Chapter 95 Chief Administrator of European Affairs
In addition to the M1897 artillery, Butler Hunter brought Arthur another piece of good news.
After a period of preparation, the Victoria Prize had officially entered its solicitation and evaluation phase.
Due to the prize amount of £50,000 for each category, the Victoria Prize immediately caused a sensation across half of Europe's scientific community. Even those outside the field scrambled to invent something in hopes of winning this windfall from the sky.
Since it was the inaugural prize, Butler Hunter had invited many highly respected professors and scientists from the international community to serve as judges, each of whom would receive a reward of at least £2,000.
Tempted by the generous pay, the invitees gladly agreed to serve as judges and even inquired about when the next awards would be held.
These individuals effectively became free advertising. Butler Hunter was more than happy to share that information.
Thanks to their publicity, the Victoria Prize's fame spread rapidly across Europe, drawing widespread attention.
What excited many was the fact that the Victoria Prize would be awarded annually and the prize amount would not decrease.
What did this mean? Anyone who won a single year's prize would receive at least £50,000.
Many professors and scientists who were not particularly outstanding might never see such a large sum in their lifetimes.
To describe how attractive this money was to them—it was like Zhang Xiu's aunt was to Cao Cao: utterly irresistible.
With such allure, even though the initial selection process for the prize had strict requirements, it still attracted thousands of works, research projects, and individual applications.
By the time Butler Hunter left, the judging phase had already begun, and winners for each category would be selected before the end of the year. The official award ceremony and announcements would take place at the start of the new year in Australia.
To prevent cheating and conflicts of interest, none of the judges' own works or research could be submitted for evaluation.
Though this disappointed some of them, the £2,000 payment still outweighed the loss of eligibility for a prize that only one in ten thousand could win.
Arthur was very satisfied with the Victoria Prize's progress.
Once established, the prize would bring several top talents to Australia each year.
Not every winner would agree to relocate, of course, but even if half—or just a small portion—did, it would be more than enough for Australia.
Although the prize's core purpose was to attract elite talent to Australia, the selection process remained rigorous and fair.
Anyone who won any category would truly be a major contributor in their field.
Each such person could have a profound impact on an industry. If Australia could gather many of these individuals, what would stop its rise?
After Butler Hunter returned to Australia, responsibility for European affairs was handed over to Australia's ambassador to the Netherlands, Eric Obum, and the Chief Administrator of European Affairs, David Martins Simons.
David Martins Simons needed no introduction—he had been a trusted aide of the late Duke Arthur and was now part of Arthur's inner circle.
Ambassador Eric Obum was a skilled diplomat and one of the native Australian officials Arthur held in high regard.
David's title, Chief Administrator of European Affairs, was similar to Butler Hunter's role—both were private royal officials.
They answered only to Arthur and were absolutely loyal to him.
As the name implied, the Chief Administrator of European Affairs handled all European matters on Arthur's behalf.
Though Australia was located in Oceania, it couldn't avoid frequent interaction with European nations—
especially Britain and Germany: one being its motherland with deep historical ties, the other a close partner and collaborator.
The Dutch moved quickly. In the second month after the native labor treaty was signed, December 1901, the first batch of native workers from the Dutch East Indies—20,000 in total—was delivered.
Although Australia paid £100,000 for them, it was an absolute bargain considering the scale of the labor force.
The Netherlands wasn't losing out either. These natives were difficult to manage in the colonies, and the Dutch East Indies frequently experienced uprisings.
Half of the 20,000 were assigned to steel mills to rapidly increase Australia's still-scarce steel output.
The other half were assigned to the industrial railway construction. Labor shortages had been the only bottleneck; with materials in ample supply, the more hands, the better.
According to statistics, Australia now had over 50,000 native laborers working across all sectors of national construction—and the number was growing rapidly each month.
Among them, fewer than 10,000 were indigenous Australians; the rest—over 40,000—came from New Guinea and the Dutch East Indies.
In this regard, Australia was something of an anomaly. Most colonies had large indigenous populations, especially expansive territories like Australia.
But Australia was different. Even during colonial times, it had only around one million natives.
Over the course of its colonial history, most of them were wiped out by diseases brought by settlers, while others were pushed into the desolate interior.
Increased immigration and urban expansion had squeezed native living space further, steadily reducing their numbers.
These natives were not included in official census records, and no Australian official regarded them as full citizens.
Current estimates suggested that around 700,000 such natives remained in Australia, with the number decreasing slightly over time.
Most Australian officials welcomed this trend. Even in early national history, Australia adhered to the so-called "White Australia" policy—a nation for white people.
Although Arthur was not an extreme racist, he tolerated his officials' policies toward the natives.
This led to a new phenomenon: some local Aboriginal Australians had also been incorporated into the native labor force for various reasons.
Still, from a national development standpoint, this was good news. Thanks to the influx of native laborers, the pace of construction across the country had greatly accelerated—some areas changed so rapidly it was as if they transformed daily.
(End of Chapter)
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