On 11 May 1902, after all the arrangements had been made in New Zealand, Arthur left New Zealand on a warship and set out on a journey back to Australia.

This trip to New Zealand took a month and a half, and it also consumed a lot of manpower and material resources.

Of course, it's all worth it. If all the plans in New Zealand can be successfully completed, then not only is it possible for Australia to annex New Zealand, but Arthur will also gain a large territory.

New Zealand currently has three forces: the garrison, the colonial government and the political group, and checks and balances between them can also make New Zealand more stable.

Plus Arthur's eyeliner in New Zealand, that is, the head of the Royal Relief Committee in New Zealand, Joshua Bullock.

All these guarantees can ensure that New Zealand's development will not be beyond Arthur's control.

Three days later, on May 14, Arthur successfully arrived at the port of Sydney, Australia, and returned to Australia.

Every time Arthur returned from abroad, the harbor of Sydney was filled with people who had come to greet him.

This time, of course, was no exception, and in addition to the welcome procession arranged by the government, Sydney's harbour was also filled with spontaneous crowds.

There were no speeches this time, because Arthur's popularity had reached its peak in Australia and he did not need to rely on frequent speeches to maintain it.

Back in Australia, Arthur's first stop was a gold mine on the border with New South Wales.

Three months have passed since the discovery of this gold field.

During these three months, the Ministry of Industry carried out a detailed survey and division of the gold mining area, and sealed the specific scope of the gold mining area, and did not allow unrelated people to enter.

It took up to a month to survey the specific scope and nearly a month to prepare for mining and mobilizing indigenous peoples.

At present, after more than a month of mining, tens of thousands of tons of gold ore have been hoarded and are already being refined.

There are not many gold mines in Australia, which has led to many factories that can extract gold.

While many are the gold prospectors' own private workshops, there are no large factories that are part of the Australian government.

The closest refinery to the new gold field is the South New South Wales refinery, which is the second largest in Australia.

The largest gold mine shutdown is located in Victoria, the only state that can compete with New South Wales economically.

Upon arriving at the goldfields, Arthur first met with the troops stationed in the goldfields.

Originally, the troops of the 1st Division were supposed to be stationed here, but because the troops of the 1st Division had just been reorganized and were still training intensively, the task of protecting the gold mines was entrusted to the Guards.

Currently stationed near the goldfields is the 1st Infantry Battalion of the Infantry Regiment of the Guards Division.

The garrisons in the gold mines adopted a rotational strategy, changing the guard at regular intervals and bringing in new troops.

Under the protection of the army, Arthur managed to gain access to a large storage area in the goldfields, where all the gold-bearing ore mined from the goldfields was stored.

The ore will be loaded into trucks here, transported to a refinery not far away to refine into pure gold, and then smelted into fixed-weight gold bars that will be transferred to a more secrecy location.

Although the storage area is only a few tens of kilometers away from the refinery, it only takes four or five hours to use a horse-drawn cart.

However, for the sake of safety, in addition to the protection of at least a few hundred cavalry troops, at least a hundred troops will be mobilized to follow the protection of each gold ore transport.

It is impossible for any force in Australia to snatch this gold ore from the military, and it is also the protection of their own interests that Arthur and the government agree to.

Not to mention the refinery, which has its own security forces, and an army of several hundred men stationed nearby, just to protect the gold-producing refinery.

This gold is related to the success rate of Arthur's next step in issuing his own currency, and Arthur must not pay attention to it.

With thousands of indigenous people, the gold mine is now very efficient, with a maximum of 7,000 tons of gold ore per day, and an average of more than two tons of ore per aboriginal per day.

It is precisely because of these large indigenous inputs that not only the mining efficiency of gold mines has been rapidly developed in a short period of time, but the mining costs of gold mines have not increased much.

One of the drawbacks of this is that the loss of indigenous people is too high, and even dozens of indigenous people die every day in the gold mining area.

But this consumption is far less than the purchase of thousands of Aboriginal people every month, not to mention that few Australians care about the life and death of these Aboriginal people.

Born in this society of the jungle, the only blame can only be blamed on the lack of strength of the nation and country in which they live.

After visiting the gold mines, Arthur took his own seat to the gold mine's refinery.

A week has passed since the first batch of gold ore was delivered to the refinery, and now it is also the day when the first batch of gold bricks are made and accepted.

Arthur was accompanied to the refinery by Prime Minister Evan and Industry Minister Pierre.

Compared to the horse-drawn carriage, the speed of the car is much faster.

Arthur, who could only ride in a horse-drawn carriage in New Zealand, was finally able to experience the speed and convenience of a car again.

The gold mine is about 60 kilometers away from the refinery, and horse-drawn carriages may travel for three or four hours, but for cars, it can be reached in more than an hour.

Of course, this has to be done on the premise of building a flat road. If there is no smooth and smooth road, then the car at this stage can only be exhausted.

Just over an hour later, Arthur and his party had arrived at the refinery.

The refinery is close to the industrial area of New South Wales, which has been owned since the colonial period of Australia, and is not very large, but it is quite diverse.

At the gate of the refinery, the person in charge had already waited at the door with the employees of the refinery.

Seeing Arthur and the others getting out of the car, Adam Root, the person in charge of the refinery, hurriedly stepped forward and said respectfully to everyone: "His Royal Highness the Duke, Prime Minister Evan, Minister Pierre, welcome to inspect the refinery!" ”

Arthur nodded and said, "The first batch of gold has been successfully refined, has it?" ”

"Of course, Your Highness. We have successfully refined the first batch of about 4,000 tonnes of gold ore and obtained a full 48 bars weighing 500 grams. In the process of refining gold ore, about 50 grams of gold are lost due to wear and tear, which is due to the relatively backward refining equipment of our refining equipment. Adam Rout introduced.

The first is to ask for support!

(End of chapter)