The Rise Of Australasia

Chapter 155: Chapter 150: Agriculture and Animal Husbandry

“Our technical school is not like the National University; it is a smaller training school for various technical fields. Currently, our technical school has thousands of students and mainly focuses on training senior steelworkers, senior railway workers, medical assistants, and basic education teachers. The training period for these students varies from one to three years, after which they can become outstanding professionals in their respective industries.” said Minister of Education Richard with a smile.

The purpose of the technical school is to cultivate technical talents with certain abilities for various industries in Australia, which is why the technical school initially has only workers, doctors, and teachers as their professional courses.

At present, there is still a significant shortage of technical talents in education, healthcare, and industry in Australia, especially those with certain abilities to play a core role.

Although factories, schools, and hospitals have their respective training programs, these people who have undergone basic training can only perform preliminary tasks, still a long way from possessing the ability to play a core role.

“Very good. Technical schools can expand their scale, and the number of students can be increased to several thousand or even tens of thousands. At the same time, quotas can also be released to various factories, hospitals, and schools, allowing them to spend a certain amount of funds to send employees for training,” said Arthur, nodding.

Technical schools are different from Australian National University. The education of university students is very cautious, thus the number of admissions should not be too high.

Even at the current Australian National University, the annual enrollment numbers are basically fixed at around six hundred students.

Technical schools are different. The purpose of the technical school is only to cultivate talents with good capabilities for various industries in Australia. Both the training speed and efficiency are much faster than universities.

Of course, the talents cultivated by technical schools are not as comprehensive as university students. They only have specific advantages and capacities in a certain industry.

But this is exactly what Australia needs right now: mastering good skills in a certain field to become the talents Australia currently lacks.

After the report of the Ministry of Education, the next report is about the Ministry of Finance.

Like the rapid growth of industry and other fields, Australia’s economy also achieved considerable growth in 1902.

In 1901, Australia’s total fiscal revenue was approximately 4.3 million pounds. This figure increased significantly in 1902 to 7,300,000 pounds.

This is because, with the recovery of the Australian economy, many small-scale individual businesses, farm owners, and factory owners gradually emerged.

Although these small businesses and factories are not large, there are thousands of them across Australia.

Their accumulated annual income is impressive. Coupled with the per capita income growth brought about by various constructions, it is not surprising that economic growth is so fast.

However, Australia’s total fiscal expenditure remains frightfully high. By the end of 1902, Australia’s total fiscal expenditure for the whole year was approximately 14,300,000 pounds, an increase of more than 1 million pounds compared to the previous year.

The budget deficit reached 7 million pounds, which is almost equal to Australia’s total fiscal revenue for the whole year.

But this is due to the major constructions undertaken by Australia. If not for these large capital consuming infrastructures, Australia’s finances could have turned into a surplus, even reaching a surplus of 2-3 million pounds.

Although spending tens of millions of pounds each year, Australia’s Ministry of Finance still has over 140 million pounds of available funds, enough to support Australia’s current development plans for decades.

By the end of 1902, Australia’s per capita annual income had reached twelve pounds, and the per capita income of important development areas such as the industrial zone had reached fifteen pounds.

Compared to when the Australian Principality was first established, the per capita income of Australians has increased significantly, and they finally have some extra money on hand.

Not only did the construction of the industrial zone contribute to the increase in per capita income, but the development of agriculture also played a part.

Previously, when indigenous people had not been introduced, the development of Australia’s land was very slow. The land allocated to immigrants was mostly undeveloped wasteland, with little actual cultivable land.

This also led to many immigrants, owning a large amount of land in name only, being unable to make a living through cultivation, and having to find other work to support their livelihoods.

To a certain extent, this limited the development of Australia’s agriculture. If not for the highly developed animal husbandry, Australia might not have been able to be self-sufficient in food.

According to the report from the Ministry of Agriculture, the amount of cultivable land in Australia in 1902 had nearly increased by 40%.

In 1902, Australia produced nearly 4 million tons of grain, nearly enough to meet the annual food needs of approximately 13 million people.

However, Australia’s population is only just over 4 million. This means that Australia has a large amount of grain available for export.

Not only has the area of cultivated land increased, but the growth of Australia’s pastoral areas has also been rapid.

As a major country in animal husbandry, Australia had hundreds of millions of sheep in 1901, and this number has increased by more than 10% today.

Such a huge number of livestock makes Australia’s animal husbandry highly developed. There are countless products produced each year, such as wool, sheep milk, cow milk, and meat.

Only a very small part of these animal husbandry products is consumed in Australia, and more are exported to neighboring countries and even European nations.

Among these, the British Empire imports a larger proportion of animal husbandry products. Australia is currently the most reliable supplier of meat and animal husbandry products for the British Empire, a position previously held by New Zealand.

Due to the highly developed animal husbandry, meat products in Australia are very cheap. Even for ordinary workers and common people, they can basically eat meat every few days.

It goes without saying that university students and other technical talents, who are highly regarded by Arthur, eat meat every meal, which is essential for their daily consumption. University students even have access to a daily glass of milk.

While the growth of agriculture is certainly worth celebrating, the achievements in transportation and infrastructure construction are also uplifting.

Since the industrial railway’s Eastern section was opened to traffic in February of 1902, Australia’s economy and inter-state exchanges have become faster and more effective due to this railway.

Although currently, the industrial railway’s completed scope is still very small, with only the industrial zones in West Australian State and South Australian State and the connection between the capital cities of Sydney and Melbourne completed and successfully opened to traffic.

But this newly established railway has become a driving force for Australia’s economic development, and the economic and cultural exchanges between various states in Australia have also become more closely linked because of it.