siPhLCH it iL, hPM1KL Mi1IS1bh 4-It~ hTdIN.
My colleague having said uverythingt I shall nov proceed
to sal it again. 1hat's fair t. gh I think.
3ut two things struck me very :'! uoh dfrhof 1 came In here*
The first was that Odhs din religious air, this cloak or darkness,
seemed to so to be a sort of fittin, surround ' or a politician
( Laughter) asort of sjmbollsm whbich 1 didn exi. ect -ro. my
somewhat matter of fact colleague Kro -ulmov. And -Ae 3econd thing
that struck me, ratber unpleasantly, ias that -you know hat my
opponents jay about soe thero was a & rout pla. card right In front of
as, which says OHMO.( High Altituade Measurement) ( Laughter) jut apart
from these two incidents I am delighted to have the opportunity of
openiing this Exhibition*
Xy aoflcaga* e, Mr. 4' ulmep Is 4-, uito r h. vo) n no lays that
the work done in ros arch and dorelopient , In ustrai. ia is really most
romarkable. I tnm ure there iero jpople in the rid % i! to Im ginned
that we 4ero not up to it just as theeo have been,, in my own
ifetime9 people in the cild who thought triaL , utstralia was
incapable of manuf act iring Zoods on the Zmad zcalo and in the
highest qality. It takes a whie C'or ,. eople to realse that this
cjuatry of ours is a modern conunity wi th as Iuuch c~ paoi ty per head
of . opulation, as can be found anywhere else in the jorid; and, I
sometimes think,, perhaps a little more.
This is demonstrated in Lhe field of scientific research,
applic tion. of it in research nd deielopsont of 4Iea,-ons. It is a
4reat pity that in this w'orld 4e sho~ ld hat* to devote so uoh time
arid talent and money to the prodaacti,) n of weoapons, but we umv that
are living in that kind of dorld and that we can't afford to be
without protection. iut the work that has been done has 1 believe,
beew of a 41nd of whioh every Australian ought to be pro; 1. I
haven't been able to poor through the gloomi, so L'ar and see what
is here but there are one or two things that ' ave loon produced on
this sile of Sup-typ like lHallarra. for examploo ihich have became
quite accepted around the 4orld as showing the way in the
production of a part. oulcr -reapon of war. n. rd the work tMat has
been done at ' doomera has -As you Anow, been dork which has attracted
the attention of the whole world and part'lcularly of the free
-iorld. his kind of thing isaft done except by Lretlendous, talent
and great enthusiasm. doomera is not just a stretch of earth.
People think, pqrhaps, of aiRocket Hang. as being a place
4here, you need to have a great deal of distance in front of you and
some particular means of recoverinig the rocket ihen It comes down*
3Iehind all this ' space' on the etirtll-there is a Lremendous
coawentzation of talent, or tremendous research effort, 0 of
productive activity, Any body who ; ianted to get a now conception of
what ustralia in doing in this field sho-ild take the first
oppirtufity, if he is allowed to br my colleagues the minister,
provided the journey is not boycotted for ainy reason or other of
going,, not only to omers, but to SalisbWr in aiouth wstralfa
and to see thlisproject right from the first elements of resear&
until the final testing of the finished product, It is, 1 1 think,
one of the exciting things In . ustralia* And it hasp already, 0 in
the ease of at least two matters,, demonstrated an Inventive and
original genius In this country, viich marks it out among countries
of the world as being a true home of thoaght, and of talent. It is
a very pod thing Indeed, therefore, that we should all, those of us
who are relatively stricken in years, have a look at dhat is here.
But it Vi, 1 believe, be particularly attractive,
*.. citing, to the minds of younger people those 4ho are interested
in science, those iho are about to go to a Jniversity', or to a
technological institute for the purposes of further scientific
training. They will find here something tremondoual( interesting
because they will see how in this cmplex departmeort of science
the concentration of skil zid of effort have beer, able to lead
the most astanishing results. 1 was happy to remind ; aiself the
other day that the Departiont or Supply ias an elaborate system
for providing for wbat i will call cadet training along these lines.
I do hope that there will be thousands of younger oople who will
come here and have their minds iind imaginations t1mulated, not for
thie purpose of destroying eople in ti world but to pursuo the
search of scientific knowledge and to add I-heir own knovlede to
what we so badly need in tustralla.
Nov what 1 don't knov about science is, of ciurse
consid-rablo. rIan ". ulme has just jeen bold enorgh to say that I
know nothing about science this is competi/ untrie. 1 aa
extremely familiar with the irst law of p1Vsics ' which, if i
remember it correctly is that action and re-action are equal ;, nd
opposite. 10a sure tiis has a ; re. t de31 o . o Aith politics.
klauihter) i's sure it has, I am aiso not at all sure that it
hasnt got a good iil to do with projectin,; a rocket i-Ito 3paOe.
3ut for z who h the easy mastery that i have or the 0irat
prineiple of physics, to be accased of havingj no knowlad, e of
physics is really ar very, very, unkind cut, ( iauhtor)
ArWhow we won't keop you from his. fo. i must peer
throu the Lloon. lou will see these things hanging in the air
don't Kflov whether that is the moon or the sun, or a star. iut
I did read in my notes for this occasion, with great envy, that my
colleague the Kinister for iupply, luis alreadi -onduoted a
oonirersation that was bounced off Le moon. I'l try it at my
nexL fPoA. Icy 3pech it might et over the b-rr.. oade of interjectors,
( Lauzhter) 4ouuldn't that be a mag. ificent idea. % loon and back.
And my opponents would then say exactly ' And thatts just ihat it
sounded like'. tIuahtor)
I have the very greatest pleasure in Jeclaring this
zhibition open* ( Applause)