AUSTRALIA DAY

Dominion, Volume 36, Issue 104, 27 January 1943, Page 6

AUSTRALIA DAY

Occasion Celebrated At A.LF. Luncheon

MR. CURTIN’S MESSAGE "The clay we celebrate” was the keynote of the special luncheon arranged yesterday by the Wellington branch of the Australian Imperial Force Association on the occasion of Australia Day, the 155th anniversary of the raising of the Union Jack by Captain Phillip at Sydney'Cove on January 26, 1788.

The luncheon room was _ decorated with gum branches to which koala bears were clinging and with a symbolic poster showing Dad, Dave, and Mabel, under the orders of “sergeant Mum, marching toward Snake Gully, down which cowering Japanese are hastily retreating. The guests of honour were the Prime Minister of New Zealand and Mrs. Fraser. The Rev. Dr. E. N. Merrington, who was a padre of the Australian Forces in the last war, and representatives of the 2nd A.I.F. and 2nd N.Z.E.F. and their wives were also present by invitation. They were welcomed by the president of the association, Mr. 11. Richards. Wives of members were also guests. .... 1 message from the Prime Minister of Australia, Mr. Curtin, to the members of the association, was read by the Australian Trade Commissioner, Mr. Menzies. The message ran:— ‘‘l convey to all members of the A.I.F. Association in New Zealand the most cordial'good wishes from their fellow Australians. The day we celebrate is truly a day of great significance because future celebrations of it depend on our ability’ to hold oft the aggressor. The tradition which your members established in the first A.l.i'. in giving to the world along with their New Zealand fighting comrades the word Anzac is undying. Every good wish to you all from the Government and people of Australia.”

Transition of Industry. Mr. Menzies gave figures showing the transition of Australian industry low needs. Before the war, he said, the num ber of men and women employed nt, the factories of the Commonwealth was aTU, 000. Practically all of them were producing for civilian needs 194,000 were producing for the civil population, a reduction ot 64 per cent. The number employed in factories today was 705,000, of whom 511,000, or 72 percent., were engaged on war work. Speaking on the subject of lhe Day We Celebrate,” Dr. Merrington said that the .struggle to build a nation in Australia since the day it was founded 100 years ago had produced the true Australian. He was to lie found, as was the true Australia, in the backblocks, where the type of man who fought against the forces of nature, the drought, flood, and desert, still persisted. Dr. Merrington appealed for close cooperation between Australia and New Zealand. It was important, he said, to transplant the spirit of Anzac from the battlefield to the field of national lite. The coming peace would bring iresii problems, such as the encouragement ot the migration and .settlement of suitable people to enlarge the populations ot both countries, if they were to be held by the young nations growing up. ‘•This gathering today is a good augury for future constructive measures for safeguarding and advancing the cause of voting nations in the Empire, which has enabled us to obtain justice, freedom, and all the constitutional privileges ot nationhood,” Dr. Merrington concluded.