FOR PRESS* PM No. 128/1966
NEW YEAR MESSAGE
FROM THE PRIME MINISTER, MR. HAROLD HOLT.
This is the first time it has been my privilege, to
offer as Prime Minister, New Year good wishes to the people of Australia.
I do so now confident that 1967 will prove to be a year of happiness and
prosperity for the great majority of my fellow Australians.
We find our country well placed for prosperous
expansion. In the coming years we should be reaping, to a growing
extent, the rewards of recent discoveries and of technological advance.
A rising world population will call increasingly on our capacity to produce
foodstuffs and other raw materilals. Improving efficiency will enable us
to place Australian products on a widening range of world markets.
We are a small nation measured by population but the
vigour and quality of our people our strength of national character, our
political and economic stability all enhance our significance as a nation in
the eyes of others. The darkest cloud on our scene is the conflict in Vietnam.
but even here the year just closing has brought notable improvement in the
situation. We have been stirred by the gallantry and devotion of our
fighting men. We shall all fervently hope that 1967 will bring a just and
honourable peace. We look forward to continuing our Australian contribution
to the Councils of the United Nations and the Commonwealth of Nations. We
are resolved to play a growing part in the affairs of Asia and the Pacific.
The good wishes I express from myself and my Government
are more than words. They are themselves a declaration of our dedication
and determination to apply ourselves successfully to those tasks which will
assure the security, the happiness and the prosperity of our people.
CANBERRA December 1966.