SETT'ING PZ THM F( W3NATION STONE
OF THE N4ATIONAL LIBRAY CANBERRA 66/ 085
31st March 1366
Speech by the Prime Minister.-Mr. Harold Holt
As you have been told by Mr. Anthony, I shall
shortly have the privilege of introducing to you the best
known man in Australia. I shall be asking him then to
perform a task for which I think he has had more practice
than any other man I could name-in the public life of this,
or any other country; and those two facts alone as I
give them to you indicate the significance of the occasion
for us and of the part of leadership and wise guidance which
Sir Robert has himself played in relation to the building
behind us. 3 e is fortunate, I think he would agree, at least
in this respect, that most people who lay a foundation stone
have to go through a long and rather uncomfortable period
of waiting as the weeds build up around it and the time
marches on before there is much visible sign of achievement
imposed upon the stone which has been laid.
But here we see a building well advanced along the
road to completion and already signifying to us in its lines
the distinction which Mr. Anthony has referred to so
eloquently as he has addressed us in the course of his own
speech. I know that there are many people to whom thanks
and tribute should be paid on an occasion such as this,
and I shall mention them in a minute or so. But, Sir
Robert who has had such a leading part to play in the
development of this beautiful Australian capital which in
every year that passes unfolds itself in greater beauty
and distinction for the observer he would be interested
to know that not only is the N~ ational Library project quite
obviously so well advanced but another great interest of
his was advanced a stagc further this week when I received.
from Sir Daryl Lindsay as Chairman of the Advisory Committee,
the report on the proposed National ZArt Gallery for the
N'ational Capital. Sir Robert had a large part to play in the
decision to establish here a National Art Gallery and to
set up tiic Committee which would do the preliminary thinking
on that matter for us.
vie all know, ladies and gentlemen, that a building
such as we find behind us or you, in front of you does
not just happen and my colleague the Minister for the
Interior has told you something of the planning and toil
which has gone to make it.
lHe has also paid proper tribute to those involved
and I would like to add the thanks of the Government to him
because he has had a very active part to play in the overall
project; and to Mr. overall ( no pun intended-by that
previous reference to Mr. Overall and to all those
associated with them in What clearly will be a notable and
enduring addition in what is already a very handsome Capital
City. The building will allow the library to bring
together for the first time in Australia a collection of
more than a million volumes and its vast collections of maps,
manuscripts, pictures and films, this will make it possible
for these great resources to be put to their best use.
The Government has appreciated the difficulty of providing
a satisfactory service from the past and present widely
separated temporary buildings and it is grateful to the staff
of the National Library for their dedicated services in
these circumstances. I would like to add a word on what the building
means to the Government and to the Nation. It marks the
fulfilment of processes which~ began with the first Australian
Prime Minister in 1901, and which have had the warm support
of successive governments and parliaments since that time.
I mention the Parliament because, of course, the
National Library grew out of the Parliamentary Library, and
until separation of the two libraries was begun in 1961, the
National Library was developed by the presiding officers of
Parliament and the Parliamentary Librarians of the day.
They were advised by successive Library Committees representing
both Houses of the Parliament and all parties in the Parliament.
I recall with pleasure I had the privilege of serving as a
back-bench member of Parliament on the Library Commtittee in
earlier years. Special recognition is due to my Colleague,
Senator the Hon. Sir Alister McMullin, President of the
Senate who presided over the Library Committee from 1956-1961,
this was during a period of great development and has smoothed
the process of separation since.
The growth of the National Library has been further
accelerated since its act of 1960 under the guidance of the
Council of ninu members with the National Librarian as thieir
Executive Officer. The Govrernment is grateful to these men
and women of wide and varied experience from throughout.*
Australia who have given their services freely in the national
interest. Their Chairman, Sir Archie Grenfell Price, well
known to most of you present as a scholar; is recalled by
me as a very valued parliamentary colleague during some of
the years of War.
The National Library Act of 1960 was a recognition
by the Government and Parliament that a strong National Library
was essential to the research and inquiry neoded to support
Australia's unprecedented National growth. It will
supplement what has been done by Government and others for
universities and research workers generally. As Sir Robert
said when introducing it, the Act did not create a new
institution but would define the functions and role of an
institution which would increasingly play a National role
of the greatest importance similar to that of the great
National Libraries in other countries.
4V It is perhaps significant that the countries
which have shown the greatest development in this century
are those with the greatest collections of Library material
for research. United States is, of course, perhaps the
most notable example to which our own National Library
owes a great deal.
What should the Australian people expect of their
National. Library It is the, place whiere they should hope to find
the most detailed information about their own cbuntry and
the most important facts and opinions about-other countries,
and especially about those with which our future is likely
to be closely linked. The National. Library is assembling
the records of the past, as well as those which will
reflcZ, current activities. For we cannot-understand the
present or plan for the future without a knowledge of the
past. This is especially important where Australians in
relation to themselves and in thcir growing association with
other countries whose civilizations are so mucil older than
our own. It is well to remember that these older civilizations
include our Asian neighbours and therefore the Library is
actively collecting material in many A sian languages as well
as in English and European languages.
All this will be of great value to the Parliament,
to the Departments of Government, to the Universities and to
research and enquiry where ever it takes place. Through
teleprinter links and inter-Library loans and new communications
of the future, the resources of the Library will bewaailablo,
as they should be, to Australian people everywhere.
And before I turn to my task of calling on Sir
Robert may I on behalf of the Australian Government and indeed
I believe I can say on behalf of the Australian people, pay
a special tribute of thanks to Mr. Harold White who has given
such distinguished service to the Library through so many
years. He has become if not a Canberra institution
certainly in our eyes a Parliamentary institution in his own
right and I speak in warm terms of the gratitude which we
Members of the Parliament, whether in Government or in
Opposition, or whatever individual status may be, foel for
Mr. Harold White and through him for the very able staff
which assists him so pleasantly and agreeably in the service
of the parliament as well.
Now I have earlier paid some quite inadequate
tributc to the role of leadership and guidancQ exercisud by
Sir Robert M4enzies through his record tcrm of leadership as
the Prime Minister of this country.
It is therefore, I am sure everyone will ngree,
entirely appropriate that the Foundation Stone of this
building should be set by him and that he should be today
looked to as the loading figure in a celebration which will
be long remembercd in Canberra and which will by virtue of tho
distinction of the building which it touches and the purposes
which that building serves, mark as one of the more_ notable
days in tho development of Australia's National capital.
I ask Sir Robert Mvenzies if he will lay the
Foundation Stone of the National Library.