Vew from the chair: Speeches of Richard WL Austin

five years; and to Mr Steve Shapiro of ARCO Coal, our largest corporate sponsor in Australia, which is now making it possible to build the new Asian Gallery which will house some of the treasures that you see on the wall here behind me; to Mr Hori of Idemitsu Kosan, our largest Japanese sponsor; and finally to Sir Bruce Watson who, together with Lady Watson, has done what all fundraisers should do, gone to the head of the queue himself. I now ask you to express your appreciation for this manifold display of generosity in the usual way. 9 Speech to Introduce the Rt Hon. Sir Zelman Cowen, AK,GCMG,GCVO,KStJ on the occasion of the Gallery Society's Fortieth Anniversary, 3 March 1991 NOTE: THIS OCCASION WAS A SPECIAL ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION ATTENDED BY SEVERAL HUNDRED GUESTS INCLUDING FORMER COMMITTEE MEMBERS AND SUPPORTERS. FORMER GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF AUSTRALIA, SIR ZELMAN COWAN, PRESENTED HONORARY LIFE MEMBERSHIP TO FORMER COMMITTEE MEMBERS. 1 THE SOCIETY WAS FOUNDED BY THEN DIRECTOR ROBERT HAINES AS A LINK BETWEEN THE GALLERY AND THE COMMUNITY. OVER THE YEARS IT HAS CONTRIBUTED TO THE GALLERY'S ACQUISITIONS THROUGH DONATIONS AND FUNDRAISING, AND TO EDUCATION AND SOCIAL PROGRAMS. THIS WAS PARTICULARLY SO IN THE PERIOD PRIOR TO THE GALLERY'S OPENING IN THE QUEENSLAND CULTURAL CENTRE, WHEN THERE WAS ONLY A DIRECTOR AND MINIMAL STAFF, AND MOST EDUCATION AND CULTURAL PROGRAMS WERE RUN BY THE SOCIETY. THE SOCIETY HAD GIFTED 130 WORKS OF ART TO THE GALLERY BY THE TIME OF ITS RUBY ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATIONS. This morning my fellow Trustees and I are in the unusuat position of being, if I may put it that way, guests in our own house. I can think of no better position to be in with our hosts, the Gallery Society, the occasion the Society's fortieth anniversary, and the principal guest and speaker our former Governor-General, Sir Zelman Cowan. The role of the Gallery Society itself and its great contribution to the Collection over those forty years have been covered by the two previous speakers, Dr Bruce Gutteridge and Mr Doug Hall. It now remains for me to introduce Sir Zelman, and this gives me the opportunity of praising in public a man whom I have long admired in private. Introducing Sir Zelman is at one and the same time both an easy and a difficult task. On the one hand, he is so well known to all of you that he hardly needs any introduction at all. On the other, his achievements are so manifold and varied that, in outlining them, it is hard to know where to begin and even harder to know where to stop. Let it suffice to say t~at, in the course of a long and distinguished career, he has been, among other things: Rhodes scholar, wartime sailor, barrister, author, law professor, Vice-Chancellor of two universities, Vice-Patron of the Gallery Society, and Governor General; and then (as if to prove that there is life after Yarralumla), Provost of Oriel College, Oxford, Chairman of the British Press Council, President of the National Council of Australian Opera, and Chairman of the Victoria League for Commonwealth Friendship. 126