"Let's go, Minister Thomas. Up ahead looks like where the Royal Relief Committee is distributing supplies. Since we've walked this far, let's go take a look together." Seeing the bustling crowds in the street ahead—where people seemed to be waiting in line for something—Arthur spoke to Thomas with a hint of interest.
"Yes, Your Highness." Minister Thomas immediately followed, speaking respectfully.
Right at the front of the crowd, several relief officials were nervously yet orderly registering and distributing food.
Even though a mere visual estimate put these few lines at a scale of at least several thousand people, amazingly, these thousands formed three long, canyon-like queues stretching all the way from Sydney's central streets to Port Road in the south.
Not only that, but as Arthur walked along, he basically didn't find any instances of cutting in line or fighting. The waiting people were anxious yet orderly, poor yet polite, and occasionally even a few brawny men would make way for the elderly behind them.
"Thomas, is this also the work of your Ministry of Public Security? To be able to make so many people this orderly while receiving supplies, without any chaos or scrambling happening, it seems the results of your Ministry of Public Security go far beyond just this!" Looking at all the queuing people moving forward in an orderly fashion with a hint of surprise, Arthur couldn't help but voice the question in his heart.
"No, no, Your Highness. This is not the credit of the Ministry of Public Security; this is your credit!" Minister Thomas hurriedly shook his head and explained, "Everyone knows that it is Your Highness you who are distributing the food, and most people only line up full of joy and gratitude. Occasionally, selfish guys who want to cut in line will also be taught a lesson by those who respect you. Because of this, so many people appear this orderly."
A sudden realization dawned on Arthur. He hadn't expected that he already had such drawing power in Australia. Seeing the well-ordered crowd before him, an incomparably bold and heroic spirit naturally rose within Arthur's heart.
"The Highness has arrived!"
"Long live His Highness!"
Finally, a few sharp-eyed people still spotted Arthur's arrival. They couldn't even bother with the queues anymore, rushing over to Arthur's side one after another to shout with a mixture of excitement and fanaticism.
"Long live His Highness!"
As the saying goes, thousands of words merge into a single sentence, and that was just how the Australian crowd was right now. Facing a monarch who reduced and exempted their taxes and also gave them free food as a gift, they didn't stint on their feelings of adoration in the slightest.
"Lads, I know you might come from the British Empire, might come from France, might come from Germany, or even other places in Europe. But you are in Australia now, in this beautiful place. Now, please tell me loudly: who exempted the majority of your taxes? Who gave you free food to eat when you were in distress, so you wouldn't have to worry about a bite to eat?" While the crowd cheered loudly, Minister Thomas had already quietly reached the highest place near this grounds—namely, the location where the officials of the Old Sites Committee were.
As Minister Thomas, who had climbed all the way from a minor official to a parliamentarian and even the position of Colonial Premier, his public-speaking talent was also extremely outstanding.
Taking advantage of this opportunity, Minister Thomas decided to curry favor with Arthur. Any clever person could see that Arthur valued cultivating his status and prestige in the hearts of Australians very much. Since that was the case, Thomas simply went with the flow, seizing the opportunity under today's grand occasion to publicize a few of Arthur's merits.
I have to admit that Minister Thomas's eloquence was very good, or perhaps Australians were simply very satisfied with everything Arthur had done up to now.
Following Minister Thomas's two inquiries, continuous cries of "Your Highness!" and "Long live His Highness!" rang out from several nearby streets.
A look of satisfaction flashed through Arthur's eyes, yet his expression remained entirely unruffled as he motioned for the crowd to stop, then said, "Subjects, as your monarch, this is what I should and must do. Australia is a great country, and Australians are a great people. I hope we can hand in hand move forward together, letting Australia become the pinnacle of the world, and letting Australians ascend to the pinnacle of the world!"
"Long live His Highness!"
"Long live Australia!"
Nothing could be more blissful than having a monarch who loved his subjects and country, at least in the hearts of modern Australians.
If there were a way to calculate the hearts of the people, Arthur was absolutely confident that his approval rating in Australia was definitely above eighty percent. At least half of the over one million Australians who could collect food would become his supporters.
"How is the food distribution going? How many people in total collected our food today?" After letting the crowd quiet down, Arthur began to inquire of the officials responsible for food distribution.
As the state with the largest population in Australia, New South Wales did not have the most impoverished population.
There was a relatively big difference between immigrants to New South Wales and those to other states: namely, the immigrants to New South Wales were regular immigrants attracted from Europe, their population quality was generally quite high, and the skills they mastered were also relatively numerous, so their incomes were considered rather high among all the states.
As for the other few states, especially Western Australia, although they could also boast a goodly number of immigrants every year, most of these immigrants were gold-seekers attracted by the gold rush. Although a small portion could successfully make a huge fortune relying on the gold rush, the vast majority still remained merely gold mine workers, living a hand-to-mouth existence.
"Your Highness, as of right now, our food relief has been going on for two days. In Sydney alone, a total of over nine thousand three hundred portions of food have been distributed within these two days. Among them, there are three particularly impoverished families to whom we gifted an extra portion of food," the official reported.
Under normal circumstances, everyone was only permitted to collect one portion of relief food. Yet upon encountering those particularly impoverished families or individuals, an extra portion of food could also be gifted to them at discretion.
This poverty situation had to be independently decided by the officials distributing the food, but under general circumstances, as long as it fell within the exceptionally impoverished scope, basically there wouldn't be any restrictions.
After all, the food Arthur distributed was for the sake of his own reputation and prestige, and naturally he wouldn't cause his own renown to suffer damage just for the sake of petty gains.
Therefore, this food distribution adhered to the principle of "rather over-distribute a thousand portions than miss a single person," and a bit extra had been prepared.
"Mhm, besides the distribution of food, names and addresses must be completely registered. There will be many relief policies in the future, and many of them will have to rely on the information registered now," Arthur instructed.
Because there was no relatively proper identification system, wanting to find a poor person in Australia was still very difficult.
The officials of the Relief Committee had thought of this method precisely: that was, during food distribution, to register the names and addresses of the recipients, making it much more convenient to find people for various policies in the future.
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