SPEACN If THE P1RIM MINISTP& THlE RT. HON.
1* Q. MEIRS AT THlE OPINING Sip cas
SONS NIMIL DINGS IRI 18? ULTAM
Sirw I always begtn by saying " irw because like my friend
Nr. YAlly I find that if I dont, I an bound to forget sombody -the
first thing I vant to establish with you Is a feeling of sympathy for
so, because when I have said a few words to you I hiave to proms a but-.
tona It's here. I take it for granted that In an efficient Andu try
of this kind It will work. ( Laughter) When one presses a button at
Canberra the ' Division bells* ring ( Laughter) but an this occasion
somethin lse will happen which will celebrate the opening of the
Nov the first thing that I want to syis of a somewhat
frivolous kind, I fear, but I'vo board about = at foods for half a
day now, The romappears to be heavily ' lined with then. oftenever I
my wife sitting with her growing band of smll aandchildren I
find her scooping mysterious messes out of tins and pttingi them, into
the unsuspecting mouath of the little child, and I oather from all this,
that this really does the trick. In fact Hr, AHdgll, the second Mr.
Edgell I thought, got in a piece of pretty m; art adlvertising about
these ? wbiy foods Nverybody nodded szoept my friend R~ ose down there,
who is a omptitor and who seemed to me to have a slight attack of
the palsr at that moment. ( Laughter)
But what Iwant to say to you is thiss Have a ; ood look at
Out elly, and then have a good look at Tony Luchottiv Also have a
good look at me. Do you know we didn't have azny of these babr foods
when we vore young. ( Laughter) Think of what in joing to happen to
the next generations They will be a race, of giants and that is, of
course, nation-building In literally a big way.
Sir there are two aspects of the economia development of
our ounmtry 2Ai. h I think are sometimes overlooked jand are worth ntioning
on an occasion like this.
suficintThe first of them in that we have not yet, I t hink, tdec
suffiientpride In the romantic stories of achievumnt by mon who
began some th n w who took all the risks, who had the spirit of
enterprise and who h;; auy built up something Oret and useful. Here
we have today a perfect example of It In the case of the 13dgell 19ater-.
i see. Mro Edgellg the Chairman, I thought, sph_ 1 with proper pride,
twith som little modesty about his own contribution to this matter.
Who would have supposed In 1926 that anything like -this aould have
occurred, not only here, but elsewhere in Australia, Nobody would
have dreamed of It, When he spoke to you about * oanning' and the
developmunt of " armingO and the early stages of it he might very
well but for his modesty, have, told you that he with what today
woulA appear to be a very modest sm of MOMAy, ah; r the first world
war,, went over with in effect, his gratuityhialo nesadben
to work in canning lactories in the United Sates -so that he might
learn himself, through his own hands and through hown mind what
ought to be done about it.
Nov this is something that exhibits courage and Imagination
and as a family enterprise It has found every unit in It filled with
the ame spirit. And here today I have the great honour, and my wife
. ms the great tonourp of being here at an opening which marks another
big 3tep in the history of an enterprise which Is a: lready, of course,
a household name in Australia. We want to be proud of these things.
I never did manage to jet very such respect in my mind for sa mawho
ti a process of speculation,, lucky or otherwise, made a vast
fortune but I have an unqualified, admiration for people who have been
oons tructive who have built up great thinjs In Aust~ ralia* Look what
this family ? iitory has done for this delightful city of Bathurst,
for this district, for this State.
One could point to a dozen instances just like that or simlar
developments in other branches of industry, beginning with nothing,
exeapt a high spirit plenty of intelli,, noe , plenty of imagination
and = alimited determiation and we, who are he beneficiaries to these
thin,, s, ought to acowod~ o that benoit, I think and treat such
developaient with th. respect that they ar* e. ntitlAl to. They are 1z.
deed charateristic of Australian history and nobody can ever under-.
stand the economic growth of this country unless he poea and seeks to
undar3tand the life story and tY* elife endeavours, of human beings,
Now that I think is somethin-, that I hope dives yjou pridel it invariably
2ns me both pride and pleasure, There in plenty of roam in
this country, thank God, for young peopl. e of enterprise, plenty of
doors to be opened and plenty of a ohievecienta to be made,
The other aspect of our economic hisitory which cames within
the span of my own lifetime is thist it isn't so long ajo that it was
the aoepted theory that there was some Inevitable oonfliot between
the interests of the mar. on the land and the Interests of the manufacturer.
' We were told wn I was a boy that either you were in favour
of secondary industry or you wore in favour of the farmer and you
couldn't be In favour of both. This sorry nonsenir' has been long
since disproved, but ne-ver could it be more eloquently disproved than
an an occasion of this kinds because YO 3ou6e the perat aigniticaee
of today is that the mn who grows thno wAother It is aspaaas
or green peas, or carrots, or whatever It may be finds himself able
to dispose of those things quite neartr howe to a processing works
which Is a s od indiustry and which has the enormous advantads of
Zetting its materi a at the source A~ nd fresh and ood, At the sam
time it gives to him u i toady market and a Sro-dng miarket flor what he
produoss. And ridht next to it Is the factory of Containers Ltd. a
factory of a kind which one, would normally,, years ago, have * zpeotei
to ' iM in a city and nowhere else. but here it is cheek tW Jowl
with this one so that we have pure secondary industry, a flood pro..
oessing inftstry and the . wving industry of the country, all brought
together into one, comass. This is the most eloquent proof that the
old Idea of Inevitablie division was a false onoo.
