Chapter 173 Who Should We Trust?

“On November 8, 1903, New Zealand suffered an unprecedented disaster. A typhoon landed in the small town of Opunaki on the North Island of New Zealand, and successively descended on eleven towns including New Plymouth, Piopio, Hamilton, Huntly, Port Waikato, Manukau, Auckland, Takapuna, Coromandel and Port Fitzroy, causing huge disasters to the economy, industry and various infrastructure on the west coast of the North Island of New Zealand.

According to preliminary statistics, the disaster caused at least more than two million pounds of property losses to New Zealand, more than 36,000 deaths, and 84,000 minor and serious injuries.

After the disaster, almost the entire west coast of the North Island of New Zealand needed to be rebuilt, and at least 200,000 people lost their homes.

We thank all regions and countries for their assistance, especially our friendly neighbor Australia, which shipped the disaster on the day of the disaster. 450,000 pounds of funds and more than 100,000 pounds of materials were lost to help us.

We are also grateful for the assistance from other countries, including 50,000 pounds from the German Empire, 40,000 pounds from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and 10,000 pounds each from France, Britain, Italy and the Russian Empire.

We sincerely thank all countries for their assistance to New Zealand, and New Zealand and your friendship will last forever.

After the disaster, the New Zealand colonial government will mobilize the power of all New Zealand to help all people on the west coast of the North Island rebuild their homes. At the same time, we also call on more New Zealanders to join this rescue operation. So far, there are still many New Zealanders missing, and they need more rescue. "

Starting from November 12, this report was printed in all New Zealand newspapers and sent free of charge to all New Zealand towns.

In a short period of time, almost the vast majority of New Zealanders saw such newspapers and reports, and understood what kind of disaster happened in the North Island of New Zealand.

Although a few people are curious about what kind of organization can unite all New Zealand newspapers to publish this report simultaneously.

But more people have been attracted by the information in the report, and all their eyes and attention have been focused on the North Island of New Zealand.

In the report, in addition to the shocking death toll and heartbreaking property losses, the most concerned thing is the aid from other countries.

New Zealand is a colony of the British Empire, and it is very respectful for other powers to provide certain assistance.

New Zealanders also think so, especially the aid from the German Empire and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which is currently the largest among all the powerful countries.

But as the current sovereign of New Zealand, the British Empire's aid is at the same level as other powers, and even far lower than the aid from the German Empire and the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

This disappointed many New Zealanders who were loyal to the British Empire, and they believed that they had been abandoned by the British Empire.

Compared with these countries, Australia's aid is much larger. Not only is there 450,000 pounds of financial aid, but there is also material aid worth up to 100,000 pounds.

This is the most important thing for New Zealand after the disaster. There are a large number of refugees who are in urgent need of supplies and food to ensure their normal life.

As the saying goes, there is no harm without comparison. Compared with a large number of European countries, especially the British Empire, Australia's aid seems to be more sincere.

What's more, the report clearly states that Australia provided aid on the day of the disaster, instead of New Zealand actively requesting aid like European countries.

After this report, many New Zealanders gradually changed their views, at least their attitude towards Australia was much friendlier.

Many New Zealanders have already regarded Australians as friendly neighbors of New Zealand, and are full of expectations for the union of New Zealand and Australia planned by the United Party.

On November 14, 1903, Australia's second batch of aid arrived in New Zealand.

Most of this batch of aid is very important manpower for the current rescue work. Australia donated 30,000 Southeast Asian natives to New Zealand to help New Zealand better carry out post-disaster reconstruction.

These manpower are timely help for New Zealand's current rescue work. New Zealand's population is not large to begin with, and even after several years of development, it is only a little over 1.1 million.

This typhoon directly caused New Zealand to lose at least 40,000 people, and New Zealand's economy was in a downturn for at least five years.

In addition, half of New Zealand's North Island was affected by the disaster, which caused the number of refugees to exceed 200,000, greatly increasing the difficulty of New Zealand's rescue work.

On November 17, 1903, Arthur personally arrived in New Zealand. After delivering a speech in Auckland on his full commitment to rescue and reconstruction, he announced again that he would donate 500,000 pounds to New Zealand as the Governor-General of New Zealand.

So far, New Zealand has received more than 1.1 million pounds in financial assistance and more than 150,000 pounds in food and material assistance.

