Chapter 487: Fort Saint Arthur

The storm of the Food Safety Act is still going on, and Arthur has also established the Food Safety Administration, which is specifically used to supervise and manage the safety of food and catering.

For food safety, Arthur welcomes and encourages Australasians to actively report companies suspected of violating the Food Safety Act. Once verified, they can receive a reward of up to 1,000 Australian dollars.

Although Arthur encourages everyone to report actively, it cannot be ruled out that some people report maliciously. For malicious reports, especially continuous malicious reports, the government will also impose fines according to the actual situation.

But generally speaking, ordinary people will not continuously report food companies maliciously. After all, there is no hatred, and malicious reports will put themselves at risk.

While the national food safety inspection is still in progress, Arthur took a special train to the new capital, the Murray River Basin.

Accompanying Arthur are Lauren, Minister of Transport, Kevin, Minister of Finance, and a part of the Guards.

Long before the construction of the new capital began, an activity to solicit public opinions was held nationwide.

After all, it is a brand new capital built on a wilderness, and it should also have a brand new name.

Arthur gave the naming rights to all Australasians, solicited the opinions of Australasians in major newspapers, and voted for the most popular name for the new capital.

In the end, Fort St. Arthur stood out and was determined by Arthur as the official name of the new capital.

Major newspapers received more than 5 million name suggestion letters in total, and selected 100 names that seemed more reliable for the public to vote.

Fort St. Arthur received a support rate of up to 49.3%, and more than 3 million people voted for Fort St. Arthur.

Arthur's English name is Arthur, which translates to Arthur or Arthur. The famous British mythological and historical monarch King Arthur also has this name.

Fort St. Arthur (Fort St. Arthur) can not only be used to commemorate Arthur's great contribution to Australasia, but also to commemorate this famous figure in Celtic mythology.

It is unknown whether the story of King Arthur is true, but the legendary story of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table makes all British people proud and often remember it.

There may be some controversy about adding the word "Saint" before Arthur's name, but no one refutes adding the word "Saint" before King Arthur's name.

Anyway, Arthur comes from the British royal family, and it is not a problem to say that Australasia inherited the cultural heritage and myths of the British Empire.

Fort St. Arthur is located at the junction of the Murray River and the Darling River. The current permanent population has exceeded 1,000.

After a day of rushing, Arthur finally arrived at the new city before dark.

After all, it was Arthur's first time to come to this area. Before this area was determined as the site of the new capital, there was not even a railway here.

Even in later Australia, this place was not developed, and the vast plains were gradually abandoned, wasting hundreds of thousands of square kilometers of land in vain.

The current situation is much better than 100 years later. From the beginning of entering the Murray River Plain, you can see a clear lush plain.

Because it has long been determined to be the site of the new capital, this area has also built a railway connecting Adelaide and Melbourne.

Next to the railway is a brand new highway, which is prepared for the new capital. It is a four-lane, 12.5-meter-wide highway.

From the administrative map of Australasia, we can see that the location of the capital is right at the junction of New South Wales and Victoria, and the entire Murray River Basin is also distributed in the border area of ​​these two states.

Like the previous capital territory, this place is destined to be divided up, and new administrative districts will be established to divide the southeast more finely.

As a country with a land area not much different from that of the United States, Australasia has only more than ten total administrative divisions, and only nine administrative divisions in the mainland (Australia and New Zealand).

Although it seems that the maximum area of ​​a single state is as high as millions of square kilometers, such a large administrative division is not an advantage, but a defect of the country in administrative division.

Especially in the southeast region of New South Wales and Victoria, the size of these two states combined is even far greater than the sum of other states in Australia.

If the land near Sydney had not been divided into the capital territory, New South Wales and Victoria combined would be even twice as large as other states.

With the development of the times, big cities have become the current international mainstream. But this does not mean that the division of states like Victoria and New South Wales, which occupy a considerable part of the country's population and size, is healthy.

Even considering the serious aspects, these two states can affect the entire country at any time, and it is easy to cause an imbalance in the country's political power.

Back to Fort St. Arthur, after Arthur arrived at the planned urban area, he did not rush to inspect the construction progress of the capital, but followed the Murray River and the Darling River to actually observe the flow of these two rivers.

These two rivers are definitely the two most important rivers in Australasia, with a basin area of ​​1.64 million square kilometers, and most of them are flat plains.

If the basins of these two rivers can be thoroughly developed, it will be a huge boost to the agriculture and animal husbandry and development of Australasia.

The Australian region will also completely open up the gap with the future generations. The Australian region alone has a basic guarantee for becoming a powerful country.

It is no exaggeration to say that the Australian region, which has developed the Darling River and Murray River basins, has the guarantee to accommodate hundreds of millions or even 200 million people.

In addition to the lands such as New Zealand and New Guinea, Australasia has no problem accommodating more than 300 million people in a healthy manner.

Note that it is healthy accommodation. If the gains and losses of resources are not calculated, there is no problem in accommodating more than 500 million people, but the number of per capita resources will be greatly reduced.

But then again, an immigrant country like Australasia cannot have a population of hundreds of millions without hundreds of years of sedimentation and development.

According to the calculation of 2 million immigrants and 500,000 newborns each year, it will take at least 30 years for the population of Australasia to reach hundreds of millions.

This does not count the number of deaths. The number of immigrants must be maintained at more than 2 million.

Ideally, being able to increase the population to about 50 million before World War II would have satisfied Arthur's appetite.

After all, 50 million is the threshold for superpowers and powerful countries. Only when the population exceeds 50 million can millions of troops be formed, and they can become one of the protagonists in super wars such as World War I and World War II.

