SPEECH BY THE PRIME MINISTER RT. HON. R. G. MENZIES
AT THE CANB~ iRA UNIVERSITY C6LLEGE, 12TH-OCTOBER1959
. Get~ mn. Mr. Chairman, Principal, Vice-Chancellor, Ladies and
As a rule when I'm required to wear one of these
funny hats, and I've read the instructions that the hat should
be kept on during the speeches I make a mere token of it and
I take it off, but, funny as itis, I think I'll keep it on today,
under the circumstances.
I think we've all been delighted to hear the narrative
given to us by Dr. Dickson: it's a very checkered history,
but it's a very brave one and a very good one, and of course the
development of the student body in recent years has, I think,
been quite remarkable and perhaps, a few years ago-, it might
have been quiteunexpected.
Now you've been told that in the near future decisions
will be made I don't propose to anticipate them. I'm
fairly familiar with the views of Professor Burton on these
, matters he has a persuasive manner I've heard views from
other people and all I can say is that we hope that whatever de
-cision we take, whioh must be taken nov~ within " he next week
or two, will be in the best interests, as they say, of all concerned.
But in the meantime I just want to say this to you at
this particular occasion., whatever the future form of Government
may be, there can be no doubt whatever that the time is
oveicdue for the provision for this body of barning, whatever
its actual structural future may be, the provision for it of
proper accommodation, and by proper Accommodation I mean, in
the first place, plenty of space. I dare say in the case of
my own University the one over which Sir George Peyton operates
with such distinction, those who founded it many years ago
thought that they were being almost extravagant in their allocation
of grounds and today it's rather hard, as I discovered-the
other day, to find your way through the interstices between the
buildings, all of which to add to thc confusion of the lay
mind, has been constructed in strangely varied architectural
s tyl e. Sydney University is another example of how the passage
of * timeio and the -growth of the corimunity, and the demand
for space can render all early anticipations quite inadequate.
And therefore I'm very glad to know that as a result of the
variety of discussions that have occurred there is, at any
rate, in hand, a proper allocation of space. That's very important;
a little substracted from, I think, by the Working
Men's Club, but as I came along here today I thought: " Well
there may be soiiething in this", because, knowing what I do
about students, I'm sure that it would be very easy for them to
establish a Students' Union, not the usual Students' Union but
a Trade Union, though that, of course, might connote a certain
amount of useful labour, and they will form a Students; Union,
affiliate themselves with the local Trades Hall, become memibers
of the Club and ultimately squeeze out all the other occupants.
I just throw out that suggestion without any malice and without
prejudice, but at any rate on space, thank Heavens, we don't
need to be very maean about it in this City and I hope we never
will be, In the second place, of course, it is essential
start putting on one side all these intangible elements which
make a University, these great things which make a University,
and which could make a University in a series of tents, if it
caxie to that, it is essential, in my opinion, that there
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should be adequate academic buildings and here is a good start:
this block, the Science block, these, I hope are merely the beginning
of a series of building operations which will give to
this institution an adequate home, adequate accommodation, something
that will not only provide all the things " hat are needed,
but will provide them with dignity and with permanence.
And in the third place and this, I think, is a matter
that we must pay more and more attention to if Canberra is
to attract into itself a body of full-time students, it can't
expect, and I hope it won't expect to attract them only from
the local citizenry. It is not a all desirable that any University
Foundation in this City should be regarded as a purely
local affair; it must provide its attraction for people from
all over New South Wales, from older Universities that are overcrowded,
and if it is to do that, then there must be, of course,
residential accommodation. I have from first to) last been tremendously
keen on that, that we should have, not only the Arts
building and the Science block and the other academic buildings,
as I'll describc them, but that we should also step out to provide
accommodation for the student body.
And at best I would just like to make one remark which
I hope will prove provocative. Just as it would be a calamity
for any University, whether it's one or two, in this City to regard
itself as catering only for an official Capital, so I believe
it would be a very great calamity if all residential accomamodation,
if all Colleges of residents, should be regarded
as Government Institutions, which might just as easily be referred
to as Hostels, as by any other name. This is not just
a matter for Government. Just as in the Universities, the older
Universities, you have splendid residential Colleges which
have been established by the Churches in Australia, which provide
the foundations for residential studies, which Church
foundations can do so well provided they have, as indeed they
have., an instinct for scholarship and quality and character so
I an hoping that, as times goes on, we will find the great 6hurches
of Australia willing to recognise the inevitable future of
education in Canberra and to take their part in establishing
residential Colleg es on the lines of these with which we are
familiar in the other Universities.
So I think all those remarks may be made, getting wetter
and wetter as tine goes on, irrespective of what decision
may be made on the structural future.
All I want to say is that nobody, least of all myself
regards the position of this College as being static; it has
developed; it must grow; it must more and mere provide for
the student body, primarily, in the first instance the undergraduate
student body, opportunity for the higher learning. It
is indeed one of the unforeseen results, I think, of the increase
of our population and of the stirring of minds in the
course of the ' lar, that the population of Universities, the
number of people willing and anxious and competent to receive
University instruction has grown so enormously.
I can remember the tine when, believe it or not, I
was President of the Students' Representative Council at the
University of Melbourne and the total student population was
fourteen hundred Perhaps that explains how I was elected
( laughter) but that was the total constituency, fourteen hundred,
and now where we used to talk in hundreds, we talk in
thousands. ihl the developments even since the Murray Report
have shown that the growth of student numbers, or desired
student numbers is far g roater already than even that highly
competent coni~ tee imagined would be the case.
And therefore we are not here, taking part in some-
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thing that is small and is, perhaps, expected to remain smail,
we are, I believe, taking part today in a ceremony which will
be regarded as quite historic in the developrment of Canberra,
the first of a number of steps to be taken which will bring
distinction to this place, which will provide proper facilities
for instruction and association, for conversation as well as
for study, for playing as well as for work, and therefore, Sir,
I have the greatest pleasure in the world in taking part in
this proceeding I must say that I was relieved when I heard
my friend George Peyton say a few kind words about my activities
in relation to Universities, because only this morning,
in an eminent Melbourne newspaper I read that some man, occupying
some official position, and therefore qualified to talk,
said that it was high time that the Prime Minister woke up to
the fact that there was a University problem in Australia and
so George I will use your testimonial i~ f I commit the unpardonable
error of making a reply.
I have the greatest pleasure in being here, Ladies
and. Gentlemen and I deeply sympathise with you for having had
to become , retter and wetter as the minutes have gone by. I
will now step across is that right? and perform that mysterious
act known as " Setting the Fonair ~ sir รต yccfrom
all my past experience that if it is leo. to mie to set it
prope3rly, it will never be set at all.