133 For the First World War
At the end of 1902, perhaps only Ziwei Town in the world was living a life of "upstairs and downstairs, electric lights and telephones".
The idea, "universal", is not the first, twenty years ago, there were already domestic electricity systems in London and New York, but because of the high price, electricity was not widely available at that time.
In 1897, the world-famous Niagara Hydropower Station was completed, with an installed capacity of 100,000 horsepower, and two years later, in 1899, the Niagara Hydropower Station began to supply electricity to Buffalo, New York, 35 kilometers away, but Buffalo did not have the luxury of providing public lighting (street lights) with electricity.
Thanks to the relationship between Roque and the Crocodile Bay Reservoir, the Crocodile Bay Reservoir provides the town of Ziwei with low electricity prices, so the town government has the ability to install street lights in the church square and on the main roads in the town.
"It's definitely worth it to install street lights, the cost of street lights every day, but it's only about a hundred pounds, since the installation of street lights, in order to buy houses in Ziwei Town, someone has raised the price to 500 pounds, and there is no market for it, no one wants to sell their own housing, a standard residential land, the previous cost was only 20 pounds, and now it is more than 200 pounds, so it is still in short supply, it is estimated that by the end of the year, the permanent population of Ziwei Town will exceed 5,000 people, and our tax revenue will at least quadruple- As mayor of the town, Buck was ecstatic about the situation.
In fact, when there were no street lights, the price of housing in Ziwei Town had already begun to skyrocket, with Ziwei Public School and Ziwei Hospital as the foundation, there were not too many people who wanted to settle in Ziwei Town, some Cape Towners just came to Ziwei Town for tourism, and then they were attracted by Ziwei Town, and wanted to settle in Ziwei Town, as well as those parents who wanted to send their children to Ziwei Public School, they joined forces to push up the housing prices in Ziwei Town.
Compared with the beginning of the year, the size of Ziwei Town has more than tripled, and half a year ago, Ziwei Public School was still located on the edge of Ziwei Town, and now Ziwei Public School has been surrounded by residential areas.
The increase in population has brought economic prosperity, there was only one oak bar and a Russell café in Ziwei Town, and now there are more than ten bars and cafes in Ziwei Town, restaurants are everywhere, not only Western-style restaurants, but also original Oriental restaurants.
"Population growth is a good thing, Dunn, to ensure the security and stability of Ziwei Town." Roque is most worried about public security, and it is easy to say in other aspects, public security is really a big problem for Roque.
Johannesburg is the future capital of crime, although there are no Africans in Ziwei Town now, but Roque also has to take precautions, the quality of whites is not much stronger than Africans in these years, and even the quality of Chinese is not much stronger, Roque can not pin public security on the improvement of the quality level of residents, can only solve the problem from the police.
"The substation has been expanded twice since the beginning of the year, at the beginning of the year we were still a police station, even me, the sheriff, there were only 12 people, now our substation has more than 80 police officers, a new police station has been set up near Ziwei Public School and Ziwei Hospital, the streets are patrolling and mounted police patrols at any time, the residents of the town are militia, as long as necessary, they can pick up arms at any time, no matter where the police situation occurs in any corner of the town, we can arrive at the scene within five minutes, Last month, a couple from Cape Town lost their luggage at Church Square, and two hours later, the luggage was left where it was, and even our patrol officers didn't notice it—"Dunn is confident that the town of Ziwei is now one of the best in any city in southern Africa.
Good law and order is due to the harsh punishment imposed in Ziwei Town, where even if you pick up other people's property and don't hand it over to the police in time, you will be severely punished.
The Ziwei Town Police Station still retains the kind of barbed whip used by the Cape Town Police Department, similar to the act of picking up someone's property and not handing it over to the police in time, in addition to a fine of three times the value of the property itself, it is also subject to ten lashes on the street, and if the suspect is a minor, then the guardian is to be punished, and no one has been punished for this provision in the past four months since a Pretorian who sent his child to Ziwei College received this punishment.
This is also thanks to the Ziwei Town Police Bureau's legal popularization and publicity, which has hired more than 10 police family members as internal staff, each of whom is responsible for a different block, and they have to regularly carry out legal popularization propaganda to residents in the jurisdiction, telling them what they can do and what they can't do.
Ziwei Public School also plays a huge role in this regard, and every child must be familiar with these law and order provisions, and when they return home, they will spread the word to their families, and it is because of these measures that good law and order can be guaranteed in Ziwei Town.
As for the militia, this is one of the original regulations of Ziwei Town, so the residents of Ziwei Town, even housewives, must go to the police station within the specified time to receive a certain degree of weapons training, at least to be able to use weapons and dare to use weapons.
In the entire Ziwei Town, almost all families have self-defense weapons, many families have a pistol per person, and each family is also used to feeding large dogs such as South African mastiffs, so the security of Ziwei Town is simply not too good, because everyone knows that even the elderly and women have the ability to inflict deadly attacks on strong men.
This is how harmony between people comes about, like two great powers that both possess nuclear weapons, and there is basically no war between them, because they are both rat and rat trappers.
"Don't be proud, after the rainy season, we will start building the road between Ziwei Town and Johannesburg, and from now on we must be prepared for the fact that many Africans will come to Ziwei Town to make sure that they do not affect the security of Ziwei Town." Roque's requirements are high, and it is probably unrealistic to build the railway to Ziwei Town, the road is okay, cheap, and built quickly.
Instead of a concrete road, the town of Ziwei was to build an asphalt road, which was bought from as far away as South America and transported by sea to Cape Town, and then transported by rail from Cape Town to Johannesburg.
