The Rise Of Australasia
Chapter 548: Chapter 431: Various Changes and Tense Battles

On December 25, 1915, after spending a happy Christmas with his family, Arthur began to travel around several military factories and shipyards, inspecting and consoling the current state of these military factories.

Compared to Europe, the impact of war on Australasia was negligible, and even Australasia's various developments were still in a relatively stable growth range.

Since it was the end of the year, Arthur also received Australasia's development data for 1915.

The first thing the Australasian Government announced to the public was the current casualties of the soldiers.

Up until now, a total of more than 600,000 combat forces had been sent to Europe by Australasia, with a death toll of up to 135,000 and injuries reaching 223,000.

The number of soldiers still in Europe is just over 300,000, and nearly a hundred thousand indigenous people have completed their military enlistment obligations and have been sent, along with their families, to other regions.

In the New Year, that is, in 1916, Australasia is expected to send 500,000 combat forces to Europe, including 484,000 native soldiers and 16,000 regular soldiers.

Dispatching native soldiers is not a problem for the Australasian Government and Arthur, as they can play some role in Europe's war of attrition and can be considered a win-win situation.

After the war, native soldiers who survived indeed received the treatment promised by Arthur, which led them not to reject enlistment, as it could at least guarantee their families' freedom to live in other regions.

The war has been going on for more than a year, also consuming most of the weapons, equipment, and ammunition that Arthur had stockpiled before the war.

At present, Australasia's various military factories are working overtime to produce, but still cannot meet the needs of the European battlefield for weapons and equipment.

It can be expected that with the development of time and the continuation of the war, the European battlefield will become more and more short of weapons, equipment, and ammunition, and the expansion of various military factories will only become faster and faster.

Especially in the Russian region, there are at least millions of rifles, billions of bullets, thousands of artillery, and millions of artillery shells in short supply.

Australasia alone has already exported at least 2 million rifles, showing the huge consumption of this war.

Of course, the war still had a certain impact on Australasia. If we had to say one of the biggest impacts, it must be the number of immigrants in Australasia.

Up until now, the total population of Australasia is approximately 16,454,900, an increase of about 1,084,000 compared to the previous year.

Although population growth is still at the million-level, in the additional 1.08 million population, the number of newborn babies in the country has reached 457,000.

Subtracting the number of newborn babies, the number of immigrants in Australasia this year is only about 643,000, just over half of last year's immigration.

This highlights a more serious problem: European immigration has decreased dramatically as a result of the war in Europe.

Even previously reliable Russian immigrants, due to the domestic turmoil in Russia, have seen a significant reduction in numbers and are currently only able to maintain an annual scale of around 400,000 to 500,000 immigrants, with a further risk of decline.

Immigrants from other countries are even scarcer; the total number of immigrants from most European countries combined is only about a hundred thousand, showing just how severe the impact of this war on Europe is.

It is not even an exaggeration to say that countries such as Britain, France, and Germany that are severely affected by the war have now effectively shut down their immigration channels.

For the common people of these countries, escaping the country during times of war is not an easy matter.

If the number of immigrants from Russia continues to decline, Australasia's annual population growth could fall below 1 million, breaking the recent record low for population growth.

Of course, this is also a force of circumstance. The short period of peace after the war is expected to be a boom time for immigration.

Ultimately, another major reason for the decline in Russian immigration is the Australasian Immigration Department's strict scrutiny of Russian immigrants.

At present, there are a frightening number of revolutionaries among Russian immigrants, and these people who could potentially destabilize the country must undergo scrutiny and can only truly obtain Australasian nationality after a long period of assessment.

As for per capita income, Australasia's current per capita income has increased to 53.1 Australian dollars, and that too without any significant devaluation of the Australian dollar.

In 1915, when the currencies of European countries were generally depreciating and residents' per capita incomes were generally declining, Australasia's performance was rare.

Of course, it's not just per capita income that is growing steadily.

Up to now, Australasia's GDP for the year has reached 1.812 billion US dollars, equivalent to 362.4 million British pounds and 724.8 million Australian dollars, with a growth rate that is 2% higher than last year, at around 8%.

However, this is due to the excess expansion of the military industry and the massive export of grain and other resources by European countries.

Australasia has made huge profits in this way, using these funds for domestic development and construction, which has led to rapid economic growth in the country.

Similarly, Australasia's relatively strong economic growth against the backdrop of negative economic growth in European countries is definitely exceptional.

This is also reflected in fiscal revenue.

In 1915, the total fiscal revenue of the Australasian Government was about 124.5 million Australian dollars, an increase of nearly 16% from the previous year.