CEREMONY TO COMMAEMORATE THE JUBILELE OF THE FOUNDING AND
NAM4ING OF CANBERRA.
" THE DA. Y WYE CELEBRATE"
Speech by the Prime Minister,, the Rt. Hon. R. G, Menzies
Your Majesty7, Your Royal Highness, Your Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen
This is, of course, a great occasion for us. This is
a new city. Your Majesty, you come from an old city, a city
old in history, a city in which the modern builder may still,
when excavating for foundations, come across remains of Roman
or Anglo-Saxon civilisation. This is a new city and its
history is in the making. ' Ve wontt be able to attract the
archaeologists and the historians for a long time yet, but
our history is in the making and we are the people who are to
play our part in making it.
It isnyt so very long ago that on this very spot
the Parliament House was opened. It was a year after you were
born, Your Majesty, and your distinguished parents were here
to open it. At that time, the population of Canberra was
a few thousand. At the time of the ceremony we have just heard
so vividly described, fifty years ago, the population was
probably to be counted in hundreds. It is very interesting
for all of us to know that of the pioneer settlers of that
time, there are some well represented by their descendants
in this gathering. When I first came to Canberra myself, and it seems
a long time ago, the population was six thousand. The population
at present is something over 607000. I am told that by 1970
it will be 100,000. Statisticians, Ma'am always understana
these things to perfection. And on top ol' that, the calculators
of the Commission have, I believe, satisfied themselves and,
indeed satisfied me that by the turn of the century in the
year 1000, the population will be a quarter of a million.
Now I refer to these interesting facts, Your Majesty,
because 2000 is a little way ofLf a little after my own time,
if I may confess it, but not after yours. I look forward, with
the eye of prophesy, to the notion of my own descendants in
2000 standing up and drinking your, health your health
still the Queen. Z Older, but richer than ever in the love of
your people. ( Applause)
This for you, Ma'am, must, possess a certain family
significance. Fifty years ago, when Canberra was named, as
we have just been reminded, your Grandfather, the great King
George V, sat on the throne. It was his lot to encounter the
blasts of war and to be called upon to confront great constitutional
problems which the changes wrought by the war brought
into existence. And he met them with a mixture of high
intelligence and genius; met them so successf'ully that the
new Constitutional Monarchy emerged. I shall always think
of him myself as the first great Constitutional Monarch in the
modern sense. And then, your Father also had to encounter similar
trials with characteristic courage and skill and he carried on
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these great traditions and built on them. He was the second
great Constitutional Monarch in the modern sense. And you,
Ma'am, have succeeded him and you are the third.
The line runs strongly. This genius for monarchy
has not disappeared. Indeed, the more I think about it, the
more I believe that in our oim time, our own Boyal Family has
managed magnificently to combine the place and dignity of the
Throne with the ordinary life, the ordinary desires and needs
of ordinary human beings. ( Applause)
Now, of course, these great rulers over this period
of time in which Canberra has been established, were not alone.
There are many people here today who remember with great
affection the late Queen Mary who became a tradition among
her people. We all remember with a singular warmth of
affection your Mother who sat on the Throne with your Father,
George VI. ( Applause) And if I may say so, we have seen,
fortunately for us, so much of His Royal Highness, Prince
Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, that we have really taken him
to our hearts and have come to regard him as, for all good
purposes, an Australian. ( Applause)
I mention these matters in the presence of our
Queen because I think it is right that she should know how
deeply those ideas are embedded in our omw hearts and minds.
We are her faithful people. We will continue to be her
faithful people. On a visit of this kind, it occurred to the Government
that it might be agreeable to Her Majesty if we commemorated
her visit in some way that would be of interest to her and of
interest to His Royal Highness. Knowing Her Majesty's great
interest in education, knowing in particular His Royal Highnoss'
keen interest in scientific matters and in scientific research,
the Government has decided to commemorate this occasion by
establishing ten post-graduate fellowships a year, to be taken
up by people after the degree of Doctor and to be held in
physical and biological science. And with the very kind
consent of Her Majesty, these will be known, in perpetuity as
they go on and go on, as the Queen Elizabeth II Fellowships.
( Applause) I am also happy to tell you that Her Majesty's
Government in the United Kingdom has taken a keen interest in
this day and in this event. It has been considering what
contribution it might make to Canberra to mark this occasion,
and I think in the most imaginative fashion, the Government
has, through the Prime Minister, communicated with me and has
indicated that it is going to find a very substantial sum of
money which will be spent at our choice, on something that will
commemorate the union, the connection between the two Parliaments,
going back to the old days of Westminster Hall, either by a
series of fountains in front of the new Parliament House, when
we get it ( I notice the President of the Senate nodded approvingly
that time), or alternativoly, by establishing a tower with a
chine of bells in it something, I confess, I have always
wanted to see in this place. But whatever way it goes, this
will be a contribution by the Government in the Old Country
to the Government and Parliament and City in the New and,
therefore, that again nakes it a memorable occasion. ( Applause)
But, Your Majesty, having said all that, at perhaps
too great length, I want to come back to my own constant theme
and that is that what marks this day as the nost outstanding
day, a day that we will always remember, is the fact that you
are here.
[Date confirmed]