On April 23, 1902, after a ten-day election period, the specific list of the first political participation group was finally released.

This time, there are a full 100 seats in the Coalition, and any adult New Zealander can participate in the election.

Although the response in New Zealand was not strong, it attracted hundreds of New Zealanders to run.

However, these individual candidates clearly do not have the advantage of political parties, and most of the seats are occupied by political parties, leaving less than 10 individual candidates for the actual election.

In terms of political parties, the coalition has a big advantage this time. Perhaps it was because Arthur did achieve a lot of benefits to the relief committee that led to the Coalition's popularity in New Zealand, and many people had a good opinion of Australia.

Of the 100 seats, the League holds the majority, more than 70. After subtracting the number of seats won by individual candidates, there are fewer than 20 seats left for Labour.

The disparity between the seats is already evident in the current popularity of the League and New Zealand Labour in New Zealand.

Arthur didn't even operate in the shadows, it was entirely the result of the New Zealanders' own elections.

With the success of the election, the first meeting of the political group also came soon.

Arthur also briefly attended the meeting and appointed two deputy speakers of the Senate, Grant Wilson, the leader of the Alliance Party, and Andy Reemer, the leader of the New Zealand Labour Party.

The choice of Andy Reemer as one of the vice presidents of the Senate, in addition to the means of checks and balances, is not necessarily because there is no one in the Senate.

Those individual candidates were all New Zealand civilians before, and it was impossible for them to become deputy speaker.

With the exception of those who ran individually, the rest were members of the Alliance and the New Zealand Labour Party.

Putting Grant Wilson's men in the same position as Grant was an insult to Grant, and it was also inconsistent with Arthur's intention to woo the Union.

Then the current leader of the New Zealand Labor Party, Andy Remer, can only be asked to supplement this number, anyway, the deputy speaker actually does not have much power, and the actual power of the political group also comes from Arthur.

With the support of the two Vice-Presidents and the presence of Arthur, the Senate successfully held its first meeting and deliberated on the next steps of the Senate.

When it comes to decision-making, it is just a matter of deliberating on the scope of the Senate's capabilities and next steps.

Arthur gave the Senate the power to make recommendations to the colonial government and to supervise all New Zealand officials.

These rights, if well enforced, are absolutely enormous.

However, how exactly it will be implemented, and how it will be carried out, needs to be discussed in more detail.

With the majority of seats held by the Coalition, the Coalition was quick to approve a strategy to recommend that the government strengthen its ties with Australia and increase public opinion of Australia.

Although the New Zealand Labour Party and those individual candidates did not understand the purpose of doing so, it did not prevent them from endorsing the strategy proposed by the Coalition.

After all, strengthening ties with Australia is also good for New Zealand, at least Australia's Royal Relief Committee has also implemented some relief policies in New Zealand, which definitely outweighs the disadvantages for New Zealand Labour workers and these New Zealand individuals.

They can also clearly see that New Zealand's rapid rise cannot be achieved by its own development alone.

Even a model of development modeled on Australia's is out of the question. Because Australia has Arthur's support, as well as technical and financial assistance from the United Kingdom and Germany.

But what about New Zealand? As the autonomous colonial government of the British Empire, after achieving food self-sufficiency, the British Empire basically did not provide anything to New Zealand.

Even some of New Zealand's income and resources were shipped to the British Empire, which is why New Zealand has been tepid.

With the British Empire mired in the European arms race, it was impossible to rely on the British Empire for help.

Instead of pinning its hopes on the British Empire, which has been sucking the blood of New Zealand, it is better to put hope on United Australia.

At least Australia is close to New Zealand and has a similar history and common bloodline.

Subsequently, the Senate decided on the next plan, which is to count the poor in New Zealand and help the Royal Relief Committee to use cash-for-work so that these poor and unemployed people can quickly put into work and have at least a little money to meet their living needs.

It's a matter of vital interest to the Coalition, the New Zealand Labour Party, and individual candidates, all of whom are very excited and active in this regard.

Arthur also agreed to donate £2 million to New Zealand as Duke of Australia to help New Zealand develop better.

Of course, the money will go directly to the New Zealand government and will be overseen by the Senate.

Although it is used to win people's hearts, this does not mean that Arthur is completely relieved to hand over these funds to the New Zealand colonial government.

As the Duke of Australia, Arthur could not have stayed in New Zealand all the time. In the future, the supervision work will indeed be handed over to the Senate, so that they can serve as Arthur's eyes to supervise the colonial government of New Zealand.

When the hearts and minds of New Zealand are almost co-opted, Arthur allows the two parties to take the opportunity to incite New Zealand for a referendum, and then the annexation of New Zealand will be successful.

It's a long plan, and Arthur is not in a hurry about it, after all, he has almost twenty years to complete it.

As long as Arthur remained the governor of New Zealand, no one could stop New Zealand from approaching Australia.

After the Senate meeting, Arthur summoned Grant Wilson again at the Governor's Palace.

At this time, Grant Wilson was already in high spirits, and his whole face was covered with a respectful smile.

With the formation of the Senate, Grant Wilson has become one of New Zealand's hottest bigwigs, although his power and status are not at the top of New Zealand, but he has also been greatly improved compared to the previous small mayor.

Of course, Grant Wilson naturally understood who brought him all this, so when he looked at Arthur, his eyes looked very respectful.

"Your Highness, I have given your orders all members of the League to hype up the superiority of the Australian Union as far as they can control. At the same time, we are also trying to find as many people as possible who have a good opinion of Australia to join us, not only to expand the size of the coalition party, but also to speed up our plans. Grant Wilson said with a smile on his face.

The second more, ask for support!

(End of chapter)