Chapter 183: Chapter 177: New Zend Referendum


    During the preparation for the referendum in New Zend, Australia also weed its fourth National Day, which means that Australia has been established for a full four years now.


    This year’s National Day celebration was not as grand as previous years, mainly because the Royal Pce and the Administrative Building were under construction and there was no military parade.


    The main activities were g-raising and government’s annual speech. Arthur did note back to Australia for the National Day celebration.


    After half a month of preparation, the referendum in New Zend officially began on January 15th, 1904.


    In order to ensure the fairness of the referendum, the New Zend Colonial Government had deployed almost all colonial officials and stationed soldiers to firmly resist any unfair practices.


    In addition, New Zend invited officials from countries such as the German Empire, the British Empire, France, Australia, and the Kingdom of the Nethends to serve as witness teams to ensure the fairness of the referendum.


    Of course, these officials were actually colonial officials from the surrounding areas of New Zend, which helped them to quickly arrive in the country.


    However, these people were genuinely acting on behalf of their respective countries, carrying out their orders ordingly.


    In order to ensure the fairness of the referendum, the voting period wouldst from January 15th to February 15th, a whole month.


    During this time, New Zend would invite the entire witness team to randomly inspect all towns in the country to ensure the fairness of the referendum.<div>


    There were three options for this referendum: New Zend’s independence; continued rule by the British Empire as an autonomous colony; and joining Australia.


    From these three options, the least popr one seemed to be New Zend’s independence.N?v(el)B\\jnn


    In the recent typhoon crisis, the people of New Zend have seen the inadequacy of New Zend’s individual strength.


    If it weren’t for the help of Australia and European countries, the disaster relief efforts in New Zend alone would have caused more casualties and losses.


    This situation is actually amon mdy worldwide, as small countries and regions are like meat on the hunter’s table, waiting to be divided by powerful nations.


    Given New Zend’s size, even if it sessfully bes independent, it would only be a joke.


    Although its economy and industry are much better off than those of Asian countries of the same size, it still cannotpete with European nations.


    Moreover, a fully independent New Zend would be free from control of the British Empire, but it would also attract the attention of other powerful nations.


    New Zend’s size is not sufficient to resist any powerful nation, not even capable of fighting against secondary powers such as Spain and the Nethends.


    Such a result might not be better than remaining part of the British Empire, which is still the world’s first superpower and capable of protecting all its colonies.


    With the anticipation of all New Zenders, the referendum officially began.


    Within the territory of New Zend, hundreds of collection points were set up to collect the referendum choices of all New Zenders.


    In addition, the New Zend colonial government would help organize collection efforts in remote areas, trying to allow as many eligible New Zenders as possible to participate in the referendum.


    Due to the small size of New Zend’snd area, the referendum was only held for one month.


    However, the counting process took another half a month, and the referendum results would not be officially announced until March 1st.


    New Zend’s referendum attracted the attention of some regions around the world. After all, besides the special case of Australia, this was also the first time that the inhabitants of a colony would have control over their destiny.


    This even gave some colonial nations hope for independence, as they too wanted to instigate a referendum in order to gain independent status.


    Unfortunately, their rulers did not have the evidence that Arthur had, and their actions were destined to fail.


    European colonial countries that had not experienced World War I and World War II were absolutely unwilling to give up their colonies.<div>


    Even some smaller European countries considered their colonies extremely important, let alone the old powers that relied on colonies for huge profits and resources.


    The politicians of these countries had even anticipated the harm that events like New Zend’s would bring to their colonies, so they had already ordered their colonial armies to be on high alert to suppress any potential colonial rebellion.


    At this time, the attitude of various countries towards the inhabitants of their colonies was still rtively cruel, and human rights for the colonial residents could only be a luxury envisaged half a centuryter.


    Arthur did not appear in this referendum, but his representative, Joshua, represented Australia and inspected all cities in New Zend on behalf of Arthur.<div>


    This referendum attracted enthusiastic participation from New Zenders, and the constantly full collection boxes in various towns showed that arge number of people took part in the referendum, which would better reflect the true opinions of the New Zend people.


    Wellington, Ad, Christchurch on the South Ind of New Zend, and Invercagill were the cities where the witness team visited most frequently.


    That’s because these four cities were the most populous and rtively economically developed cities in New Zend.


    Among them, Wellington and Ad are located in the North Ind of New Zend, Christchurch and Invercagill are located in the South Ind of New Zend.


    However, the poption scale and economic development of the two cities in the South Ind were far behind those of Wellington and Ad.


    Wellington and Ad in New Zend both have poptions exceeding 100,000, especially in Wellington, where the poption has reached more than 150,000.


    It is worth mentioning that when New Zend was just separated from Australia, its colonial capital was Ad.


    It was not until 1865 that the colonial capital of New Zend was moved from Ad to Wellington, the southernmost part of the North Ind of New Zend where it could be seen across the sea from the northernmost part of the South Ind.


    But at that time, Wellington was still a backward town, and the decision to choose Wellington as the capital came from the advice of Australian parliamentarians (since Australian parliamentarians were rtively neutral and had good rtions with New Zend).


    The reason for relocating the capital was not that Ad had a bad geographical location.


    On the contrary, Ad and its neighboring cities were located in the ins, where they had thergest poption and the most developed economy at the time in New Zend.


    However, after gold was discovered in the South Ind of New Zend, the New Zend colonial government feared that the people of the South Ind might develop a desire for independence and establish a new colony due to the discovery of gold mines, and the fact that the capital was located in the northernmost part of the North Ind of New Zend. So, the government decided to relocate the colonial capital to Wellington, which was closer to the center of New Zend.


    When Wellington became the capital of New Zend, it was just a small town with a poption of less than 5,000.<div>


    With the development of New Zend by sessive Governors, Wellington gradually grew into a city and became the secondrgest port city in New Zend, second only to Ad.


    At present, Wellington has be the political, industrial, and economic center of New Zend, surpassing Ad and bing the country’srgest city.