FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATIONS
OF THE SMALL APMS FACTORY, LITHGOW,
N. S. 1' 1ø ON 5TH NOVEMBER, 1962
Speech by the Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon, R. G. Menzies
Sir, Ladies and Gentlemen
I was just making a little precautionary investigation,
and do you know, improbable as it may seem there
are cigars in it, ( Laughter) As a matter of fact, I don't
quite know what I am supposed to do this afternoon. I
haven't been given adequate instructions. Usually when I
attend something of this kind, I have to declare something
open. I won't get out of the habit and, therefore, I begin
by saying that I declare the Small Arms Factory to have been
well and truly opened fifty years ago. ( Laughter) ( Applause)
I suppose that on a day like this, a beautiful
day in a beautiful setting, one gets the best possible
impression of the place and the work and the people and I
would like to say a few words to you about each of those
matters whilst I have the floor,
First of all, the place, I suppose that the
people who live in Lithgow tend to take it fcr gr:: nted.
I don't know. Lithgow has a remarkable hibtor* r. a history
which in itself embodies the development of Austva-Lia from
one stage of activity to ano. e right dowth.. its
time. it was here in Lithgo½ I think I am rA-, u in saying
that the first iron and steel industry was est""". ished,
always to be associated with the great Lithgow name of Hoskins.
And I sometimes wonder whether it was the fact that this
existed and that there was coal here that induced the Government
of the day, fifty years ago, to establish this factory,
in its initial form, in this place. But the fact is that
ever since then, this factory, through all sorts of
vicissitudes it has had its ups and downs in the course
of its time has become increasingly famous for the quality
of its work. Today when I was walking around, I couldn't help
rubbing shoulders occasionally with a number of men prominent
in engineering and other activities in Australia, all of them
feeling pretty amiable, all of them quite prepared to have a
friendly word with me thatts not always the case ( Laughter)
but all of them taking the opportunity of commenting on the
excellence of' the work that is done here. I think myself,
Mr. Minister, that this not unassociated with the history
of Lithgow or the spirit and character of its people. This
town has tradition, this town has made a great contribution
in its own way, much bigger than its population, to Australian
life and Australian development, and they would be very poor
people of Lithgow who didn't feel a pride in the fact that
here is a place, known all over Australia, a place that has
been able to contribute to activities and skills all over
Australia. Now, I think that is a matter for great pride,
a matter for great celebration.
There are people, of course, in the world a great
number of them to be found in Australia who are ' knockers."
Wherever you go, you meet a " knocker". Nothing is any good.
Nothing is ever as good now as it used to be. They talk
about the " good old days". If they had to live in the good / 2
old days, some of these " knockers", they woL,. dnrt talk about
them So rmuch. But they " knock" Other countries can do
better than we can at this or that, " Oh yes, this is all
right for an Australian enterprisc." Such people make me
tired. They have never done anything to forward. Australia.
The people who keep this country moving are not the " knockers",
but the doers, the people who get on with it the people who,
themselves, establish the standards and maintain them and
improve them, Anybody who went around here today, even in
an ignorant state of mind, couldn't cme out of it without
being proud of the demonstrated Australian capacity for
precision work of the highest possible kind. Nothing
slovenly, nothing second-rate you couldn't produce the
end result from this factory if anything in the end result
was second-rate. Everything in its own way has to achieve
pcrfection, so that in the end, the instrument is, in itself,
a perfect and accurate instrument. I think that we ought to
provide for some system of government grant to elect a dozen
prominent " knockers'" every week and make them come up here and
walk around. ( Applause)
Now, Sir, I have said a little about the place, not
enough; a little about the work, not enovgh; but you all
know about the place and you know about the work. I just want
to say a little about the people because, here again, there
is a considerable amount of mis-understanding in the world.
There are too many people in the world who try to create
differences when none exist, who try to pretend that everybody
lives at all times in a state of discontent, I don't believe
that's true0 I think, and I have noticed it, going around
here today, that th. s is a place in which the morale is high
and the work is good, because the spirits of the people who
are working here are goodo ( Applause) This strikes me as
outstandingly a happy place and it is in happy places that
the best work is done, Not in grumbling places, not in places
in which people live with a chronic sense of injustice, but
in a well-run, well-organised, well-managed place of this
kind and with people of the kind I am addressing this afternoon,
there is happiness. Therefore, we are celebrating the fiftieth anniversary
of a works whica began in a very small way and I gather,
looking around, in a very noisy way, fifty years ago. Today,
it is the last word in modernity, increasingly employs a great
number of pcople, makes its contribution to Australian history
and to the future security of Australia and does it all in
a community and a setting where cheerfulness is the keynote.
So it is a very good thing for a travelling
politician like myself to get away from the cut and thrust
of Canberra you may have heard of Canberra ( Laughter)
sometimes you Day have listened in to the exquisitely courteous
exchanges ( Laughter) that we engage in at Canberra. It's
a good thing to get away from that for a few minutes or for
half a day and come up here and see ycu all and be delighted
to be with you.
Now, before I sit down, I will just make one more
comment. How is it that if I were here to make a political
speech, I wouldn't see any of you chaps at all ( Laughter)
( Applause). Well I understand that but, anyhow, you get the
point. I am happy to tell you that political speech or no
political speech, I will be delighted to have this, made on
the premises, as a souvenir of this event and each time I look
at it and open it or have it ratted by one of my friends who
wants a cigar ( Laughter), I will look back to this day and
remember how many beautiful, magnificent electors there were,
to whom I couldn't address a solitary word on the policy of
the Government,