The Hon. RICK COLLESS [10.04 p.m.]: On 24 October 1889 Sir Henry Parkes delivered his now-famous speech in the Banquet Room of the Tenterfield School of Arts. On 17 October this year, the New South Wales Nationals celebrated their ninetieth anniversary in the very same hall. The occasion was marked by the attendance of 100 people. The Sir Henry Parkes Memorial School of Arts, formerly the Tenterfield School of Arts, has been fully restored to its former glory and looked very much as it did on the evening when Sir Henry Parkes delivered his famous speech.

It is very interesting to note that on 17 October the banquet table, which runs the full length of the room, was fully occupied. At one end of the Banquet Room there was a photomontage that included a photograph of the people who attended when Sir Henry Parkes delivered his speech. At the function to celebrate The Nationals ninetieth anniversary, ancestors of many of the people present who were shown in the photomontage, as it were, looked down on the celebration. It was a magnificent evening. I congratulate the Tenterfield community on providing such a marvellous dinner.

[Time for debate expired.]

Question—That this House do now adjourn—put and resolved in the affirmative.

Motion agreed to.


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