3PRMQ 3 IT= H r ? RM~ E 34 ' 1ZU i. T
R. G, MRNZINS AT UN1\ t1UT 4;' E1
AMSMRA? 11 24TH j= 6! iq2i
Sir, YOar 1 xcll]* n, and ladies and gentlewen, and fellow studentst
I want to telU you that I have a hat here which it In
eonsider~ d correct to put on. ( Laughter) Like that. ( Tau6-h1: r)
And once one baa put it on and lifted It with due reverence ii the
right quarters one takes it off arnd i1ves it to an Innocent
bys tander. (? aughter)
I was truumendously Interested in the cable from R* rvoy,
( Laeghter) There was one thing missing In the cables I would have
expee~ d tfat It would have ended up () illect" ( Laughtr) I don't
know w~ hat makes as think of that except that I anm in Wes tern
Australia. ( Laushter) You have been reminded by the Chairnan, with
some difficulty I gatheredi, that I an Prim Minister ( Laaghte: and I
very well remember that Shen I was first Prime Binister, mRAWan
years zi ( Laughter) I had a telegram from 4estern Austrzaliaq from a
representative of the wheat-growers who, as sowe of you, the iwre
literate among you, may know produce a political commodity called
" wheat, This telegram said to so tVat unless something was done
for the Western Australian wheat growers all. would fail, all would
come to & n end and cmnfusion. At the end of this long, argumentative
and costly telegram, he ended up br saying * or position is P)
doubtful, so daniprous that I an sending this telegram ceallmt'".
( Lamahter) I'm not ping to be disingenuous ensough to say tthat I
paid for It personally; but we did, In the office* Anid later~ on the
wretched man came into Parliament. ( Laughter)
how what I really want to say to you Is that I think this Is
about as remarkable an event as I've ever been invited to tako pat
in be cause I an not unaomaatomed o ion my friend the Premier could
tell, you this to having cases put to as which involve som finding
of may from, the inexhaustible purse of the Coinnve-alth. Ide
in the university field it has been my ovn great plesure and great
prIvIleam to have something to do with the remrible develojimnt In
Universities in the last few years, something that 1 hope I irill, be
permitted to be proud of and wihich has involved an enormous
co-operativ effort between ioneath Government, 3 tate 3Ornnts
and a mass of people intereste in higher education in AustraLia.
11ut this I think,, Sir, is the first occasion on which I have been
invited to open a fine 9. ldan gc ostly building, paid for by the
personal sacrifice and efforts of undergraduates. 1 think th-is Is a
remarkable event. ( Applause)
I don't want to flatter you unruly characters ( Laughter)
unly but I am bon to say that this is the nest spectacnaJi piece
of self-help tlat I have seen In this field. This Is a vondewrful
per formanice and would lke to congratulate everybody who hans been
connected with it.,
I think : it Is partiamlarly appropriate that it shoulda taks
the form that it does for residential and what 1 will callg in a
broad way social purposes. Things have moved on a lot in modern
times. Ww~ n I was at the University of Melbourne and it may shook
some of you to knw that 1 " a once at a University, ( Laughter) the
amenities, If I may call then suchg for students were very skestchy,
I don'tt know that we had very much enter,. rise in those days; or
perhaps we veren't as rich as you are now* Juat certainly we ! didn't
dream of things like this. It is terribly Important that they should
have been dreamed of and brought to performance here because it helps
to remind us of the true character of a university educzition.
The University sads : or not simply the provision of the
means of instruction,, the means of teaching, though they aire, of
eourms essential, Overy tUnlvarsity today knows that it has great
problems about the number of staff compared to the evor-rising
number of people who want University training, or tertiary edacation
of on kind or another, This is an enomus problem not oully of
money, but a great problem of tz'ainin, and procuring tenecessary
standairds. of staff. This is a problem that I think will be a
teasing one over the next five or six years than perhaps any other
proulen we have
But all that relates to instruction, to teachiig., it
inclades the provision of equipment -M equipment wthich, todayll If it
is to be of the proper 3tnard Is infinitely more complex,
infinitely more expensive than it ever was before.
