SPRINGYALK HIGH SCHOOL SPEECH NIM
NKLD AT SPRIIGTAZZ9 VICT( RIA9 an
12MH DZc1; RR, 1962.
auoh We the nifsvea E the It. IlcA.. E-2. ASMzi
It Seams to me that I have to make apersonal
expanation about what we say in Parliament vtmn we pretend
tht samebedy boa si miprosemtW. as. I ought to explain how
I cW to be here because this IS qUit. 8t017#
Last week at four o'cock In the morning,, on Friday
( I reebrit will becausie as I was gping hm to the Lodges
the birds we" e twittering In the trees ( Laughter) and the dawn
was uomng In from the east, eddly enough ( Laughter) and I
Very seida we the dawn break) but the reason for it was that
at four o'clock In the morning on Tridar we wee. just finishing
tvhWer PHaarplipaym Cenhtrairsytm aSse s( sLioanu gahntde r) I awnads whoisphiningg a evlietrytbleod yf or ovneery,
myself* You now, Members or Parliament,, let it be admitted,
have a lot in comn with schoolboys, I say nothing about
schoolgirls. I hae neve dared to pretend that I understood
what vent an In their minds, buit I knov something about schoolboys
( Lausbtor) and you follows know perfectly veil, don't you how
there Is a temptation to leave It and leave It and leaive It until
the * zmuinetIons are looming up and then work like mad to catch
up the aneic o, that is exactlvr what we do in Parliament,
( Laughter) W go along fairly lelswely, week after week,
week after wok, and in the last week, the Minister in Char of
the Hiouse says, mellp If ye are going to got through by Fia
mornngbays we'd better have a few late mns.' 0 And we then7
P ro to sit up until all sort* of absurd hours And so an
Fiday morning, at four o' clock In the morning, the Session ended
and I went Rome.
And yesterday, vs had the last Cabinet Meeting I
hope ( Laughter) before Christmas and vs finished at something
after * I& ve o'clock last night, and when vs had all wished each
ether a Merry Christmes and hoped that vs wouldn't se each other
again in the Cabinet room flor quite a time, two or three of my
ealloagues said to me, '* Well I suppose you'll take a few days
off now.' 0411 I said, Oa ping to Springwlo tomorrow
night to a school speech night' and I don ' t mind admitting to
you that they looked at so an 111 neded Some medical attention
( Laughter). * But why?' they said " IWby must you Vs what have
you got to do with Sprifgwale? M fo which I replied, ' Well,
nothing yet but '( Laughter) I said, 01 so going to Springvale,
to the High Schools for a variety of reasons, but perhaps the
mst oampeliag one is that I happen to be an old friend of the
W-eaL-atr,, and the Headmaster Is, In m7 opinion, not only a
talented and devoted tea cher but be's a rim Moind and a
& reat citisen.'" ( Applauise) Led. I said III think that's not a
bad reasen fiw going out,' 94n as he a& S been Speaking tonight,
I've thought of ao or two additional matters.
After Ibhd lefta State schoolIn Ballarat, I went to
a little Secondary school which disappeared many years ago, but
was then Just struggling tewa6s Its close. I don't supposev
had more tban 32 or 35 boy at the school at tkwt stage. There
were six doing Inteomed" a or what wae then ealled Junior Public.
I notice, Siro that you have got through 112 In Intermediate.
2
What a comanty of scholars you are -1121 and fifty
something in Leaving. We had six. You might say, * W* ll
that's prettyr poor,. That must have been a miserable, little
school. But I want to reind you that the quality of a
school depends an the quality of the people who V through it,
and the suceess of a school, in the long ran, vont depend
just an maberss, it will depen upon you -a few dozen of you
Iii this room tonight; and the kind of things you do in the
world fug' the benefit of mankind let's boye fes out of the
six who were in that Junior Public os, four we" e Final
Honours scholars in their oouwses at the Univrsity. Four out
of ixI know that beeause I hap r to be one of them.
by numbers, I am talking to the boys and girls tonight. Being
a parents and a grandparent, myself, 1I no that most of us
in that rank are beyond redemption. Youa knows ye have settled
into our hawbits of mind, whatever they my be.& I an talking
to the bcs and girls. Never allow yourselves to think that
something madrM~ that has happened to someb( 4y else can't
happen to yea, Dever got Into th rame of mind of thinkcing
that therie are some, people In the world who are ludW enoigh
to do things and tha t this is puely a matter of ludc.
