Sir, and ladies and gentlemen, and boys:
I have had a tempting seriesa of invitations, haven' t I, laid out before me: the Judge has been doing his best to persuade me to tell you the story of my life. This, I think, I would prefer not to do. But if the boys of the school are interested in how a man can begin in a small way as a speechmaker, and end up by doing about six speeches a week I will tall them.
When I was 12 years old, at school in Ballarat I was thought, for some reason or other, to have what they call " the gift of the gab". A master was leaving the School, or he was being married, or some disaster was about to overtake him and it was decided to give him a small present and have it accompanied by speeches. The first boy to speak, who subsequently became a General, was selected; and I was selected as his supporter. He made a very good speech he took the precaution of writing it out and reading it.
I, in my youthful vanity, decided that that wasn't for me so I stood up, at the ripe age of 12, opened my miouth and nothing cam out. Mly moath got drier and
drier, not a solitary syllable could I utter, and I returned to my form
completely discredited. Of course my enemies would say I have made up for it
since. But I thought that might encourage some of the boys who are called upon
some day to utter and who find that for the time being they can't.
Now I admit with shame that this is the first time I have been here,
My first impression, of course, on a lovely day, is this: that this must be one
of the most beautiful, and beautifully situated, schools in Australia. It is
really quite a moving thing to look around and to be told that in its present
position this School is a young school; though, of course as we dl. kn~ ow, in
actual years of life it is a very old school, the senior school of the lot.
But what has been done here just amazes me.
I found it very hard to believe that Bruce laid the foundation stone over there when he was Prime Minister. And that doesn't seem long ago. I congratulate you. I think this is a marvellous place, beautifully situated; buildings growing more andi more mature as time goes on, and now this splendid oval completed by this splendid pavilion
behind me. I had the great pleasure of knowing Gordon Rolph very well indeed,
and of spending many holidays down on the river with him. A lot of people
thought that we must have a busy time talking politics we didn't ever mention
th'em. Even then we talked about two subjects where the fish might be biting,
and grandchildren, grandchildren. I knew all about his grandchildren, or those
of them who were then available, by hearsay, even before I met them in the
flesh. And I used to say to him occasionally, " You know I think you spoilI this
boy, or that". And he would say " No~ doubt; you wait, you wait and see what
you do". And I've waited; and I know how right he is, or how right he was.
But they were great days, wonderful days we could have toget'-' er -a wonderful
family. If I spoke about Lady Rolph too much I would embarrass her, because
she has always been to me, aikd to my wife, one of the great women of Australiaa
marvellous person. She tolerated me, she tolerated us, she tolerated the
grandchildren, she tol rated the fishing; and between ourselves she could cook
rock cod 3o that it tas'Wed like the finest f4. sh irñ the wiorl. d, So I go back Cvler
a few years of this.
Now Sir Gordon Rolph was, of course, as you have been reminded, greet citizen of this city and of this state, a man whose friendship I valued enormously, a man whose friendship contained no alemernt of se. lfishness, or self-seeking in it. He liked people because he liked people, and people. liked him because they liked him. And of course, as you know he had a considierable belief in his family. His daughters wore beyond conpare to him; and indeed almost to me with one exception the finest daughters i. n the world. li1g. a ve him great satisfaction to think of his grandsons coming here, growing up in the tradition of their own fathers. And Lady Ro2. ph couldn't have done anything more significant, or more moving, than to commemorate his name here in the School of his grandchildren, and no doubt their children, and so almost ad infinitum. This is a very happy thought and one that vm all appreciate.
Now all I want to say to you about a school of this kind, about this
school in particular, is that I am no believer in uniformity carried too far,
There is almost a passion for uniformity in Australia. What happens in one
State must happen in all States; schools that exist in one State must exist in
all States. AUl the rules of the game, whatever they may be, must apply, from
Cooktown in the far north to Cape Teeuwin in the South West. There is a sort
of strange passion for uniformity. And uniformity has very little to be said
for it, in my opinion. We are all different we have an element or two in
common but we are all different. The business of a community is to encourage
the individuality of every human being so that we won't be a driven crowd of U2
million, but will be U1 million individual people. If you are going to produce
that result, you can't carry uniformity too far.