For myself I amvery delighted because I stood, not In this
room of course but in one of tWA others a long time ago -somebody
told so and I A0it isn't true, that Itwas 19 years ago -and there
was no hint of a enmaking factory at that time. There was no hint
of this enossous expansion. I looked at It as something of Zroat
interest something rather odd to find in, what 1 hope I may say with
respect is, a provincial City not one of the great cities of the
metropolis Pnd yet this arovth has gone Oo. Nov tbat, a_; ainq Is a
matter of lense* satisfaction.
But there are other causes for our satisfaction today, I
bean by soae light-hearted remarks, at least I intended them to be
light-hbearted# about baby fooda, Nov my wife,, naturally it'. inevitable
in the course of nature understands more about babies than
I do, and she has had a fair experienae of them,, including as I said
now, am* Randhilre half a 4osen of them and ahe has travelled
a great deal, not only over the length and breadth of this country
but around a jood deal of the world and she made a very good point to
me today as we were walking about. She saids " You knowq when you
consider the hardships, the difficulties that so many hu& dreds of
thousandso or perhaps millions of young mothers put up with In the
past, una& 1e perhaps byreason of where they lived or the ciromstanoes
or transport, to get te fresh food that they woould require, what a
4onderful thin i t has been for mankind that this food processing
industry s houald have s hown such a pheno mnl growth in recent times s
food that an be relied on, food that lasts, food that can be transi..
ported with ease, These are wonderful thiLngs for people to be able to
deta. I have beon through one or two great food processing
establishments in Australia and again I have a great pride in themi,
beeause they have the highest possible standard not only of buisiness
efficienqq but of cleanliness and of quality aA the result is, that
whereas at one stage earlier in my lir fpeople had a certain reluctance,
perhaps about some types of camied food, today it has become the
commonplace of life, And as the pressure of lifo increwa so Will
the demand for Soods of quality available in a proper condition be
bound to rise* My friend, mr. Kelly, who has had a lot of activity in th~ ese
matters referred to the problem of decentralization. Decntralization
In a first-class Ideal* It is indeed, expressing iLt broadly, essential
but it is extraordinarily difficult. You cannot decentralize
an industry merely by passing an Act of Parliament, merely by pron-.
ouncizig a 0overuuaent poliq7, merely by some personal or public
advocacy, because in the long run the hard economics of industry will
have a profound effect on where that industry Is to go* Consequently,
ono doesn't expect to find a great stoel workcs hiands of miles away
from the source of its iron arnd its coal. One doesn't expect to find
heavy indus tries in dihich the handling ofproduots becomes a matter of
extraordinary cost, establishing themselves miles away from the neigh.
bourhood of the resources that they need. The great thing to aim at
in decentralization is to consider always whether the isture of the
industry is of such a kind that it lends itself to encouragement and
developmnent outside the city areas. Here we have, once more, a
splendid example. And, of course, the economic advantages are not confined to
thiose that may be worked out for you by an Accountant in black and
white. There are other advantages, There is one Lm the case of these
works$ I am perfectly cer" an that is the spirit of local pride and
of local teamwork that can exist between the employer and the employed.
That is not so omon in a big city where business tends to be impersonal
wvhere the man lives in one place and works in another., and It's
a day's work,. It must be extremely diffñ' ttxlt under those ciroaustances
to develop this local pride which does produe offlcienc', which doos
produce a pood understanding# and which does produce productivity of
the highest kind, Buat you got it in a place like this, and In an
enterprise like this. That* I think, is something which is 4enunely
an econamic advantage, though it may never be capable of being
expressed in a 9 sand d tabulation.
I was delighted, today, when I heard Mr. Edgell pay
that tribut, to the people who had worked oni the construction of the
machines being used In there. He wasnit, employing a form of words,
you noticed; he spoke with genuine feelingg ; h was enthusiastic about
It ; he kno that he had a team of people and that they were working as
a LXam And I believe SiLr, that in the long run as we beamse wiser
and wiser on these madters, if not you and at least our successors,
are bound to become wiser and wiser, even Mr. ILchtti's successor If
he ever has one ( Laughter) my turm out to be wiser and wieer,* But as
we all improve, wes and our successors, will, I believe, discover more
and more that the true future of Australia# as a producers as an exporter,
as a competitor in the world is doing to depend more and c'
upon genuine co-operation and enthusiasm and understanding in the fields
of employmient so that everybody who works in an enterprise has same
feeling of pride in what it is producingg a pride In what it is doing
for his towni and for his district and is therefore not an unwilling
servant, but a willing co-operator in the task. Anid that spirit, I do.
teat in this Vlaae, on all aides, and I thought it was admirably expressed,
as I ve said, by Mr. odgell.
Now, ladies and pentlmnen p yo had a bit of a burst of
speechusnaking -wday and I'm going to desit I satisfy myself by say-
Ing that it has given me unmommon pleasure to ocaic up here today to
have a look at what goes on, to meet soaw of my old friends and ooet
new ones, in particular the Mayor, who has been most courteous and gracious
to us today, And havin said that I will now perform the final
act, that is to say and don t hold me blameworthy, if it doesn't omoff
this will be one thing you can't blam me for ( Laughter) I now
declare these buildings open and I press the button.