FOUNDATION STONE CEIYDONY AT TO.. JNSVILLE
UNIVERSITY, TOWNSVILLE, Q'LD. 29TH JULY, 1966.
Speech by the Prime Minister. ' Mr. Harold Holt
Mr Chancellor, Mr Premier, Mr Vice-Chancellor,
Members of the Advisory Council, Dr Back, and Members of the
Staff, Mr lMayor, Other Distinguished Guests Mr Prieatly comes
into this at some stage of the address and Ladies and Gentlemen;
I feel very appreciative and indeed moved,
Mr Chancellor and Mr Vice-Chancellor, by the kind things you have
said about me personally and my participation in this very happy
function. It could hardly fall to the lot of a Prime Minister of
Australia to have a happier day for his official tasks than I am
experiencing here in Townsville on this particular day. This
morning I have the opportunity to lay a foundation stone for the
first university in the tropical north of Australia, then I go on
this afternoon and help to launch the establishment of a great
military base here which will add to the security, strength and
the diversity of life in this part of the world. This combination
is for me a very felicitous one and made the more so by the fact
that we meet in typically Australian surroundings on a glorious
sunny day quite tp to the travel brochure which so rarely lives up
to expectations. Here in Townsville you have delivered the goods,
and with M', rs Holt I am delighted to be here for the purpose of this
function. I start vwith something of a disadvantage. It is
quite obvious to any of you looking at the platform that I am a
very new Prime Minister and therefore I am underdressed for the
occasion. ( Laughter) WIhen I look at the Premier, this resplendent
creature, I am only grateful that he didn't bring this out for the
last Premiers' Conference. I would have found him quite irresistible
had he done so. But the Mayor has shown his consideration for me
rather than leave me isolated in civic uniform. He has foregone
his own robes of office and sat with me here in this rather dreary
outfit which marks the normal attire of the man of affairs in these
quickly moving times. But what a wonderful thing to see growing around us
not just a university but one which by its distinction of
architecture, its modernity, its appropriateness in the glorious
setting in which it finds itself will be a show-place in the life
of Australia in the future. It is a proud thing for Townsville,
it is a proud thing for all of us to be able to share the experiece
of today, and the contribution which this university will make to
the life of the northern part of Australia, and then reaching out
to Australia as a whol-, can only be speculated upon at this stage.
But no-one doubts that it will be a significant contribution for
Australia, and I personally do not doubt that it will be making a
valuable contribution to the well-being of the people in Asia and
South-East Asia generally.
Here we have a seat of learning that will be facing
problems that possess some novelty in academic circles. There are
problems which are special and peculiar to a tropical area. There
is a proximity here to our north. ern neighbours which will make this
university a focus of interest for them. There is the close
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association you will be having here with the Council for Scientific
and Industrial Research, and I understand a School of Advanced
Studies is to be established here alongside you also. Now this
combination of activities cannot fail to contribute notably to the
well-being, to the advancement of the north of Australia, and
having put our hands to the job, it is well it should be done
so handsomely as the planning of the university would indicate to
you. It is not, of course, so very long ago that the
Commonwealth Government was almost a stranger to activities of
this sort. Under the Constitution, education has been a matter
in the province of the State Government, but as the years have
gone on, the electorate which has proved so demanding in other
directions has also turned its attention to education. Indeed,
I suppose education is one of the most sensitive areas of government
at the present time, both in the Federal and the State sphere.
Certainly it is a subject matter w/ hich we cannot ignore if for no...
other reason that the burden on government budgets these days has
become heavy indeed. As I said in lielbourne only a week a. o, we
are almost at our wits' end wihich is perhaps the right sort of
phrase to use in relation to a problem of education at our wits'
end to know how we are going to finance the pro; gramme recommended
to us in the next triennium.
But what has been called the education explosion
has manifested itself as far as arree concerned in expenditure in
this last Budget year of 130' i and that is just about double what
the bill was three years ago. From what w-e Coe of developments
ahead, it is quite clear that the Commonwealth will be making a
very large contribution in the future as will the States. Indeed
when you mentioned, I. 1r Vice-Chancellor, that in a not so very
remote point of time you could get your education for fourpence
a -eek, I ,-ondered whether progress had been entirely advantageous
fron the point of view of governments.
~ ie have a small population in this vast continent
of ours. f! ear e building it as rapidly as no can with our
irigration programmLe and with such encouragement as we can offer
to those capable of forming families to go about that task in an
enterprising way, but we still have by standards of our neighbours
to the north a very small population i. n a very large area of land.
And yet increasing responsibilities are being requested of us and
we face up to those in a spirit of acceptance. We feel Australia
can make a contribution to a better . orld order in this area of
the world in which ve find ourselves.
One of the consequences flowing neces arily from
this is a need to have people of quality. If we have a few
people, then they must be good people, they must be -ell trained
people, people with a sense of responsibility, people who possess
the characteristics which we regard as the high-uater marks of the
Australian temperament. It is through institutions such as these
that we can lead our people on to better standards, that -o can
encourage them to make a more valuable and far-reaching contribution
to the area in which we have our being.
And so, Ir Chancellor and Iir Vice-Chancellor, you
have the good . ishes of us all in the future development, the
future success of this institution. I couldn't feel happier that
it has been placed in a to'., n which is making its oun presence
felt significantly in the gro; wth of Australia. Townsville / 3
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epitoises Australian growth at its best diversity of activity
in a splendid Australiansetting; it has almost all the assets a
community could hope to find around it in climate, in charm of
appearance, in diversity of activity, And now to enrich and
further diversify the life of the community, you will have a
large university population, you will have an added Service
population which contributes its own measure of colour and
ceremony to the life of the community.
You, r I'ayor, I think, can look forward with
satisfaction to the Townsville of the future, and all here feel
confident that in the better Australia of the years ahead,
institutions such as this University of Townsville will be
making for the more notable Australia of the future.
And so e w: ish you well. e from the Common: ealth
and I am sure you, Mr Nicklin for your part will be doing our
best year by year to meet the increasing financial demarnds you
will be making upon us. At least will know that our funds
have been spent in a cause which w. ill produce for us richer
dividends than almost anything else that Comonruealth and State
funds could be devoted to. You will find in us a willingness
to help. For your part, if you ma. ke the most of the opportunities
which arise hero, you will be providing residential accomodation
and servicing students from this whole northern area. The very
demands for these services have already far exceeded the
projections comteraplated for them when these were made in 1963,
and e can anticipate that with the general growth of prosperity
in this area and greater industrialisation in so many directions,
population will grow and the requirements for university
education will grow. A successful future, therefore, for this
university, and in order that the building can proceed without
any danger of falling around us, I have to lay a stone which
apparoitly is going to enable further construction to proceed.
And so, ' Ir Chancellor, if you will lead me to my
task, I will perform this important duty.