Now as you have been reminded I have had a varied scholastic
experience, if that is the right word to use, having begun in a small country
state school in the north-west of Victoria where there were about 25 boys and
girls, then having gone to a bigger state school in Ballarat, then having gone
to a secondary school % hich, I regret to tell you, closed up the year after I
left. Then I went to a big public school in Melbourne and then to the
University of Melbourne. So that I have seen this problem from a number of
different angles. I don't criticise our State system of education; I think it
is magnificent. I never go anywhere in Australia without being tremendously
impressed by what is being done in the building of schools, and high schools,
and the provision of facilities. But I have a particular spot in my heart
and mind for the Church schools like this, because I think they produce that
variety in education which, in my opinion, is literally the spice of life.
They are different. It is a good thing to have some schools that are
different. They develop a particular point of view. It used to be said many
years ago that what we call Public Schools in Victoria, great Public Schools,
were the homes of snobbery; of privileged people.
You know really, ladies and gentlemen, there is an awful lot of
misuse of language in this country of ours. The privileged classest. ihen I
look back on the fellows who were at a Great Public School with me there was
only one fellow whose father had a decent income and he was bitterly unpopular
because he could spend more money at the tuckshop than anybody else. We hated
the sight of him; and we were quite right. As for the rest of us we didn't
have two shillings to jingle, one against the other. Privileged! You know
there is an awful lot of nonsense talked about these things.
But we had the great good fortune to find ourselves, by one way or
another, by some efforts on our own part, and by a proper spirit of devotion on
the part of our parents, and a good deal of self-sacrifice, to find ourselves
in a school in which the whole operation was conducted against the background
of religious belief, against the background of a high moral ethical standard.
This, I think, is of tremendous importance. I believe, in other words, that if
you were to abolish every school like this in the sacred name of uniformity,
and send everybody through exactly the same hierarchy of scol, willy-nilly,
something would go out of the life of Australia that we wouldn't very readily
replace. The best proof, I think, of this is that as time has gone on more
and more people are sending their boys to schools like this, sending their
girls to si'ter schools of .9chools like this, with an eagerness to secure the
advantage of this particular educational training, Noboody can toeiL. aie that
that is just keeping tip with the Joneses, or being snooty, or superior: this
is a growing recognition of the fact that when~ your son, or your daugh. er,
comes out of school, goes to a University, or goes out into the world of
affairs: or goes into some technical training, you want him, or her, to be an
individual, with somie parsonality-devel'ped, Vith an irrdividual mark, ri jus1t
the mark of a mould.
To do that I believe that we have to draw out of aJ,?. those who are at school the best that they have. It may be the best that they have at cricket, or at football; it may be the best that they have in Latin, if one may speak with respect of what I understand is now almost literally a dead language. We must try to get the best out of their minds, their personalitie s, so that at the end of it people will say: " That fellow went to a good school" and won't say " I wonder whether that chap ever went to school".
It is the individual who matters. There is too much nonsense talked about in this century about mass movements. Half' the troubles in the world today are caused by roaring politicians like our friend from the Soviet Union, who are appealing all the time to a mass hysteria, to mass fear. The moment the people of Australia become disposed to yield in the face of mass persuasion, mass hysteria, mass fright, mass whatever it is, then liberty will begin to cdhiasraapcpteearr iins Atuos thraavlei at. r ue Thien dgiuvairdaunatle ec itofi zelnisb e% rhtoy atnhdi ntkh ef ogru atrhaenmtseeel voefs , w-hh have had their minds developed, who have put themselves in the way of learning more and more right through their lives; and who are, therefore, able to speak their minds and resist any petty aspiria1g dictator, in whatever fie1. d, who may come along.
N'ow, Sir, that is a pretty large survey from a small beginning. But I believe that it is true. It is because I believe in those things that I have felt it a very great privilege to come here to this school, for the first time, in order to say something to you and perform this small office of a very deep and abiding friendship.
( Applause)