.
Although Arthur has attached great importance to environmental protection when developing industry, the industrial equipment of this era was not designed with environmental protection in mind, and the pollution to the environment is quite serious.
Australasia is not bad, but the air quality and environment of industrially developed cities like Europe and the United States are relatively poor, and even water resources have been polluted.
You know, for the more serious industrial pollution in European and American countries, they have the reputation of luxury cars, fine wine, and stinky London.
Arthur does not want to experience such serious industrial pollution, which will not only damage physical and mental health, but also seriously affect his mood.
After all, the capital is the area where the royal family needs to live for a long time, so the environmental protection of the capital still needs to be strictly enforced.
This is also the real reason why the largest industrial zone in Australasia is located in Western Australia, far away from the capital.
In the construction of the capital Fort St. Arthur, Arthur took the advice of experts to completely separate Fort St. Arthur from the industry.
Even if Fort St. Arthur is fully built in the future, there will be no heavy pollution industry.
Fort St. Arthur in the future will be the administrative center, economic center and cultural center of Australasia.
As for industry and agriculture, according to the government's construction plan, small agricultural cities will be built near Australasia to provide sufficient food supply for the capital.
The distance between industrial cities and the capital is even farther, and the nearest one is dozens of kilometers away, ensuring that the environment of the capital will not be greatly affected.
In the case of stripping off industry, the scale of the capital is destined not to be too large. Maintaining a medium-sized population and economy can already meet the requirements of the capital.
In most cases, the capital is not the bigger and the more developed the economy, the better. After comprehensive consideration, Arthur prefers to limit the population and economy of the new capital to a certain range, and not to make it too large.
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