It is with great pleasure today that I am signing into law the Domestic Volunteer Service Act of 1973, extending and strengthening the mandate of ACTION to serve as a spearhead of our voluntary service programs.

I, Richard Nixon, President of the United States of America, ask Americans to mark the month of October, 1973, with suitable observances as Country Music Month.

I believe that coastal zone management must be part of a program for the proper management of all our national lands.

I have further requested that the Senate give its consent to the Convention on the Prevention of Marine Pollution by Dumping of Wastes and Other Matter, adopted in November 1972 by the United States and 91 other nations.

I am determined that our future Federal marine effort will continue that leadership to the benefit of our Nation and all mankind.

Finally, we must seek ways to insure that the oceans remain an avenue of peaceful cooperation rather than an arena of tension-filled confrontation.

To help protect our domestic fishing industry, I have recommended legislation which would permit U.S. regulation of foreign fishing off our coasts to the fullest extent authorized by international agreements and would permit Federal regulation of domestic fisheries in the U.S. fisheries zone and in the high seas beyond that zone.

I have directed the Secretary of the Interior to continue to accelerate the leasing of Outer Continental Shelf lands for oil and gas production to a level triple the present annual acreage rate by 1979, as long as such development can proceed with adequate protection of the environment and under conditions consistent with my Oceans Policy statement of May 1970.

Inflation is a serious national concern, and most Americans are undergoing sacrifices as their National Government strives to bring it under control.

I believe that this emphasis on practical benefits must also be carried forward in the years ahead.

The Senate's action makes it necessary for pay adjustments to become effective this October.

One of the virtues of the American patent system is its emphasis upon practicality--its demands that ideas be reduced to a tangible form having a known usefulness before the public should grant a monopoly on the concept to the applicant.

And I would simply say, Mr. Prime Minister, that perhaps it would be hard to find any two countries in the world that are further apart geographically than New Zealand and the United States.

America's dramatic progress from a small agrarian nation to a great technological and industrial leader has been due, in no small degree, to the inventive genius of its people.

We both seek a world in which all people in the world--all people in the world--wherever they may be, not only in our countries, which are fortunate to be far above the average in terms of our income, shall have the opportunity to move forward toward a better life.

The legislation I am recommending would also enhance the value of the patent grant.

Our Founding Fathers understood the need for innovative thinking and wrote into the Constitution a means of encouraging invention--the patent system-which has enormously stimulated our progress and prosperity.

Our patent system should always work to foster that spirit.