[Note: only the first part deals with Scientology. Typos corrected.]
[photo:] THE GROUP of Scientologists greet Sir Henry Bolte at Essendon Airport today.
[photo:] SIR HENRY AND LADY BOLTE drive away after their arrival at Essendon Airport today.
Sir Henry and Lady Bolte arrived back in Melbourne after a 96-day world trip.
The demonstrators held placards. Some said:
"What's the next religion to be banned, Sir Henry?"
The State Government has banned scientology.
One of the demonstrators, Mr I. K. Tampion, wearing a clerical collar and a metal cross around his neck, said the demonstration was by the Church of Scientology of California in Victoria to protest against religious persecution.
Sir Henry said he didn't suppose the demonstrators were doing much harm.
"I don't suppose they're doing much good either. They didn't do very well in London."
Sir Henry said he was "a little surprised" by the nomination of the Education Minister, Mr Thompson, for the Legislative Assembly seat of Malvern.
Mr Thompson has the Legislative Council seat of Higinbotham.
Sir Henry said Mr Thompson had not consulted him.
"But it's a free country," Sir Henry said.
At a press conference at the airport Sir Henry said the $1000 million steel works at Westernport would promote scores of industries concentrated around that area.
He would not name the industries or say what kind they would be.
But he said the new industries would be heavy and associated with steel and natural gas.
He said he could not say when steel production would start.
This would be entirely up to the companies setting up the steel works - Guest, Keen and Nettlefold, and BHP.
The companies wanted assurances from the State Government of unrestricted access to the waterfront, water supply, and transport facilities.
"All this has been discussed in detail," he said.
Sir Henry said the LaTrobe Valley brown coal fields could get their greatest boost ever through char sales to Japan.
(Char is high-grade carbon used widely in the chemical and metallurgical industries.)
Sir Henry said experiments were going on now "by the people interested" to see if char could be made direct from brown coal instead of briquettes.
Sir Henry said if there were more substantial finds of natural gas in Bass Strait, it also could be exported. Again Japan was a market.
Sir Henry said he told them that any scare or doubt about Australia putting restrictions on development capital from overseas was more imaginary than real.