The Inaugural George Swinburne Memorial Lecture

Advanced Education: Still Advancing? The Inaugural George Swinburne Memorial Lecture Delivered on 30 October 1984 By Leslie Kilmartin, M.A., Ph.D, M.A.Ps.S. Dean Faculty of Arts Swinburne Institute of Technology GEORGE SWINBURNE MEMORIAL LECTURE This is the first of an annual lecture series instituted in honour of Swinburne's founder, the Hon. George Swinburne (1861-1928.) Mr Swinburne was a prominent Australian citizen who made major and diverse contributions to public life in the first quarter of this century. In the view of his biographer, however, the establishment of the college which now bears his name is "perhaps the most clean cut illustration of his genius". It is intended that this lecture series should pay tribute to George Swinburne's vision, by offering a public forum in which Swinburne teaching staff can display and discuss their contributions to advanced education, both to the Swinburne community and to the community at large. As an educational institution, Swinburne stands as testimony to the educational and social philosophy of its founder, the Hon. George Swinburne. Though markedly different from and advanced on his original concept, the present institution preserves the germ of his vision. In this lecture, I want to address the topic of the future of advanced education, a concept of which he could never have heard, but a development I am confident he would have applauded. Before tackling that tough question, however, I would like to tell you something about our founder, gleaned from my reading of several contemporary and recent sources. 1 Make no mistake: George Swinburne left his mark on the life of this State and even the nation. At the time of his most active public life - roughly the first quarter of this century - there were many other influential people whose names are still well known today. Consider for example, John Monash, Daniel Mannix, Tommy Bent, Robert Gordon Menzies, John Wren, David Syme, to name but a few. Swinburne knew them all and they knew him. Like them, he can be considered to have reflected the social, political and cultural landscape of that era and to have shaped aspeCts of our own. Who was George Swinburne and what do we know of him? He was born in 1861 in a suburb of Newcastle, England, called "Paradise". He later professed not "to be any more saintly, however, than those who first saw daylight in Bedlam". He left school at 13 years of age and completed an apprenticeship. Early on, the young George displayed a business acumen that was to last a life-time. In fact, in the view of one correspondent who interviewed him in his last year, he was "one of the few engineers born with a shrewd business sense". He also displayed an early interest in politics being elected in 1886 at the age of 25, to South Saint Pancras in London. His involvement in English politics was short-lived, however. In the very year of his election success, he left for Australia, arriving in November. He came, originally for a short stay, to assist his uncle in the firm of John Coates and Company. His task was to secure contracts for erecting gas plants. Later, his business interests diversified into hydraulics and other areas of engineering. In a short time, he had become a man of considerable substance. An indication of this is his home "Shenton" - in --- which he lived from 1892 and bought in 1896 - in Kinkora Avenue, Hawthorn, within walking distance of this campus. George Swinburne epitomised what the German sociologist, Max Weber, a direct contemporary, termed "the Protestant Ethic". This is that set of values - necessary for the development of capitalism - which endorses personal commitment to vocation, self-control, hard work, achievement motivation, communal service, and rationality. George Swinburne displayed all of these traits in great measure. Of particular interest to us was his communal service and his public life. He was first elected to Hawthorn Council in 1898, becoming mayor in 1902. His capabilities, however, were so outstanding that he ran for and was elected to the Legislative Assembly in 1904. In that same year, he was appointed Minister of Water Supply in the unfortunately named Bent government. He sometimes served as Acting Premier and Treasurer during the absence of the Premier and was clearly relied upon by the vulgar, opportunistic and unscrupulous leader, both for his economic and administrative skills as well as his acknowledged dignity, probity and popularity. As early as 1904, a contemporary observer writing in Melbourne Punch predicted that he would one day be Premier and Treasurer. He eventually resigned from the government in 1913, howev~r, after a dispute with the Premier. Bent's offer to stand aside for Swinburne to assume leadership held no appeal for him. It is generally agreed that Swinburne's greatest contribution as a minister was his development of the Water Act of 1905, which proposed a system of irrigation for the State that became a national and even international model. He may be regarded as the father of the State Rivers and Water Supply Commission. In many ways, George Swinburne was a reluctant politician, more interested in community service than in the exercise of power. It has been asserted that he did not seek politics, but was sought by politics. Before entering political life, he had referred to the Victorian parliament as "our gas bags up the street". Since gas was his business, we must accept his view as authoritative. He made a brief return to political life in 1928, the year of his death. In winning office, he effected a handsome victory over the young Robert Gordon Menzies for the upper house seat of Yarra. He died quietly in the chamber on 4 September. A most mild-mannered and uncontroversial figure, George Swinburne was involved in two memorable and, indeed celebrated, controversies. Both may be seen as deriving from challenges to deeply held personal values. The first controversy occurred during the State election campaign of 1907. With devout Methodist conviction, Swinburne had forcefully opposed liquor and gambling in Victoria and had inspired legislation to control both. Powerful forces united against him and cast him as a "wowser". Foremost among his adversaries were the breweries and the formidable, if young, John Wren. In George Swinburne's view, Wren was among the worst elements of the community. The conflict between the two men reached its peak on the night before the election. The scene was the Hawthorn Town Hall, a few hundred metres from here, where Wren and a large number of supporters arrived from Collingwood to disrupt the meeting. They succeeded. I quote from Swinburne's biographer. The 'visitors' were organised; a man with a voice like a megaphone gave the signals from a seat near the front and made a speech by Swinburne impossible. Wren marched up to the platform and a chair was placed for him; he took notes of Swinburne's speech so far as it was audible and was prepared to answer it. Unfortunately for him however his supporters would not allow Swinburne to utter two consecutive sentences. He was mercilessly heckled, but he managed to repeat his opinion of Wren as a menace to the moral health of society. Then Wren wanted to speak, but the Chairman warned him that it was Swinburne's meeting. Wren claimed that he had the right to ask questions, and embarked on a long introduction. The meeting was too excited to hear the questions or wait for the answers. A large number of burly men, quite unlike the genteel inhabitants of Hawthorn, were working themselves up the hall, led by a man of pugilistic build and aspect. Each question and answer was drowned by the roar from the various partisans. Wren flourished a cheque which he said was for 500 pounds and was to challenge a proposition which he attributed to Swinburne. Wren's question had lengthened into a speech and the Chairman again warned -- him; he replied: "If I cannot make this speech there will be trouble". At this the Chairman spoke to a policeman and at once the crowd rushed the platform. The press tables were sent flying, and as the men from the hall tried to mount the platform Swinburne's supporters from their point of vantage thrust them back. The meeting broke up in complete disorder. Fortunately the casualties were slight. This particular incident is also recorded in fictionalised form by Frank Hardy in Chapter 6 of Power without Glory, where Swinburne is identified as "Sir George Swinton". In the event, Swinburne was returned to office. The second controversy was the famous libel case against the Age. During 1908, the Melbourne Age ran a campaign in its pages suggesting that George Swinburne had been guilty of improper conduct as Minister in the awarding of contracts for irrigation projects. The Labor Party launched a censure motion against him which was easily defeated. Swinburne's sense of fair play had been violated. He therefore initiated legal proceedings against David Syme and Co. and endured the rigours of cross examination to clear his name. As is widely known, he won this case and was awarded 3250 pounds, with costs. The Age took the case to two higher courts but was defeated each time. And, as you all will be waiting to hear, George Swinburne used his award to set up on this site the "Eastern Suburbs Technical College" later known as "Swinburne Technical College". It is a nice story - but it isn't true. The case was settled some time after the College had opened.

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