155 YEARS OF PROGRESS

Evening Post, Volume CXXXV, Issue 21, 26 January 1943, Page 4

155 YEARS OF PROGRESS

The following statement has been received from ' the Acting Australian Trade Commissioner, Mr. J, L. Menzies, in connection with the anniversary of Australia Day today:— It is interesting to record that in connection with the early discovery of Australia, a French writer, long before the commencement of British colonisation, said of Australia that it was becoming a powerful Empire. This remark may not have been literally true at that time, but it is true today. In the course of its 150 years of settlement, Australia has made rapid progress. It is a far cry from the days of the mining towns and a few scattered sheep runs to the Australia of today, j Australia is not only engaged in almost all forms of agriculture, but has established thriving and efficient secondary industries based on a modern and up-to-date iron and steel industry. We can look back with pride on 150 years of notable achievements. We look forward to an even greater future when j nations will cease to be at war i SALUTE TO NEW ZEALANDERS But we think also of the part which Australia is playing in world affairs today, and especially of her sons who are fighting side by side with the representatives of the Allied Nations in the great battle for freedom, and their efforts will not be relaxed until victory is achieved. Australian servicemen in all parts of the world salute their New Zealand comrades in arras. We—Australians and New Zealanders —are bred from the same stock; we have the sam^ aspirations; we have no territorial ambitions; we are both imbued with a strong love of country. Let us march forward together, not only as blood brothers, but as kinsfolk in the truest sense of the term.