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Then, looking to the east still further in the range, one finds the headwaters of the Snowy River trapped. That river, at the moment rising in New South Wales, flows through the eastern projection of Victoria and enters the sea. Hitherto, the great bulk of the water has been wasted - not used. It is now being trapped in the Kosciusko storage. Power stations are erected along the alignment, and ultimately the waters are diverted from Victoria to the Murray. I understand they will ultimately add 730,000 acre feet of water to the Murray. Along these various lines, further reservoirs are built. The whole scheme ultimately envisages some fifteen power stations - with the possibility of two more when certain other works are completed - capable of producing 3.000,000 kilowatts of power, a quantity almost equal to the total production of power in Australia to-day and certainly very considerably in excess of the total quantity produced at the moment by New South Wales and Victoria in combination. Having adverted very inadequately to the scheme, I now suggest that if one projects one's mind into that rugged and difficult country one can see the terrific amount of human thought and human endeavour that has gone into the carrying out of this scheme. It was most proper that the Minister should pay tribute to the men who, under difficult climatic conditions, have advanced the scheme to the present stage. I join with him in paying tribute to them and to the commissioner, Sir William Hudson, who was appointed originally to sponsor the scheme and who has done so with very great success up to the present time. I pay tribute also to the associate commissioners, the engineers and others who were associated with him. Again, one must not forget the contractors who brought modern skills and equipment to their aid in carrying out the contracts for the various phases of the scheme. Whilst speaking of the vision splendid in the matter, my mind goes back to the very prophetic vision of the poet Henry Lawson in his poem, " The Storm that is to Come ". Perhaps, the Senate will bear with me while I read the following extracts from that poem: - By our place in the midst of the farthest seas we are fated to stand alone - When the nations fly at each other's throats let Australia look to her own; Let her spend her gold on the barren West for the land and its manhood's sake; For the South must look to herself for strength in the storm that is yet to break. The West cries out at last in drought; but the coastal towns are dumb; And the East must look to the West for food in the war that is to come. He concluded - I have pictured long in the land I love what the land I love might be, Where the Darling rises from Queensland rains and the floods rush out to the sea. And is it our fate to wake too late to the truth that we have been blind, With a foreign foe at our harbour-gate and a blazing drought behind? There, certainly, was the long, distant vision that comes to poets and people of that kind, and to-day there is rapidly coming into fruition the very thing that Lawson envisaged in a slightly removed area. I refer to the problem of picking up our rivers which, in their rush of water in the rainy season, mostly vanish into the sea. On behalf of the Opposition, I express the hope that this great project will be the forerunner of many more, that it will command the support of all parties in this Parliament. It is a national work of the highest character. It should not be delayed by State or party considerations of any kind.