262 Rich Wealth (Debt Repayment Seventh Shift)

In 1904, the development of Ziwei Town became faster and faster.

After almost three years of breeding, farms around Johannesburg were finally able to supply meat to the outside world, and earlier this year, the Agricultural Association began supplying pork and beef to the Johannesburg Mining Union, which further reduced orders from the Cape Agricultural Association.

It should be noted that the Mining Union has all but stopped buying vegetables and grain from the Cape Agricultural Society, and Johannesburg's locally produced potatoes have long filled this gap.

At one point, Roque was also worried about the farms around Johannesburg, worried that the high yield of potatoes would affect the farmers' motivation to produce.

Now that this problem has been largely solved, the use of potatoes to produce vodka has led to a significant increase in the consumption of potatoes, the production of wineries has been rising, and the enthusiasm of farmers for growing potatoes has increased, and potatoes have become an important income for many farms.

In addition to potatoes, the number of livestock on the farm has also increased significantly, here I have to mention the hard work of the Chinese, many farmers take care of livestock as if they are taking care of their own children, now Johannesburg, any farm, if there is no more than a dozen cows, plus 100 sheep are embarrassed to say that they are farms.

Relatively speaking, Roque's own farm has been slow to progress.

After all, planting medicinal herbs is different from other cash crops, the growth cycle of medicinal herbs is relatively slow, if you plant potatoes, you can harvest it in four or five months, and it is normal to plant medicinal herbs to harvest once every two or three years, so now Roque's farm is equivalent to being invested all the time, and it has not yet reached the harvest period.

Roque is not in a hurry, he has a full understanding of medical research, and he can see results in ten or eight years, Roque is already satisfied, and now this investment is nothing.

In addition to the farm and factory, Roque was most concerned with the school for the children of miners.

There are now more than 4,000 pupils in the Miners' School, and almost all the school-age children in Johannesburg are studying at the Miners' School, which the city government and the Governor's House know, but no one will take the initiative to promote this, otherwise the Transvaal's education association will be incompetent.

The school for miners' children needs about 10,000 pounds a month, and the miners' children do not need to pay for school, and the cost of schooling for the farmers' children is halved, except for the municipal subsidy, Roque's monthly expenditure is about 4,000 pounds.

This expense is not necessary in the eyes of many people, and even if you value education, there is no need to be so costly.

Roque also did not explain that the importance of education does not need to be emphasized, it is now 1904, and ten years later, the first second-generation Chinese should have been cultivated, and it will be just right to come in handy.

Take 10,000 steps back and say, 4,000 pounds a month, it's really nothing to Roque, with the backing of the RAND Bank, the gold of the Roque Gold Mine can be exchanged for pounds at any time, 4,000 pounds, which is only 30 kilograms of gold, and the monthly gold output of the Roque Gold Mine is now stable at about ten tons, even if the cost is increased tenfold, Roque can afford to spend it.

The point is, Roque's willingness to spend.

If you want to talk about being rich, Xiao Si is richer than Roque, but Xiao Si has no compulsory education in Rhodesia.

This is not to show that Xiao Si is reluctant to spend money, Xiao Si is just like the vast majority of people in this era, and does not realize the importance of education.

In other words, Xiao Si is aware, but Xiao Si will not take the initiative to promote compulsory education, this is also the consensus of all nobles, anyway, the children of the nobles can go to the school for the children of the nobility, and the children of the common people forget it, sweatshops are their ultimate destination.

After Phyllis returned to Johannesburg, she did not obey Roque's arrangement and honestly raised the baby at home.

In her second week back in Johannesburg, Phyllis went to Ziwei Girls' School and returned disappointed.

In Phyllis's words, the current Ziwei Girls' School is becoming more and more similar to Brighton Rodding in the UK.

Brighton Rodin is an aristocratic girls' school, known for its strict requirements, and the students produced are all ladies and impeccable in terms of etiquette.

But Phyllis doesn't like this model, and Phyllis prefers the open model of the miner's school, which is more conducive to the growth of the students.

If you look at it from a general point of view, the students in the schools for the children of miners are very polarized, and the students with good academic performance, even if they are placed in the aristocratic schools in England, are not inferior in the slightest, they are organized into separate classes, with the best teachers, the most superior learning conditions, and are regarded as the focus of the training.