It's amazing, although the road is long, and the freight is added layer after layer, but in the calculation, asphalt is still cheaper than cement.
Although the cement plant in Favalt has been increasing production, it is impossible for a single cement plant to meet the demand in the Transvaal, Rhodesia, and Nyasaland, so Henry has built two new cement plants in Favalt to meet the huge demand for cement in the surrounding area.
That's when Henry realized that Roque was justified in not placing the cement plant in Johannesburg and Pretoria, which had been in operation for less than a year now, but that some workers were already seriously ill from the contamination.
The money was not well earned, as sick workers did not know that the disease was related to severe pollution, so there was still a steady stream of Zululus leaving Zululand to earn a shilling a day in Favart.
One shilling a day is only £1.5 a month, but the price to pay is a serious physical impact.
Don't think it's cruel, that is, Roque can't pass his own psychological level, don't make this money, in fact, this year, this situation is very positive, remember those watches that used "radium"?
Many female workers in the United States who are not yet 20 years old do this job, because they have to use a brush to brush "radium" onto the dial, so they will often put the brush into their mouths to sort out the pen edge, a large number of "radium" into their bodies like this, they generally do not live to be 25 years old.
Because their bodies contain a lot of radium, their bodies glow even if they die.
"Is it still Christian's company - no problem, I'll have a good talk with Christian about it, and make sure that none of the Africans can leave their camp while the road is being built." Dunn is confident, but Roque is empty-hearted.
At one point, Roque also insisted that as long as African labor was not used, then Roque did not need to pity those Africans.
Now Roque finds out that he is wrong, Africans are really easy to use, they are cheap and sufficient, tireless and will not resist, the crocodile bay company uses Chinese laborers to build reservoirs at a high cost, the cost is more than 100,000 pounds a month, shareholders have complained, Xiao Si uses Africans to build a railway is simply like no money, those Africans who die in the process of building the railway, Xiao Si does not even have to pay a salary, the two sides are really in stark contrast.
So in desperation, Roque is also reducing the number of Chinese laborers, many Chinese laborers from the Crocodile Bay Reservoir have been sent to Nyasaland to reclaim farmland, and the most dangerous and heavy work on the Crocodile Bay Reservoir has also been taken over by the Zulus, and now everyone is satisfied, even the Zulus are very satisfied, because they have been given jobs.
When it was decided to build the road between Purple Town and Johannesburg, Roque's first reaction was to hand over the project to Christian, in this era, in this environment, it was really impossible to be alone, Roque could only ask Christian to treat those Zulus as well as possible, at least let them eat well, and be able to get a full salary in time.
Christian didn't really want to do that, but out of fear of Roque, Christian tried to do it.
Unexpectedly, because of this, it brought great prestige to Christian among the Zulus, and now there are tens of thousands of Zulus working for him under Christian, and if Christian wants, the number of workers under him can even expand to 100,000 at any time, and Christian himself has gained great wealth, in Christian's words, the Zulu are an inexhaustible gold mine.
This is something that even Roque didn't expect.
"How's Bobby's factory?" Roque was also interested in Bobby Holt's motorcycle factory, building roads in preparation for the future of mechanization.
Although it seems that motorcycles still have a lot of shortcomings, but it is undeniable that in the future, motorcycles and automobiles will definitely replace the current horses and ox carts, not to mention cars, within ten years cars have great defects, Johannesburg is estimated to be impossible to set up its own car factory, the era of motorcycles may come at any time, Roque hopes that the future Bobby's motorcycle factory can bring more jobs and business tax revenue to Ziwei Town.
"Everything is normal, last month, Bobby went to Germany, not only brought back the drawings of the engine, but also brought back a dozen technicians, and now Bobby and they are busy improving the engine, hoping that the engine will be more powerful and more reliable, and the construction of the factory is also underway, and when the construction of the plant is completed, Bobby and they will start trial production." Buck also paid attention to the motorcycle factory, and Roque emphasized the importance of industry in front of Buck countless times, and Buck's interest in industry increased.
In fact, revitalizing the economy is very simple, there is no stability without agriculture, there is no wealth without work, and there is no life without business.
The same is true of Johannesburg that Roque hopes for, relying on the farms around Johannesburg, at least to ensure the stability of Johannesburg, there is no need to purchase food from outside, and food processing will become the economic growth point of Johannesburg in the future, no matter how you look at it, it is a very cost-effective thing.
It's simpler to get rich without work, Johannesburg's gold mines are not actually industry, even the jewelry processing in the Rock gold mine is not strictly speaking, the wool textile factory in Johannesburg, the woodworking factory in Oak Town, and the motorcycle factory in Ziwei Town that have not yet been put into operation are serious industries.
Johannesburg's gold reserves are too rich, and they have not been dug for more than 100 years, so Johannesburg actually has its own particularity, if it is replaced by other cities, industry should be the economic pillar of the city, without industry, it will not be able to continuously create wealth, it will not be able to ensure sustainable economic growth, and it will not be able to absorb the surplus labor force, so the importance of industry cannot be overemphasized.
In Roque's vision, even if Johannesburg has a large amount of gold, Johannesburg must insist on developing industry for a hundred years, and in another ten years, Europe will break out World War I, Johannesburg is 108,000 miles away from Europe, and will not be involved in the war at all.
It may or may not be, Roque is not sure.
But if you put in the effort for it, then there is a possibility of success, and if you do nothing, then it will never be, this is still clear to Roque.
At the very least, we must take away some of America's profits.
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