FOUNDATION STONE CEREMONY AT ROYAL MELBOURNE
INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
Q. C1AUG 1967 ~ Melbourne, Victoria 3DJL, 16
Speech by the Prime Minister, Mr Harold Holt
Mr Wood, Mr Anderson, the Hon Lindsay Thompson, distinguished guests,
ladies and gentlemen, students
I was interested in what you had to say about our talks last
week. I thought I was coming to a much friendlier atmosphere here this
afternoon, but what you have said In your Introductory remarks underlines
the fact that, quite apart from what the Commonwealth Government is doing
by way of reimbursement grants and in other direct payments to the States,
we are and this project is concrete evidence of it, literally concrete evidence
of it we are contributing financially in other important ways. And of course
when I say I speak as the representative of the Commonwealth
Government, but we really should include those people throughout the
Commonwealth, whether they are in one State or another, who are contributing
by their tax payments to the revenues of the Commonwealth which ' n turn in
one form or another find some of their way, at any rate into the activities of
the States. As you were saying, this particular historic college has come
a very long way in the eighty years since Francis Ormond assisted it to
develop with a grant of l' 1, 000. In those days financial objectives were much
more limited than we find at this time.
It is appropriate that the first function of this sort which I
should attend as Frime Minister should be in substance the largest project of
its kind that has been undertaken under this new programme 6f aid for advanced
education purposes. This is one of the two largest building projects of its
kind in Australia. The other one ~ s in Sydney. But taking the money provided
for this project, together with the funds the Commonwealth and State provide
for recurrent expenditure, the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology is by far
the largest recipient of funds within the advanced education programme.
You get some idea of how Commonwealth provision has grown
over recent years when I tell you that from 1961 when our expend-* ture on
education was of the order of $ 45 million, mainly for universities, it has
grown to $ 150 million in the financial year just closed, 1966/ 67, which more
than trebles the 1966/ 61 contribution. Of: course the provision for the years
immediately ahead is considerably greater even than that very large figure.
Inside these expenditures are important new areas of assistance, notably that
made to the olleges of advanced education. Perhaps more important though
than the rate of building and the growth of the student body to which you have
referred, Mr Wood, is the quality of the College itself, and its reputation and
standing in the community. Your cdle ge can claim the highest standard in
its own field in the Commonwealth of Australia.
The prime purpose of Commonwealth assistance is t o enable
the standards of these colleges of advanced education to be raised, where
indeed they need raising, to the level where they provide a genuine alternative
to the university. They will differ from the universities, but they should by
no means be inferior to them. As I read through a list of some of the / 2
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distinguished graduates taking their diplomas from these advanced colleges
of education, I found some of the most notable names in the industrial and
academic life of this country.
From this College alone, you could point in the academic
field to Professor Gordon Brown, Professor in Engineering at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, Professor Freeland, Frofessor of Arch-Ite.-ture at
N. S. V1. University. In industry, Mr. WJeichhardt, Chairman of Directors
of I. C. I. Sir Ian Beaurepaire of Olympics, Mr Hans Ernst, Managing
Director of the Cincinnati Machine Tool Company and Mr Perrett who is,
of course, one of our outstandng arch4tects. In the Public Service, Mr G. F.
Browne, Chairman of the Victorian Railways Commissioners, Dr Lennox,
Chief of the CSIRO ' Pool Testing Authority, Dr Symons of the Commonwealth
Serum Laboratories, Dr Grose, of Defence Science Laboratories and Dr
C awsey also with our Defence Science Laboratories. From other Colleges
than RMIT, Sir Mquriae Mawby, one of our distinguished leaders in the
mineral field, and Professor W-; arner, an authority in the metallurgical field.
Now when I recite names of that order of distinction as the
product of colleges such as this, then the point is made that those who come
from these colleges can make for themselves a place in the life of the
community in no way inferior from those who come from our universities.
Indeed the practical knowledge which usually accompanies the work in a
college such as this is becoming increasingly appreciated.
I find myself, as with advancing years my eyesight tends to
weaken, that 1. am taking an increasing interest in the products of industrial
design. Considering such mundane items as the bathroom, the stove, even
wrist watches and matters of that sort, 1 have come to the condusion that
most of these are designed by alert, ikeen-eyed young men and women who
have yet to experience some difficulties which those of us have reached a
more advanced stage cf life experience.
