THE AUS,.Fralian NATIONAL UNIVERSITY CANBERRA, AUSTRALIA NEWS Issued by The- Registrar for Private M'.1·Ciilation Withhi the University

THE AUS,.fRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY CANBERRA, AUSTRALIA NEWS Issued by the- Registrar for private m'.1·ciilation withhi the University. No. 10. December, t 95 t. FIRST GRADUATE OF THE UNIVERSITY At a small gathering Olli the affornoon of Friday, him through bis long years of active work, marked as 7th December, Sir Robert Garran was admitted to the they were by courtesy to all and never-failing kindness honorary degree of Doctor of Laws, and so became the to associates and subordinates. His name inevitably be University's :first and senior graduate. 'I'he ceremony came a household word in every office of the public ser took place in the Lecture Theatre of the Institute ~f vice of Australia. He carried his manifold duties with Anatomy. In accordance with the Council's wishes Sir an ease and distinct.ion not surpassed in the history of Robert was presented by the Vice-Chancellor, and the our counitry. degree was conferred by the Deputy Chairman of the Council, Professor Mills. The Vice-Chancellor's cita Sir Robert was devoted to the arts and learning; tion was as follows:- he was a translator into English verse of the songs of Heine and of the lyrics of various poets set by Schubert "Mr. Chairman and Members of the Council of the and Sehumann; author, with his colleague Sir John University : Quick, of the classic work on the Australian Con I present to you ROBERT RANDOLPH GARRAN, stitution; and in his long retirement patron of the Kt., Knight Grand Cross of the Most Distinguished arts in the young national capital of Australia, and Order of St. Michael and St. George, King's Counsel, Chairman of the Council of Canberra University Col Master of Arts of the Universities of Sydney and Mel lege from its foundation in 1929. When he was already bourDie, Doctor of Laws of the University of Melbourne, approaching the allotted span he was ·pioneering uni for admission to the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Laws versity development in Canberra. This university, of in the Australian National University. which he is appropriately about to become the :first Sir R.obert Garran had a long and distinguished graduate, owes much to his zeal, imagination and toler career in the public administration of Australia, as Sec ance. But we think of him most as a pioneer of federa retary to the Drafting Committee of the Federal Con tion, author of The Corning Cormnonwealth in 1897, and vention of 1897, as :first Secretary to the Attorney Secretary of the Drafting Committee in 1898. His hand General 's Department and Parliamentary Draftsman, was at the helm as legal adviser on the highest level and later Solicitor-General of the Commonwealth, as for over thirty years and as consultant in the next Legal Adviser to Prime Ministers and Attorneys twenty years. He was recently referred to as "that General for over three decades of the development of historic monument, Robert Garran," and it is in that the Commonwealth, and above all as aDi eminent and massive role that I now present him to you as the dignified public administrator. Who of this or the last pioneer graduand of the Austrafom National Univer generation interested in public administration, or in the sity." development of the first fifty years of federation, is not indebted to this veteran admiDiistrator for sympathetic Sir Robert and Professor Mills spoke briefly, and advice based on unrivalled experience, learning and the function concluded with afternoon tea in tlrn quad faith in a great adventure? His gallant spirit carried rangle of the Institute. PACIFIC STUDIES SEMINAR and Professor J . W. DavidsoDi, both of the National University. The following note gives only a brief A Jubilee Seminar on Social Processes in the Pacific resume of the proceedings. A fuller summary has been was held at the National University from the 27th to prepared and copies are available from the Registrar. 29th August, 1951. Professor Raymond Firth, Adviser to the Research School of Pacific Studies, was in the The Changing Strucbuc of the Family chair for the general sessions of the Conference, and and Higl1er Kin Units Professors Nadel, Spate and Crocker were in the Chair Dr. Margaret Mead opened the :first session of the for the specific sessions. Papers were read by Dr. Mar Seminar with a paper on the changiDig structure of kin garet Mead, the eminent American anthropologist who units in the Pacific. Two regularities in Pacific family was visiting Australia at the time, Dr. A. Grenfell Price and kinship systems may be tentatively identified, said of the University of Adelaide, Dr. W. E. H. Stanner, Dr. Mead. These are a preference for a form of social NEWS-December, t 95 t organization in which kinship is of very great import Geopolitics in the Pacific ance (as contrasted, for example, with the importance The fourth session was opened with a paper by of geographical contiguity in Burope) and a