Chapter 113: Chapter One Hundred and Thirteen: Establishing the Advisory Council (Subscribe!)

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Arthur acted quickly, and in just three days, he convinced most officials of the

New Zealand colonial government to establish the influential political institution, the Advisory Council, amidst cheers.

In fact, the Advisory Council was a combination of the Houses of Parliament in Australia, just with a different name.

New Zealand’s Advisory Council could be participated in by political parties and common people in New Zealand, and would be elected by all New Zealand citizens with legitimate voting rights.

As for power, the Advisory Council did not have as much power as the Parliament but could give their own opinions based on the current situation in New Zealand and submit them to the Colonial Government.

Moreover, the Advisory Council had an important power: it could monitor all officials of the New Zealand factions and impeach them when sufficient evidence was obtained.

Although it could not threaten the officials appointed by Britain, there were actually few officials appointed by Britain, and most of them were appointed by the Governor and military commander, or directly elected from the New Zealand people.

This meant that the newly established Advisory Council had significant power among the native New Zealand forces and could even be said to be the most powerful institution and group in New Zealand, except for the Governor, military commander, and colonial government.

In order not to let the newly established Advisory Council get out of his control, Arthur added a provision to the establishment of the Advisory Council that the Governor of New Zealand could dissolve the Advisory Council when he felt it posed a threat to New Zealand, without giving any explanation.

This provision allowed Arthur to directly control the lifeblood of the Advisory Council. Once the Advisory Council showed any signs of deviating from Arthur’s control, it could only face the fate of dissolution.

Thanks to the fact that New Zealand was not a free government, no one opposed Arthur’s conditions.

Of course, since the establishment of the Advisory Council was proposed by Arthur, those who were eligible to be elected to the Advisory Council naturally would not object.

The colonial government’s announcement was made quickly, and within a few days, most of the New Zealanders in Wellington City had learned about the establishment of the Advisory Council.

The vast majority of New Zealanders were not interested in the establishment of the Advisory Council, which was an expected result.

After all, New Zealand’s economic downturn had just ended not long ago, and many New Zealanders were just recovering from the state of not having enough food.

Under such circumstances, they really did not have much mood or energy to participate in politics.

Arthur was well prepared for this. After all, the Advisory Council was not prepared for ordinary New Zealanders but for the Alliance Party.

In plain terms, the Advisory Council was just a stepping stone for the Alliance Party to gain more power. Only by granting greater power to the Alliance Party would there be someone to carry out Arthur’s plan to annex New Zealand.

Now was indeed a good time to establish the Advisory Council. As another major party in New Zealand, the New Zealand Labor Party itself was not very interested in participating in politics.

Actually, the background of the establishment of the New Zealand Labor Party was for these workers to protect their rights, similar to the party established by the Australian workers.

The nature of the New Zealand Labor Party was looser compared to the Alliance Party, and what they pursued was only to improve the welfare of the workers and guarantee their basic living conditions.

Furthermore, the economic recession in New Zealand over the past few years hit these workers the hardest.

The large amount of food and finished products produced by the factories could not be sold, resulting in a significant reduction in profits for factory owners, who had no choice but to deduct workers’ salaries and reduce their welfare benefits.

Although this led to a short-term surge in workers’ enthusiasm for participating in politics, in reality, they still could not resist the wealthy factory owners and the bourgeois in New Zealand.

In the face of survival, many people had to give up their struggle against factory owners and accept the cruel reality of being exploited.

At the same time, the rise of Australia attracted the attention of some New Zealanders. With their inability to resist internally, many people hoped to join Australia.

Because Australia’s newly established industrial zones and various factories rigorously implemented the policies set by Arthur at that time, not only was the ten-hour work system in place, but workers’ wages and welfare policies also had to be paid on time.

The ten-hour work system! This is a policy that many European countries cannot enjoy.

In fact, although many European countries have implemented ten-hour or even eight-hour work systems, very few have been able to truly fulfill them. Even powerful nations are still implementing work systems of ten hours or even longer.

There was no choice in this dark era. To ensure their own interests, the capitalists could only exploit the interests of the lower class people.

Although Australia’s work system was only the very ordinary ten-hour work system in Europe, at least Australia strictly implemented this system, and all Australians worked less than ten hours, with double pay for any overtime.

This alone attracted the yearning of many New Zealand workers.

New Zealand, as a self-governing colony, had incomplete welfare policies and systems. For example, New Zealand did not have specific requirements for workers’ working hours, leaving room for factory owners and capitalists to operate.

After all, as long as the government didn’t have work-hour requirements, wouldn’t it meet the government’s requirements as long as these workers didn’t work to death in the factories?

After all, there were numerous incidents of workers being exploited to death, starving to death, and working to death every year in Europe.

But there was no way. In the early twentieth century, what were the people to the capitalists? Just exploitable animals.

This was not a big deal. For New Zealand workers, they might be able to accept it by gritting their teeth.

After all, this was an event that even European workers were experiencing all over the world.

But Australia, which shared the same roots and was not far away, changed that.

While Australia’s workers’ wages were also not high, they at least did not have to worry about being oppressed, and they received their full salaries each month, enjoying double pay during holidays and other overtime work.

What does this represent for the workers? Heaven!

This led to a long-lasting downturn for the New Zealand Labor Party, with many workers choosing to join the Alliance Party, or to compromise with the capitalists in order to maintain their livelihood.

Now that the Advisory Council has been established, at least the majority of seats are likely to be won by the Alliance Party. Even if the workers of the New Zealand Labor Party were able to win some seats, they might not truly support the Labor Party.