Students with poor academic performance have not been given up by the school, even at the primary school level, the school has begun to consciously cultivate students' interests and hobbies, some people like machinery, some people like the military, some people like medicine, etc., etc., it doesn't matter, the school for miners' children will organize students to visit every once in a while, if after graduating from primary school, students are not interested in continuing their studies, then they can choose different careers according to their interests.

By then, Ziwei Town should already have vocational education, just like Nyasaland is now.

Phyllis was very much in favor of Roque's plan, not everyone was qualified to go to Oxford and Cambridge, and the situation in Johannesburg was still different from that of the British Empire, where there were more than 300 million people, and there were now dozens of local universities.

The combined Chinese population of Johannesburg and Nyasaland is now 600,000, and one comprehensive university is enough.

In Roque's vision, the university would certainly be in Nyasaland.

"Three years, at most three years, our university will start recruiting students, now of course, mainly engineering, in the future, we will appropriately join the liberal arts department, don't be superstitious about the local Oxford and Cambridge." Roque has self-confidence, Oxford and Cambridge in this period are the same, as long as Roque is willing to spend money, there is still a chance to catch up.

Just three days ago, Philip reminded Roque that at the right time, Roque could go to the United Kingdom to study and get a formal academic certificate, which would be more conducive to Roque going further in the future.

Roque is not superstitious about this, but it is undeniable that there are indeed many people who go to university to study after success to make up for their shortcomings.

Cecil Rhodes did just that, and for eight years, from 1873 to 1881, Rhodes spent nearly half of his time in addition to economic speculation returning to Oxford to study economics and philosophy.

Philip wanted Roque to raise his own cultural level, so that Roque could be a part of whatever the future of Southern Africa would become.

Roque's ideals must be much more than Philip's.

Most Britons should be keen to study at Oxford, and Roque has the opportunity to accept a baron as long as Roque applies now.

However, Roque did not want to do this, Roque himself had already experienced university studies and did not need to go to Oxford to gild at all, and Roque now wanted to mass-produce highly educated talents, so that the future of the South African Federation could be guaranteed.

"Honey, I'm so proud of you!" Phyllis held Roque's hand affectionately.

Roque laughed, where is this, the Federation of South Africa has not yet been established, and it is too early for Phyllis to be proud now.

"If you can, I still hope you put more energy into Ziwei Public School, if you don't ask, it would be a pity." Phyllis also has a request, after the opening of the miners' children's school, Roque's attention to Ziwei Public School is indeed declining.

"How is it possible, Ziwei Public School is the business card of our Ziwei Town, and there are people in the entire Transvaal, and even in the Cape, who are willing to send their children to Ziwei Public School to study, you know? Ziwei School is now profitable. Of course, Roque won't ignore it, but it's not as attentive as before.

Compared with the school for miners' children, Ziwei College was too much attention, and it was also strange that the Transvaal did not even have a school at that time, so Ziwei School received far more attention than Roque expected.

In that case, Roque was almost forced to set up a school for the children of miners so that the proportion of Chinese students would be less noticeable.

At the current Ziwei Public School, the boys' school and the girls' school combined, there are only about 100 Chinese students, all of whom are permanent residents in Ziwei Town, and the other students are all white, and there are even more British-Americans than Boers.

These white students, each of whom were paying more than £100 a year for school fees, were willing to send their children to Ziwei College, but were turned away because the conditions were not up to standard.

At the beginning of this year, Ziwei College received more than 50,000 pounds in tuition fees, which is enough to meet the annual operating costs of Ziwei School, don't forget that Ziwei School can receive at least 50,000 pounds in the second half of the year, this level of profitability, in addition to gold mines, is one of the few companies in Johannesburg.

Education is indeed very profitable, especially the sought-after private schools, which have a really strong ability to attract money.

Speaking of which, Ziwei Public School is actually the first profitable industry under Roque's name in addition to the Rock Gold Mine, which really didn't make Roque expect.

"Yes, it's funny to say, everyone used to have their eyes on the gold mine, and no one ever thought of setting up a school, but now even if it is, it will be difficult to catch up with Ziwei Public School, this is a sustainable industry, you have to pay attention to it." Phyllis is truly a good family manager and has now discovered the importance of the education industry.

"Then you can manage Ziwei Public School and earn some pocket money for yourself." Roque doesn't care about this money, although it is a lot of money, but Roque will not be dazzled by the flowers in front of him.

"This—did you know that the city doesn't even pay more than 100,000 pounds a year!" Phyllis's expression was almost broken, people with deep pockets were different.

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