OPENING OF THE HO; ARD FLOREY LABORATORIES
UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE
AUGUST, 1963
Speech by the Prime Minister the Rt. Hon. Sir Robert Menzies
Mr. Deputy Chancellor, Mr. Minister, Mr. Vice-Chancellor,
Sir Howard and Ladies and Gentlemen
I want to confess to you that I meet an initial
difficulty. I came out here innocently, thinking that I wap
going to open this building. I see from the print that I am
to dedicate it. Now this you may say is rather out of a
politician's jurisdiction, although I do remember that on one
occasion in suitable circumstances I was introduced to an
audience as the Right Reverend R. Menzies. ( Laughter) Sir,
in that capacity I dedicate this building ( Laughter). In my
other capacity, I open it. But whichever way it goes doesn't
matter very much because the hero of the day is Sir Howard
Florey himself. This is one of those occasions when we get together
and can say quite truthfully, " Let us now praise famous men"
because here is a famous man. I suppose he little thought when
he was a mere stripling in 1921 that in the course of time he
would be a Nobel Prizewinner and President of the Royal Society,
two of many things in his life that have been referred to today.
And I feel rather uncommonly conscious of the privilege you
give me by allowing me to speak anything here today at all,
I look around here here they are, Fellows of the Royal Society,
distinguished physicians, distinguished surgeons, distinguished
chairmen of broadcasting conmissions ( Laughter) ot hoc genus
omni and what is worse, I must have made about five or six
speeches at university events in the last six months and the
first time, I did rather well, It was all fresh, but the second
time I saw the same people ( Laughter) and again and again and
again I looked down and I saw I won't name them but you know
them. ( Laughter) The same eminent audience. All I hope is that
the next time I make a speech on some occasion, some Providence
will intervene and I will be able to begin by saying, " All,
all are gone, the old familiar faces." ( Laughter)
Sir, you did well, if I may say so, to pay tribute
to the remarkable facts financially associated with this establishment
because they are remarkable. Australia has an
honourable record in the field of private contribution to
universities, but on this occasion, this little group of people
of whom two distinguished citizens have been named7 got together,
found a great deal of money and then having established their
bona fides much more satisfactorily than most people who come
to me and ask for money ( Laughter), they arrived, Dr. Denton
with them ( Applause) and I found myself so enthusiastic about
the work that he was doing and the work that would b\ odone in
this laboratory that I avoided the steely eye of Sir Leslie
Martin ( Laughter), had a talk to the Treasurer instead, and we
found œ 100,000 not just tucked into the triennial payment
but an extra. Very useful extra, ( Applause) I mention that to
you in strict confidence ( Laughter) here this afternoon because
I wouldn't like other representatives of other universities to
think that this constitutes a precedent. ( Laughter) And then
the Rockefeller Foundation and the result is that this
represents, in a sense, a tribute to the scientific work, the
remarkable and brilliant scientific work that has been done and
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a tribute to this great man, Sir Howard Florey which represents
a combination of private interest and contribution and Government
interest and contribution which I think might well set a pattern
in Australia Now Sir, I am not going to detain you very long
because, like you, I'want to hear from the fountainhead, I want
to hear Sir Howard, You all know about him. You all know of
the nature of the work that he has done modestly, rather selfeffacingly
actively, with tremendous imagination, with a willingness
at all times to take up the most challenging problems and
tackle them and try to solve them, and in the result, there will
be many people who go down into history as having been responsible
for great wars or matters of that kind, there will be some
villains go down in history, there will be some wise men go
down in history, but the people who read about the history will
if they have occasion to remember it realise as to a considerable
proportion of them that they wouldn't bo alive to road the
history if it hadnt been for the work that has been done of the
kind that Sir Howard Florey has done in this world. ( Applause)
So that his work and the work of others like him has been
powerful, constructive work for humanity, and this engages the
attention and gratitude of all of us.
There is just one other thing that I would like to
say, I was recently in America, reminding myself for the
purpose of another speech, of the American Declaration of
Independence, with its fine resounding statement that all men
are born equal and thats true, In a human sense that's true.
In terms of civic rights and human and divine responsibility,
men are born equal, but it is a matter for gratitude that in
terms of talent they are not born equal because what has
contributed to the progress of the world, the progress of
humanity, more than anything else perhaps, is that you get
these peaks in the graph of ability, you get these distinguished
p. ople who not only do remarkable things themselves but who
gather around them other people who are all the better because
they worked with a great man. And the result is that thr'. ljgh
the very inequality of talent that exists in human beings, the
ordinary human being like most of us is able to go along better,
happier, with a better future and a better understanding.
I always feel interested when I encounter some
distinguished physicist for example who will say to me before
our conversation ends, " You know I did some work with
Rutherford." This is a wonderful thingo I don't go as far as
Carlylo, you know, about great men being the stuff of history,
but I go to this extent that I believe that the influence of
a remarkable person, of genius of application, of tremendous
drive of force of mind, is not confined to what he does
himself in hiscwn righto It extends to the way that he perhaps
stimulates an entire generation of people in the work that
they do in his branch of knlowledge. Really, of course in
Australia we are occasionally a bit odd aren't we, to be quite
frank about it. We occasionally think in Victoria that a man
from South Australia can't be quite as good, ( Laughter) though
the people : from Adelaide have for years and years been conscious
of their superiority in all moral qualities to the rest of us.
( Laughter) This is well understood.
But apart from that, we are a little bit inclined,
aren't we, to think that everything unknown is to be taken as
magnificent. Grant people in any branch of life are people / 3
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who live at a distance, about whom we read in the newispapers
or in the cables. We are not always prepared to recognise,
in their own lifetime, these great men that we have produced,
and today is a very happy proof that here, at any rate, you
don't suffer from that complaint because here we have a man
famous all over the world, so moaest that he has been having
a most ungovernable fit of misery for the last half hour
( Laughter) listening to his praises, But he is entitled
to praise. He is entitled to gratitude because in due course
of time when, as we believe optimistically, things get sorted
out and fall into their proper perspective and proportions, the
name of Howard Florey will be regarded as one of tne absolutely
outstanding names in Australian history.
I am delighted beyond words that this building
which 1 am now authorised by the Deputy Ghancellor to call
a laboratory I have never been too sure how you pronounce
that word rat I am delighted beyond words that this
laboratory should be set up here for all to see to carry out
work of great distinction and utility in his name in my own
university. This is something that gives me especial pleasure
and therefore adds to my satisfaction in dedicating and/ or
opening this building.