I don't know why we can't standardize, for example, on a red
dot for hot water and a green dot for cold water, particularly when one has to
grope throtgh the mists of the bathroom or when one travels abroad and
they alter the initials in accordance with the description of hot or cold in that
particular country. And occasionally when I try to prepare a modest
breakfast myself down at the seaside, I find that I have to dart for the glasses
these days because the signs on the stove aren't clear enough to tell me
whether it is on or off or medium or high or low, and matters of that sort.
So I do urge that whazever care is given to the theoretical side
of studies and I expect to have a more responsive chord to strike in an
organisation such as this than perhaps in one of the universities that the
practical outcome from those studies will always be borne in mind. It is
all very well to study the humanities but the theories to be applied to the
humanities must at some stage be put -nto practical terms for the human
beings in relation to which the humanities are expressed. It surprises mie
that in so much of industrial design the practical application of what is
intended for a mass of people tends to be lost sight of in the theoretcal
applications-by a person having his own idea, perhaps, of what 4s wanted
rather than visualising the needs of the community as a whole.
But perhaps I may briefly outline what we in the Commonwealth
and our Advsory Committees see as the distinctive features of the colleges
of advanced education. / 2
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I would name them as a wide range of courses to provide a
broad educational basis and cross -fertilisation of ideas; a substantial
proportion of tertiary students; standards of building and services, which can
stand equal to those to be found amongst the best in the world; emphasis on
new teaching techniques; the development of liberal studies both as an
essential ingredient i n all courses and as new courses in their own~ right, and
in making references to liberal studies, I am making no particular allusioni
of course, to any political movement in the country; t heir difference from
the universities in their emphasis on vocational and applied courses; the
part-time students; teaching rather than research; and a close association
with industry and commerce.
As I met members of your Council a little earlier, it was
quite obvious from what I knew of their activities that you have managed to
maintain that close association amongst leaders in their own field of industry
and commerce with the work of the RMIT,
As part of the plan to raise standards, quite apart from the
much larger sums to be provided for buildings and recurrent expenditures,
the Commonwealth is making available for the triennium 1967/ 69 special
unmatched grants of a quarter of a million dollars for research in advanced
education, and of half a-million for library books and materials in colleges
of advanced education. WTithout wearying you too much with statistics, let me
just summarise by saying that from 1965/ 69, the Commonwealth expects to
contribute to advanced education and technical training the following totals
To all States $ 36. 6 million; to Victoria $ 20. 2 million, to RMIT alone
approximately $ 6 million. This $ 6 million reflects a total State and Commonwealth
programme of some $ 13. 9 million It is interesting to reflect on the
fact that in Victoria, for some reason of historical development, we find that
the diploma student population of colleges 3. n this State now totals upwards of
68 per cent. of the total Australian enrolment. In addition to the diploma
students there are large numbers of individual trade or craft students.
Now you have another disti-nction. You are the only Australian
college of advanced education to have a Royal Charter. Yours is the oldest
college in Melbourne. Ballarat I understand is the only older Victorian
college. You were founded at much the same time as our public schools
and the Melbourne University.
Reflecting on the burst of education activity about the time
when you were founded, perhaps there is a parallel in that we are now seeing
again a similar age of expansion in education. New universities of adva nced
education; new emphasis on science education; a quickened awareness of the
importance of training our most valuable asset, the young people of our
community. The Commonwealth has played a significant and, I hope you will
feel, an imaginative part in this new emrhasis on education. Nevertheless,
we have continued to recognise and act on the basis that the States have the
primary responsibility for education.
In referring to the new emphasis we have given to it in our
Commonwealth role, I must pay a tribute to my predecessor, whose drive
gave so much lift to the programme and also to my colleague, the first
Commonwealth Minister for Education, Senator Gorton, who is bringing so
much energy and enthusiasm to his tasks.
In the Department of Labour and National Service, my
colleague, Mr. Bury has been active in the work of the Froductivity Committees
and in the programme of training of apprentices encouraged by that Department.