Here is a school of 1 000. This is a very bill
school and It will be bi gjrin hiture, I fear, because all
schools tend to get a little bigger. & 1e ttaou. I want
you to realise, tboit In this very thousand thre are boys and
girls who some day as men and women will e celebrated people
people of great sigraifioanos, people of great influence,
people of great quality; an that apart altogether from the
ones vtbo may get their names, In the nespapers -which, I assure
you, is not very hard to do apart altogether from thdse,
there will be hundreds who will never get their names into the
newsppers,, but who will be helping to keep the world moving
and tokeep it a good place to live in. Therefore, don't
underestimate yoarselvou; don't underestimate your chances.
Now having said that I just mant to offer a few
homely observatons about the th! ngs that we all disliked when
I was at school and that for all I kn many of you dislike
today. For example I alway; s wanted to Le a lawyer a Very
docent ambItion, 1 thnk I wanted to be a lawyer. I wasn't
Interested In antig else. And I hated having mathematics
drinmd Into M. I suppose som o f you chaps do. I don't km
you might all be scientific geniusesG0, but I hated having
mathematics & qmmed Into mo and I might have been-heard to
say, " Oh vbt's the use of this. I want to be a Ilawyer.
Lawyers U; 1 t ha is to work out so" s. Lawyers don't ha a to
engge In all the trids of a matemtical trade. Why should
I v@ 71? u A9 of eourse, it wasn't long after 1 beeame a
lawyer that I realised hay indebteod I should fleel to people
who had made me stady wtatmtios because there is no war
~ 11& ag about nattemtics* You are right Oi' You are wrong.,
you gent ride off tby sayings mell, you km-what 1 man,
of 41ou knaw you get the general, iwoa to te exm~ inr.
you 43ault do that with maths. You are right or you are wrong.
your mirA is working with precision or it isn' t. And, believe
not If you ae poing to be a lawyers, for example, YOU Will neeOd
to have a considerable amount Of precision In YOW mind.
The world Is full Of insCMuwete thi= r. The world Is full
Of peOPle Who have slovenl minds, who say * It'srsod enough.
It's near SUOUSgu TMMtYak tIP. The day wilcm,
whatevetr you do, when yom will be very thankful that you were
required = der sme foVRe Of ONWpuSIOft to do same study which
was in Its natiwe exaeto 0* 00**./ 3
And then I have heard people -I have oewn them in
my own bwand elsevher* who took great exception to having
to learn poetry bF heart. Any of you like that? I dar* We.
In my days at school in Melbo--e0 hey had an exaination of
th h-1-m-e-re Society* Perbas, 9eamster it still goes on$
does It? bat the play the Shakspeare play 1; the yaw, was
the set Piecee" so to spaadIf you wanted to enter for tb.
Shabesperfs Boaiety exmntoyou bad to learn and be
prepared to writ* on demand'from the exiners, 3 000
lines of the -lay. n I had a pretty g" memory so Icould
learn AW 3, oO lim; es. Do you know I am r. gpr& it, looking
beck an It, as a difftcalt'thing, an unpleeant thn. I don't
undostWAn the point of viem or people Amo says d. l why
should I have to learn poetx7 b~ y heart. I an not ping to be
an actor. I as not going to be a pet. Let me, tell you that
when you are as old as I an you 9va vhite-hairod old
doddering tlallov like me you wilbe eyM pate fal that you
learnt a lot of thing b~ y heart. You will fiad them coming
back iito your mind. You will find that they a" e tremendous
ompany. X= u knousir Archibald Wavell -later Lard Wvel,
the great soldier in the Middle S. st in the last lwr to pubi shed
an antholog or pootrys, a fairly considerable one, a beautiful
selection of kAglish verse, and he included In It nothing that
be didn' t know 1W heart. iHere' a a greet soldier, heavily
concerned with matters of wars going through many dark perlefs
In the Middle igast, well before d4 Alamein In ths-last war and
yet that man refreshed his mind and aheered up his spirit
the recollection in quietness of the poetry he had learnt bw
heart. And I repeat 0the only ones In the book are the ons
that be could set out b heart. Therefore doatt regret what
you do in that field*
And then thirdly might I say so thing about this,
Good speech is unuyneglede I think: today. There are too
many people who think it Is onoug to talk out of the
corner of their xmths and to offer up something that sounds
like Nottentot and who, an being questioned will a " Well
you kno what I mean" out of the corner or their mouth. Tis
is no good. Our languaage Is I believe, omawbet dopnatically,
the greatest and most flexible languads in the world. It is a
marvellous language and whatever you do In life, you will find
that you can do it better and achieve better results In the
doing of It If you can explain yourself to other people, If you
WOnVeYr ideas to other people. And if you are ping~ to do
that, of o must have same respect for the language. Don't
be on o those silly fellove PI-a till talking to the boys
who thinks that if he speaks eoureat diglishs he'll b* re~ orded
as a bit odd, because correct Bnglisb is the smllest debt that
e, owe to the longuaa that has been baqueathed to us by our
forefathers, I oedr, Sir, if I ould Just Illustrate that a
little without taking too long, Over here there Is a University
IMomesh University named after Sir Zohn Nonasb. Sir John H o1nash
was a magmifiont engineer. Be was a groat authority on patent
Iwo, He was a very great soldier, many would say one of the
greatest soldiers in the Unglis-speaking world in this century.