Note that the army here is a real local army, that is, a national defense army composed entirely of citizens.

If you want to use those indigenous troops to make up the numbers, now Australasia can easily form millions of troops, but the real combat effectiveness is worth pondering.

You must know that with the development of time and technology, the impact of manpower on war is actually decreasing.

In particular, the indigenous army composed of indigenous people has a decreasing impact on the war.

During World War I, the armies of Britain and Australasia were generally composed of indigenous troops. Especially in Australasia, the national defense army was only a little over 100,000, but the army sent to the European battlefield in World War I was as high as more than 1 million.

A big reason for this is that the weapons of World War I were not very advanced, the reliability of aircraft and tanks was not high, and the real lethal weapons were machine guns and artillery.

This simplest heavy firepower weapon can be completely stacked with human lives, and even most of the time, the desperate charge will have a miraculous effect.

However, the performance of aircraft and tanks in World War II has been greatly improved, and the killing of ordinary people has also been greatly enhanced.

More often, those ordinary indigenous soldiers are cannon fodder in the true sense, and can only delay the war a little.

At this time, the war is not only a competition of manpower and materials, but also a competition of technology.

Especially after World War II, after several powerful countries have mastered nuclear weapons, manpower has become less popular.

After all, if a war really breaks out, an atomic bomb is enough to kill hundreds of thousands of people. The millions of troops that were proud of in World War I were just paper-mache in front of atomic bombs.

Especially after the population of Australasia exceeded 20 million, it could form an army of more than one million with its own population alone.

At this time, the role of the indigenous people is not so high, and a large number of indigenous people will also rob the jobs of the Australasians, which will be counterproductive.

Therefore, the next goal of Australasia is to develop a large number of military technologies. Especially in tanks and aircraft, we must keep ahead.

Compared with the Murray River, the water volume of the Darling River is too dependent on the season. The water volume of the Darling River is still very abundant in the rainy season, but the water volume will be reduced by more than half in the dry season, which has certain restrictions on the development of agriculture.

However, the water volume of the Darling River is still completely sufficient. Before this area is fully developed, there is not such a high demand for water.

Arthur looked at the more detailed geographical map drawn by the survey team. The basin centered on the new capital is almost covered by the Murray River and the Darling River. As long as it is well managed, there is no shortage of water resources.

This is encouraging good news. After all, the development of industry and agriculture, and even the development of cities, requires a lot of water resources, and most parts of Australasia are very short of water.

There is a peculiar phenomenon in Australasia. Whether a region is suitable for urban development is not based on the resources and development potential of the region, but on the water resources it has.

Sydney and Melbourne, the two most populous cities, are both located on the seashore and in the southeast of Australia, east and south of the Great Dividing Range, with abundant rainfall and no shortage of water resources.

The relatively developed southeastern region is also due to its large amount of water resources.

The reason why South Australia and Western Australia cannot develop is that these two states have large areas of deserts and a very dry climate, which is quite lacking in water resources.

The Leonora Industrial Base built in Western Australia has almost exhausted the water resources of the entire Western Australia, and the water resource problem has also caused headaches for both the state government and the national government.

The North-South Water Transfer Project that Arthur has been thinking about cannot be completed in a short period of time, not to mention that the submarine pipeline technology has not been broken through so far.

Overall, the only areas in Australasia that can be vigorously developed and are suitable for vigorous development are the Murray River and Darling River basins.

As long as these more than 1.6 million square kilometers of land are fully developed, Australasia's agriculture, animal husbandry and industry will go a step further, and the potential for national development will also increase significantly.

Arthur was very satisfied with the first day's itinerary. The attendants set up camp on the spot and built a temporary camping site for Arthur and the soldiers to live in.

This inspection of the new capital will take at least several days, so the soldiers are well prepared.

After tasting a steak and a can of canned fruit, Arthur hurriedly fell asleep and ended a busy day.

The canned fruit Arthur enjoyed was specially made by the Royal Food Canning Factory and supplied to the royal family to ensure that there was enough fruit to eat during the long journey.

Such canned food has no additives and pursues the taste of the food itself. It looks very healthy and Arthur occasionally tastes it.

Of course, the absence of additives makes the shelf life of this can very short. The shelf life of ordinary canned fruit is no more than 15 days, and the shortest is even 7 days.

In addition to this canned food specially supplied to the royal family, there are some relatively high-end canned foods on the market, which also have no additives or only very few additives.

The price of this canned food will be much more expensive than ordinary canned food, and the main feature is health.

It is worth mentioning that this relatively expensive canned food is provided to the nobles for free, but the quantity is limited.

This can be regarded as an additional benefit for the nobles. The nobles can also choose to buy it by themselves. Anyway, no noble in Australasia is short of money.

Arthur's camping site is near the Murray River Basin, and there is even the sound of the rushing river in his ears.

Accompanied by the fresh air and the sound of water, Arthur fell asleep quickly, with only the chirping of insects and gusts of night wind in his ears.

Although Arthur fell asleep, the soldiers in charge of guarding did not dare to blink. The wild environment in Australia is relatively bad. Although there are no large carnivores, there are still many poisonous insects and snakes.

Although the team will carry insect and snake repellent drugs, no one dares to guarantee that there will be no accidents.

The best way is to guard Arthur at all times to ensure that poisonous insects and snakes will not suddenly get into the tent. After all, this is not a joke.

There are several professional doctors accompanying the team, and no one dares to guarantee whether there will be a special poisonous insect. Regarding Arthur's life safety, no one dares to relax their vigilance.

Fortunately, there were still a lot of guards who followed, 20 in a group, protecting Arthur's tent, rotating every hour, and soon passed the night.

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