tendency Dr. A. Grenfell Price on the Geopolitical Transforma to use kinship forms as the basis for developing political tion of the P acific and its Prese11t Significance. H e forms, both within the group arid between groups. described how, by 1900, E uropean powers had gained The period of cultural contact may be possibly control of the marginal lands of the Pacific and its made less onerous and destructive if new social forms islands (excepting Japan and China) with colonies of are encouraged which are patterned upon the old kin exploitation in the tropical monsoon lands of the west, ship forms in preference to introducing European de and settlement colonies in the vast areas of temperate rived ~orms. too rapidly. For example, the various types climate and sparse indigenous populations. of reciprocity patterned upon: affinal exchanges which In the second world war the counter movement of .are ~n integral part of many of the kinship systems Asians under their own auspices-previously restricted provide a good psychological base for the comprehen in Australia and North America by political measures sion of money economy, and thus facilitate the transi was revived by force of arms, and became a conflict of tion from a primitive economic system. white versus coloured, r esulting in a considerable re Professor Elkin (Sydney University) opened the cession of white influence. discussion by describing the elements in Pacific native Three fundamental problems now face us: the cultures receptive to or hindering change. Social dis i~1 creasing population in the Asiatic P acific, the destruc integration can be avoided if there is some resolution t10n of resources through erosion and soil depletion, and ..of these opposing forces. We must realize that in simpler the industrialization of Asian Pacific countries with Pacific societies the larger kin groups have been mote great raw material and population resources, which important than the family in ensuring the continuity of the community structure, in contrast to our own may lead to even greater population pressures although emphasis on the biological family unit. eventually industrialization may asist in meeting the Discussion followed on the importance of the kin pressure. ship models in the development of political forms, and 'l'he discussion which followed centred mainly on mention was made of the comparative weakness of re population problems and possible methods of meeting ligious systems facilitating the ingress of Christianitv. them, such as family planning. l\'Ir. Borrie (National The example of Samoa was cited, where Congregatio~ University) pointed out that the most serious aspect of ,alism, with very similar social patterns, was readily population expansion in Asia was that vast resources acceptable to the society, of manpower are being built up in ar ea where other Questions of the altering authority strnctnre under resources nre still scarce. If the '\V est cannot provide culture contact conditions, and the use of kinship the aid required to keep the balance between manipower models in economic developments snch as co-operatives. and resources, Asia ma? gravitate tO\Yards the Com were also raised. rmmist bloc. The Economic Development of Pacific Peoples Political D ependencies against tlierr-S.ocial Background Dr. Stanner at the third session dealt with Pacifi c Professor Davidson spoke at the fifth session on island economic development. He queried the value in the Changing Political role of Pacific Islands Peoples. this area of the concepts "peasant economy" and "de He suggested that because the conceptual framework of velopment.'' political science is a crystallization of W estern political The island economies in general, he said suffer experience, inadequate as a basis fo r studying goverllr fro~ great obstacles in the way of developme~t, such nient in the Pacific islands, research into problems of as madequate physical resources, population and social Government there must be pragmatically organized, characteristics, disease and illiteracy, and the low level with the aim of developing adequate concepts, and must of technological attaimnenit, as well as lack of balance go hand in hand with the understanding of other fields and organisation in the financial and economic systems. of social action. H e discussed the political consequences Development plans often take too little account of of \Vestern impact, and the social implications of de local conditions, physiographical and cultural, and fail pendency, drawing his examples from \Vestern Samoa, to prepare sufficiently for a continuing ·and progressive where experience has shown the capabilities of the application of the plan. Nor is there sufficient realisation Samoans for modifying and developing their own in of the extent of direct external aid required, which in stitutions, along with the impossibility of maintaining a realistic developme11t policy for the Pacific Islands an effective administration wthout their co-operation.

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