In other fields in our Australian National University the new university we
are establishing in Papua and New Guinea you get further evidence of this
Commonwealth activity. It is not often recognised how much we are now spending
on education. I gave these figures earlier and mentioned that the total
would be incieasing very rapidly. But it is rather interesting to note that
payments to the States, the colleges of advanced education, the universities,
the science laboratories and teacher training in the financial year ahead of
us will have increased from $ 0' 2m. to $ 115m. or roughly an increase in that
one year of per cent. The grants for colleges of advanced eduation in the
new financial year will be more than double the grants of the last financial
year. We are of course spending a great deal on education in our own fields
of responsibility, partly by way of assistance to students under the various
scholarships schemes, and partly in our own territories. Mr Thompson may
be interested to know . hat the Commonwealth's payments to the S13tates for
education are increasing at a significantly faster rate than the Commonwealth
payments for its own immediate responsibilities i A recognition I believe
of our growing support of the States in their programmes.
Now, the importance the Commonwealth is placing on
colleges of advanced education is evident from the percentages I have just
given. In the words of my colleague, Senator Gorton, they are to be treated
in the important field of capital development in all respects as universities
as to standards, priorities and so on.
Why is the Commonwealth providing this assistance? Wie
believe in the importance of giving our young people a chance to develop
themselves for their full potential. Wle believe that in these colleges there
is a genuine alternative to the universities on which insufficient importance
has been placed inthe past. Vie value the wide range of courses the colleges
offer, the cross -fertilisation of ideas they encourage, we value the emphasis
they place on the inclusion of these liberal studies in technical training.
And we value the empl'asis they place on vocational and applied courses which
fit their students well for playing their important roles in industry and
commerce. These are the features of education which the colleges of
advanced education emphasise, and which the Commonwealth, in partnership
with the States, hopes to promote, Of them the RMIT is a notable example.
But much of the value of these colleges will be lost if the general public is
not made aware of their existence as a genuine alternative to the universities,
and if people are not given every encouragement to use them.
As to your new project, this is the first and largest of
those being undertaken under the Commonwealth $ 24, million capital
assistance programme for the 1967/ 69 triennium. Your 8-acre site is in
a unique situation I believe the project will take you up twelve storeys
high, and it is being redeveloped under an ambitious scheme which should
result in more unoccupied ground space by 1974, combined with three times the
amount of floor space. It is estimated unless they have gone up since these
notes were prepared for me to cost $ 3C million over a ten-year period.
I thought there was a rather ominous ring about your comment, Mr. Wood this
building is the first step.
The Commonwealth has committed itself during the present
and past triennium to assistance of 1$ 2. 6 million towards the project, to be
matched by a State grant, and already to a further $ 360, OCO unmatched out of
its $ 10 million grant to State technical colleges. They are also providing
substantial funds to the RMIT for recurrent expenditure over $ 3 million
during the 1967/ 69 triennium. Without this assistance from the Commonwealth
and State Governments, it would not have been possible for the
Institute to develop these buildings and to cope with the enormous increase
in student population for which you are now preparing.
The Commonwealth Advisory Committee on Colleges of
Advanced Education in its report to the Government during 1966, commented
that it has found this t ype of education going on too often in old gaols and
breweries. Well, you should be doing a good deal better than that, Mr.
Wood. The Commonwealth/ State programme of $ 48 million during the
coming triennium for capital projects is evidence of the serious and
determined approach by both national and State Governments in partnership
with the problem. The new building to be erected on this historic site will
be evidence in concre~ e and steel of the outcome of our endeavours.
But, as I said earlier, perhaps I should fittingly close on
this. While we will see a massive project in terms of concrete and steel,
it is in the quality of the student body and the achievements which they are
able to carry out in these buildings, in the maintenance of the splendid
tradition which marks the RMIT as an outstanding example of what can be
achieved in the advanced education field that we will count the results in the
years to come from the financial provisions we are now undertaking to make.
It is in the hope that there will be added important new and significant
chapters in the distinguished history of the RMIT that I now have pleasure
in formally laying the trowel or whatever the phrase is. I saw the size of
it a moment ago. I felt I should have got a union ticket out before I took
hold of it. It will serve as a useful implement for the next Premiers'
Conference if for nothing else!