A very remarkable man. I was among the perhaps limited ninber of
people who know that on top of all tbase things he was a magnifIC
advoate. Hie cold put a case, he could explain himself with
such clarity, with such poesasivenss that If you went Into a
little audience and listen" d to 11, ab., doubting him, you always
M 4
omue out completely convinced that he knor what he was talking
about and that he was right* This Is an aspect of his life that
Is not very aosmly known. I would venture to say,# speaking
without authority, that Monash ' a exiormous achievements In war
vwld not have been possible unless he had developed his capacity
for speech ad expmession to the point tha~ t hie ultimately reacbed.
Worth remembering that because theres a" e other things about him
that are better known.
I mentioned Lord Wavefl just now bkvel was a
wo: nderful example of a stranip mixture beasuse by word of mouth
he couldn't explain himself at all. To have a conversation with
him, as I had many times early In 1941t was a trying experience
because yavou md say sametbingg eanwaotly invoking a reply and
Wavoll would just look at you and saiys Oh* or * Nam or something
like that, But when esaton in front of apieeof paper
to write a despak or to write anything, he wrote like an anpe
He" e apin, a man who imderstood the eniamotas imporhsnce of ou
And then, or course boys and girls, the greatest
ezample of the let Winston. Muraille There my have been
many moa wbe kne w as mobh about zmul ir a war as Winston Churchill.*
The" re yave been many non who knew as much as he did or no" e
about imming a Parlimnt. Yet there vas nobody ort earth who,
when It caeto the point of erisis, who could stand up in
Parliament or behind a L4. oropb---and talk to the entire world
with rsh moving and yet simple eloquence. If Winston Churchill
had not, when ha was your aip set out to make himself a master
of his own language and a moro of the literary resources of
his own langwage, I don't think be could have doete what be did
im. the last war and It he couldn't have dn what ha did in the
last war, than b; e whole history of the world today might have
boon gievouasly changed.
News Sir, I won't labour that matter, I will just
end up where I boosa kV saying to you, " Don't make up your minds
that you are just going to be the sam as everybody else.' There
a" e plenty of people In the world who are just the same as
everybody else Make UDyour mind down inside your heart that
you are going to be a b fr , ta ate Voing to do
something different and when people says, h9e's different',
forget about it* I will be a very pod thing to be* What we
want i& this country what the world wants Is a lot of people
who, are different, Uw are Individual himan, beings, w~ have
their own oharaoter and their own quality and their own ambition.
You will have a let of older people who will say, to you about
yourself or about some friend of yours, ' Oh, he's very ambitious,.'
as If that word was somethin disreptable. Believe me, ambition,
Is a peaot thing In the vold., Not cnetnot Silly vanity,
but ambition a belief 6ow inside Your" fI that there are some
things that you can do anid you are letomained to do them; these
are the things that make the world move on, and In duo course, A= e
this sol Is seventy years old and not seven or eight or whatever
it may beg there will ha another ftedhoster addressing another
soiweieth ether sets of parents. I believe that If you do
what I have been rather prosily advising you to dog that Hedmster
will be able to say in his report that in the last seventy years
of Its history, this school has produced A H16C# D-9i lImne
achievements, peat contribution to sociall' 1 aget contribution
to Political ' Lire but above all a pesat -on Cation to rn
life!* the piwilsof justice whisk can only be preserved if
, you all get out ao be individuals, 9 to be yourselves and niot to be
afraid.