This has alleviated New Zealand's logistical burden to a certain extent and accelerated the progress of New Zealand's rescue work.

From the end of the typhoon on November 10, New Zealand's rescue work lasted for seven days, ending on November 17.

The subsequent work will focus on post-disaster reconstruction rather than rescuing missing people.

This was also a helpless choice. After seven days of long waiting, the other people who were not rescued basically lost hope of survival. Perhaps by the time the rescue team found them, they had already become corpses.

Many of these refugees were arranged in the north of the Auckland Peninsula. There are more than a dozen small towns on this peninsula, which can accommodate 20,000 to 30,000 refugees.

Some were relocated to North Palmerston, Picton, Shahart and Wellington in the southern part of New Zealand's North Island. This is currently the most core area of ​​New Zealand and the area where the colonial capital Wellington is located.

This area can accommodate at least 80,000 refugees. They were assigned to major cities to supplement the population of New Zealand's North Island cities.

Nearly 100,000 refugees are willing to stay in their homes, even though their homes have been destroyed.

The most important thing about this reconstruction work is to rebuild the Auckland area. The Auckland area has Auckland, the second largest city in New Zealand's North Island, and two major cities, Takapuna and Manukau, in the north and south.

The resident population in this area has exceeded 200,000, and more than half of them have become refugees.

Most of the disaster-stricken areas in the south of the west coast are small towns. The population of these towns varies from large towns with 5,000 to 6,000 people, to small villages with less than 1,000 people.

The enthusiastic New Zealanders who came to participate in the rescue work after seeing the news report were assigned to these towns. They will be responsible for the reconstruction of these towns, specifically helping the refugees rebuild their houses and homes.

The main task of the 30,000 indigenous people donated by Australia and the New Zealand garrison is to rebuild the Auckland area, especially the city of Auckland.

Auckland is an important hub connecting the Auckland Peninsula and the main part of New Zealand's North Island. It is the two most dazzling pearls in New Zealand, reflecting Wellington in the south.

The disaster in Auckland is the most undesirable situation for New Zealand, and rebuilding Auckland is also the most urgent thing at present.

On November 18, Arthur once again transferred 20,000 indigenous people and tens of thousands of Australian workers from Australia.

Most of these workers are construction workers with knowledge of the construction industry, and they will play a very important role in the reconstruction of New Zealand.

At the same time, Arthur also adopted the method of work-for-relief in the disaster-stricken areas, encouraging a large number of lightly injured and uninjured refugees to participate in the reconstruction of their homes.

As a reward, they will receive more relief supplies and a small amount of financial rewards, which will also make up for their property losses to a limited extent.

Such a policy has been supported by many New Zealand refugees, and they have also enthusiastically joined the work of rebuilding the west coast of New Zealand.

Just one week later, the west coast of New Zealand had more than 50,000 indigenous people and 150,000 New Zealanders, which also made the reconstruction of cities and towns faster.

Arthur was very busy during this period, and so was Grant.

As the leader of the New Zealand Alliance Party, Grant quickly invested in the reconstruction work at Arthur's suggestion, setting an example for all New Zealand political parties and officials.

This also made the Alliance Party once again gain the favor of New Zealanders. After all, those who can personally contribute to the reconstruction of New Zealand are much better than those officials who only stay in the office.

During this period, Arthur personally visited all the disaster-stricken towns in New Zealand and visited New Zealanders who were doing reconstruction work in these areas.

Arthur was welcomed by almost everyone, and even many fanatical people shouted "Long live!" when Arthur arrived.

Arthur did not react to this on the surface, but in fact he was very satisfied with Grant's actions.

According to the current degree of recognition of Arthur in New Zealand, coupled with the opportunity of different amounts of aid from Australia and the British Empire in New Zealand, perhaps something can really change in New Zealand.

On November 26, 1903, the release of a piece of news completely made New Zealand boil.

The title of the news was simple, with only a few words, but it was deeply rooted in the hearts of all New Zealanders.

The British Empire and Australia, who should we believe?

The British Empire and Australia have a special relationship for New Zealand. The British Empire is currently the sovereign of New Zealand, and New Zealand also belongs to the British Empire in name.

New Zealand was once part of Australia, but it was only separated from Australia a few decades ago.

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