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- I repeat that Senator Aylett used expressions that any reasonable person would consider to be a sneer at our defences. He talked about the militia and the citizen forces and other arms as though they would be of no effect against an enemy. I point out that in addition to the militia, the cadets and other branches of the forces that are training, we have a fine navy and a magnificent air force. Only a few days ago there was a most effective piece of co-operation between the Royal Australian Navy and the Royal Australian Air Force in exercises to deal with submarines. I know because some of the machines that were engaged passed by my window. So effective was the exercise that I had to assure an elderly member of my household that it was a practice and not the real thing. I wish to. refer in particular to national development. I endorse all that has. been said by Senator Wordsworth . about defence. We must expend- an adequate sum upon our defence ' forces, . but I agree also with Senator Aylett that production is essential to. defence.1 It is not for us to define at this stage the allocation that should be made for the fighting services and the provision of food in the event of hostilities. That must be determined by the exigencies of the moment. I believe that after defence, our most important function is national development. I believe, therefore, in the Snowy Mountains hydro-electric project. It is a great scheme of national development which is non-partizan in character because it has been planned under various Ministries and has been supported by all the major political parties. I believe that the Deputy President (Senator Reid), when he was a member' of the New South Wales Cabinet, took some of the responsibility for the preliminary survey that led to the scheme. I have just returned from a visit to the Riverina, a district to which I am no stranger. I have always been impressed by the contrast between the fine but somewhat arid country to be found in some parts of that district, and the lush green areas in the irrigation belt. I believe that we overdo the sentiment of a sunburnt country. Occasionally I wish that Dorothy Mackellar had-, written some of the lines of her magnificent poetry a little differently. I love the sunburnt country as much as any one but I like a little water with it. The great need of this country is water. In the Darling-Murrumbidgee system, we have a fine water supply and the idea is to augment it with some of the water that flows through the snow-fed Snowy River. The area that is now being irrigated in . New. South Wales from the Murrumbidgee was merely ,a sheep station 30 years ago. It was a good sheep station but it employed only a few people. Now in that area there are at least 30,000 people who are engaged in numerous occupations. Instead of a man requiring a holding of some thousands of acres, he can make a living now on nineteen acres. The farms are close together and neighbourliness has replaced the terrible loneliness that the pioneers endured there and are still enduring inother parts of Australia. I am wholly behind the Snowy Mountains hydroelectric scheme. I am not at all averse to criticism of it or to the searchlight of inquiry being thrown upon its finances. I believe that we should get value for the money that is spent but we should not allow the scheme to be blocked in any way.