In 1882 a call was made by the newly established Royal College of Music to philanthropists around the world for a once-off donation of £3,000 to sponsor, perpetually, an eligible young musician to three years of tuition at the school.
The editor of the South Australian Register greeted this donation in an article about the college, urging wealthy men of South Australia to follow suit, pointedly mentioning great musicians of the past whose wealthy patrons were remembered honorably as a result — Prince Esterhazy and Haydn, and Prince Lichnowski and Mozart and Beethoven were instanced.
[3][4] The advertisement for the first competition read, in part: Minimum standards of competence set by the College, and on which the examinations were based, were highly prescriptive, and included test pieces.
The college was still receiving interest on Elder's endowment, but providing no service, and profited thereby, and a local student may have taken her place.
Sir W. J. Clarke, the businessman who funded a similar scholarship in Victoria, had stipulated that income from his endowment should only be used to benefit Victorian students, so was in a better position.