SPEECH BY THE PRIME MINISTER THE RT. HON. R. G.
MENZIES, AT THE OPENING OF TI KODAK PLANT AT
COBURG. MELBOURNE. ON FRIDAY, 15TH APRIL. 196L
Sir and ladies -and gentlemen:
You have been listening, so far, to the experts. What
they don't know about this great enterprise and its history, is
not worth learning. I am here in the humble, but necessary
capacity, of a customer.
I am going to say a few words, not too many, about
photography, but before I do, I would like to say this, I was
very glad to hear so much reference made to the firm of Baker
and Rouse because when I was a small boy those names were
practically as well known as Gilbert and Sullivan. Baker and
Rcl; se this was a naima, or a termso familiar to people in
Australia even in those days that it is hard to believe that it
is so long ago.
Now, Sir, I said I was a customer. I want to start
off by making one or two customer's complaints. I have done a
certain amount of cinematography myself as an amateur on tackle
suitably obtained from the Kodak people, and over a period of
years whenever I brought in a great batch of stuff from some
overseas journey, I would encounter my old friend Merton of
Kodak, who is sitting down there now, and he would say to me in
a most amiable manner " lThose things came out quite well; how
lucky you wr". Thai is the furthest I could ever got. I
once took a beautiful lot of sequences, I thought, of a bull
fight in Lisbon, full of colour. I thought it was very good
and so did he. But you must never allow the customer to feel
that he ha got the better of you. he said, " you know
that is a remarkable thing; you know that shot with all that
lighting was impossible!" ( Laughter) Did he go on to say,
" You are a miracle-worker?" Not at all. " Hmmm, you were
lucky weren't you?"'
Now there is anothi,, r aspect of photography. If you
were a politician like r. ysolf; if you had to sit in various
interviews as much as I do; if you had to become so accustomed
to these people, the pross photographers, you would know what
happens. One follow comes in looking all innocent; hots got
one of these little deceiving looking cameras; and ho goes
click, and goes click, and goes click quite rapid fire
while you oare in the middle of a conversaition. He goes away
with about 30 pictures of you, sorme of then showing you scowling
like mad, some of them showing you with a nost fatuous grin on
your face some of then showing you looking down with intense
gloom, and. others with your head so far back that they could
take a study of your adenoids. Back they go to the office and
they are put in stock. And when the day comes that I am
popular if it ever does ( Laughter) in that particular office
they bring out the best one. It makes me look as handsome as
possible; nice photograph: ' Put a good one in this time;
we're writing a leading article in his favour'. But most times
of course it is the odd ones. Oh, dear! I've suffe3red from
photography as much as any mortal man.
Yet I am delighted to be here as a customer, and as
somebody who has naturally an immense feeling for his own
country. The name of this Company is so world famous that
whenever one thinks of photography, photographic material, one
naturally thinks of Kodak. That is a remarkable thing. It is
not a monopoly because there are others. But if any enterprise
in this century has establisheod its name as a nane of irmmense
2.
honour and repute and quality in the fields of photography it
is Kodak. That, I think, is soLuething to be proud of; something
for everybody connected with it to be proud of.
After all you don't become pre-eminent in this field
or in any other field without producing the aoods or without
having some quality. Of course this vast concern has based its
development and its prestige and its power upon devoting at a
time when lots of people didn't do it, lots of time and lots of
skill to research. This is one of the first of the great
fields of free enterprise, in which one observed many years ago
a concentration upon research.
So starting with research and going through
production and processing, and selling, this enterprise has
not only been able to provide the vital materials for the
astonishing modern developments of photography in all its
aspects, but it has, if I may come back to myself as a customer,
provided world-wide facilities for the itinerant amateur
incompetent photographer.
But, Sir, there is a relationship between photography
and modern life that I think one ought to glance it. After
all I suppose I am getting a bit long in the tooth as I am
occasionally reminded by my political opponEts, one of whom I
can see beaming at me amiably from the audience. I must be
because I can remember the day, as indeed many of you can, or
some of you can, when to be taken to the photographer to have
that cabinet size picture taken for posterity involved sitting
in a chair rather rigidly and uncomfortably, and having a pair
of forceps put in the back of your neck do you remember?
and you backed into it. And there you were held like a v0ice,
keeping you quiet enough for the slow speeds of those days to
have a chance. That, of course, Sir, explains the glassy eye that
you detect in our more reaent anccstors, When you see the
family photographs in tie family zlbur: s it is all due to the
forceps and the primitive rmaterial of that time. Now, of
course, all these things have changed.
But this b . siness of photography is not a : ere
matter of providing somebody with a hobby, or somebody with a
living, taking portrait studies in Collins Street. These are
very useful undertakings, though I have never been able to
secure that tremendous amount of mercy that I would wish from
a photographer. Apart altogether from that, Sir, photography is now
entering into almost every aspect of life. You consider how,
with its trenendous developrnent in precision and speed it ns
been able to come to the aid of medical work, of scientific
investigation. WIhen we think of the miracles of colour
photography with its enormous developments we can see how far
this has come in aid, not merely of individual entertainment,
but of the sciences and of advancement in many branches of
knowled ge. It is not so long since a world event could happen
which would come to us by telegraph or by cable, be the subject
of a certain amount of letter press, and then there would be a
delay for sometime before any graphic picture of the event
could arrive. Isn't it amazing today to think that within a few
hours, thanks to the mir. cle and precision of photography, and
the great new arts of transmission, we can see the pictures,
literally, of events, all round the world. This, of course,
adds to the vivacity of the printed sheet; it adds to our
comprehension of what is goini on in the world. Because we
don't all read and like reading; many of us like to look
because we like looking. It is therefore the great, the
tremendous art of photography xrhich is at the basis of a
growing amount of knowledge of the other countries in the world.
God knows we need a growing knowledge of other countries in the
world, and they need it of us, because the one hope of the world
is that we shall, on a basis of genuine knowledge and
understanding, become tolerant of each other and live in peace
with each other.
Sir, wherever I have lone in the world I have been
immensely struck by this fact, that the possession Df the
camera is becoming almost one of the signs of a high-living
standard in any country. More and more, every youngster, every
young man and woman every adult, every veteran feels more
and more the attraction of being able not only to see something,
but to record it. It was truly said that ' journeys end in
lovers' meetings'. Journeys end a great deal today in
photographers' meetings. I don't know of any more remarkable
way in which to refresh the memory which is at best a
treacherous thing, than to have these superb records of events
and of people. So, both publicly and privately this industry has
merited its growth. This day today is for your Company an hour
of great triumph. This is a phenomenal development, this
magnificent site in this good setting, with a vista of the
future that exhibits no small outlook on the future of
Australia. I am delighted to be here. I would like to
congratulate everybody who has had anything to do with it and I
give myself the singular pleasure of declaring it open.