Jut a Univarstty doesn't exist just f'or some to twich
or for others to be taught. It is not an undesirable t: An,, that in
addi tion to sitting in lectures, one should do a little stA4Pj
tocln on thn edniogt here J~ ut when we have c. : sllored
tei-_._ ii; Itelfwih~ al hecalls taitmakes onpeople o1f reat
ñ Mai nd of great dedic-jtiofl, and we add to that thne stidy that a
staiit must put in on his own & a. countif he is to reap tti Ail
tiarest of being at a great Ulniversity we should then ijdd to those
the third element of dniversity education by no means the 14iast
which is contact 14ith students the learning to live in a attidents?
society, the subtle iLndefinable, educational quality of rabbing
shoulders with people, people who are in other faculties aighter)
Us., I kno... I ai1Abt hL-e known somebody would be ahead of uw.
( L, au~ hter) 3ut you know 1 think that a lot of people who are not
diractly concerned with universities soumetimes fail to roalive that
what seems to some of tl-e no". dour among them to be a waste of
time -the social life that exists in a placo like this* the life
of Vin~ p laying fields the argraaents that go on of a highly
specalative, and somehmues violent kind, the infinite superimwity
of zhe second year medical student over the poor humblet final, year
1a4 student -( Laughter) are all 3plendid things because they sean
thit in a strange way, such is the wisdom of providence, tho
studentse are educating each other.
flow that is the great point albout a university, rtht~ t is
the Zret point about bringing people together in a place like
this, the 4rout. point about them. having some social existencmi In
the student body, of having ontact with other minds and othor
disci~ plines* The ; reat value of this is that it broadeiw tte mind
and sends out not merely a highly skilled eraduate in a teacnial
way, but a developed human being who can be a & ood altisen arid a
wiise man or a wise woman.
Therefbre I approve . if that mans anything PrOveO
warrly of what has boen done here, not ozilj because it is a
nazalficient example of self.-help, but because, I believe that this
kind of thing Is of the essence of aL university, M4y own appaoach
to t-e financial problem of universities for the last can years has
bean fzom the very beginninj that It isn't enouagh just to provvide
tho " inimm classrooms. I have always believed it Zoos far toyand
these thin~ s. Sarly in daalin& with this na, er the questioi
cropped up, for example, about residential colleges and my fIrst
comittee wasn' t v ry interested in doinj anything about -thau. I
saidj You must Include some ra zjaondation about residerstia.,
ool o~ res even small ones, but we must have same*, And z; w nser
quite common at that time was " Buat these are frills, residential
coLleg; es are frills# halls of residence are ilrills; uni n houses
nre : rills". T~ his is a pretty stark outlookc on university tzaining.
and from begtinning to end I have said " I voa't have this. A
University must be a body which is a comprehensive arffir, tieft
caters not only for the bare minima of teachingv the batre minima of
acoomo-dation, libraries and so on, but provides also for ths,
altinnte production of men and women of consequence*.
I want to say quite seriously to all of you that the
3.
fttur, of Australia., the wisdomi of this ountry the truie otandig
of this oountry, h4 true level ofeivilisation Ini this country w
depend far more upon those who are now undergr4uastes and who~ are
Zetting the advantag* of these things, and the responhibiiity of
these things, than they will. upon people like myself 4~ ho have
grovn, or are proving old in the servioe of the country.
Rovever there it is, it is in a real ionsa iii your hands;
ann the measure ofthe success of this university this re'latively
yoang university, will in the long run be thei kin& of people it
sends out and sent out not only into . jestern ', ustrilla but Into
Australit. and the -orld, their quality and their contritlton.
And this is really, all Joking apart, a splendid exanpbe
of imagination on the pairt o! ttm undergraduateo body, niot ody
self.-sacrifice in a monetary way# but of Imagination and lbrexight*
Sir, f'or all those reasons I am deli,; htc1 to tt,'-eze even
tft* u-gh it do'qs involve me putting, on at gown,% I aight to Alain
this gown to you: I have been made an honorary ; raduate oi'a great
number of universities for some reason or other I o Otem much
more easily than I got my own de.& roes In M~ elbourne in r. V ' iii time
but -he only time I was ovrer Oiven the gown to keep ( Laaiht& ur) was
in -A;-sbane the othier day. knd this is Iti Hy vife t'Ii t is
a villainous combiition of oolours (! Aughter) 11 1~ : mnoi & ebout it
is, -n this Appeals to me I got it ffor nuthits. Tui1ee~
2-r 1 thank yoti ror thie opportuniV4 ol' bein, here und I
have the Lreatest pleasure ic' the world in deelarin,;* i tr bilding
( App1aiwe)