BACK FROM EUROPE.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 190, 13 August 1928, Page 8

BACK FROM EUROPE.

PLUNKET ACTIVITIES. GROWING INTEREST IN ENGLAND. \ BIG CO N'T INK XT AL FIELD. (By SIR. TRUBY KIXG.j On the eve of the arrival of the N'ia"a. at Auckland, Mr. Leys (a fcllovvp.i -sc ug- r ft.«■: 1 Vancouver) modestly ask., II!-* for a thousand words for the "Star," conveying my impressions formed :n .-i\ ni"';;h~ absence troin New Zealand —ina,.nly "I'iunkct impressions,*' I n-.ii!!i •! Looking b.e'k on our varied and crowded experiences at Home, abroad, in Anic ica. and in the Pacific, the trip '.ins been a great adventure for my daughter and myself from start to finish -largely work, partly play, and all interesting, inspiring and encouraging; but at the moment neither of us can clear!v see the forest for the trees.

So far as the Punket Society and its mission is concerned, the one outstanding mipres-ion we both have is of tho amazing progress which has been made on the other side or the world since we were there previously—in her case only three years ago, in my own nine.

A few days after our arrival in London a gathering of some hundreds of Plunket-trained nurses took place at Cromwell House: practically a Karitane Hospital anil Mothercraft Training Centre for the Old Country. The nurses came from ull over the United Kingdom, and embraced those who had been trained • luring the last ten years by Miss Patrick and her successor. Miss Liddiard. N'othing could exceed the loyalty and enthusiasm of these pioneers and we were glad to see some of them again about a month later at the annual meeting of the society, when Lady Galway, the president, gave an admirable address. This was described by a prominent New Zea lander, who has himself probably presided at as many meetings as any other of our public men, as "the finest address he had ever heard given by a woman."

Mr. F. R. Peacock, a director of the Rank of England, who has been treasurer of the society for the last seven or eight years, then sketched briefly the progress of the work to the present day. duelling on the untiring zeal and energy of Lady Gal way and her committee, and specially emphasising the loyalty, devoi ion and enthusiasm of the whole body of nurses sent out under the inspiring teaching and example of Miss Patrick and Miss Liddiard. In conclusion he touched on the short period which had elapsed since the return of their Rovai patroness, the Duchess of York, and told in a few words the effect of her desir.' for the further extension of the mission throughout England, of which she had seen such beneficent results when in New Zealand. The outcome of thiappeal had already amounted to about £20.000 and the committee had felt safe : n letting a, contract iVr £'21.000 for immediate additions to Cromwell House— with the intention of spending £4000 more for equipment when the new buildin srs were completed. Two other establishments, run on New Zealand lines, have been recently founded in London and are doing excellent work, namely, one at Kennington and another at Chelsea—both of these being more or less affiliated to St. Thomas' Hospital, and both having Dr. Reginald .Tewesbury (Pediatriean and Medical Director to Cromwell House) as consulting physician. Interest of Sovereign. Referring about this time to child welfare work in general, the King and Queen expressed their high appreciation of what had been effected in New Zealand, but His Majesty, speaking with extreme earnestness, deeply regretted that more progress had not been made at Home in the reduction of their unduly high maternal mortality rate, and the deaths of babies in their first month. While nothing was said specifically as to New Zealand in this connection, the fact that the King himself and his professional advisers feel so keenly that radical improvement is necessary should move us to further reform in the Dominion. It is interesting to note that the general concensus of authoritative professional opinion expressed during the National Baby Week Conference (which took place a few days before our departure) was irt the same direction. Sir George Newman (chief medical adviser to the British Ministry of Health) spoke emphatically in his opening address to the conference at the Guildhall as to tlie need for regarding every death in childbirth as cause for searching investigation, and said it was the intention of the Government to move in this direction, and also to promote further provisions and facilities for pre-natal care. At the same time he emphasised the fact that reform and progress in these intimate family matters lay mainly with the community itself, and in the proficiency and proper co-ordination and organising of the medical and nursing professions, riot in legislation nor in the Government, except as encouraging and subsidising voluntary humanitarian effort. Above all, he appealed to his audience to do everything in their power to promote the voluntary services and voluntary munificence of people prepared to give of their own free will what, they could spare in the cause of mother and child—in a word lie appealed to them "to bank on motherhood," anil to leave no stone unturned to raise a race of mothers better fitted in body and inclination for domestic and family life than most of the rising generation.

f 11 the course of the several days conference which followed, leading English and other authorities spoke eulogistically about recent visits they had paid to the Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden, and the profound impression made on them by the hijrh professional qualifications required of obstetricians as specialists, and the wonderful proficiency and effecf i% e organisation of iriidwives and midwifery services. It was generally agreed that these were the main factors in the »reat reduction of maternal and neona.ta I mortality in these countries, and it. need scarcely he said that New Zealand should do at least equally well in the near future. There is no gainsaying the fact that our maternal mortality and our death rate of new-born infants are still nearly, if not quite, double the rates where the best ii being done for mother and chil-'; and it must be born in mind that nowhere in the world are these death rates as low as they should and could be. The Backward Continent. In the course of over six weeks spent on the Continent we saw almost every'"'ro evidences of the pressing need for iftt.cr and more up-to-date measures in ■ '' in' l re Is fit mother and child— 1 . •■iallv in country districts. What is

most needed is better provision and facilities for universal education of the rising generation of girls in the essenials for healthy wifehood and motherhood; and for advising, visiting, and training potential mothers throughout pregnancy and afterwards, on some such lines as we have adopted in New Zealand.

In the Lnited States and in Canada great progress is being made, but the Canadians realise that much more will have to be done. During our single day at Vancouver, where we were the guests .of the Canadian Club, it was gratifying to find that three capable and devoted Plunket nurses were doing excellent practical \\ork, and had so won the confidence and esteem of the community that the Canadian Club had invited them to meet us at luncheon at the Vancouver Hotel—contrary to usage in a sanctuary of the male sex. About 200 members of the club were present.-Two of the nurses were Australian and one Tasmanian—but they had all three been trained and injured by Miss Patrick at the Karitane Hospital, Dunedin, and spoke in glowing terms of their alma mater. One of them was in the Canadian School Nursing Service, and she had so impressed a lead" ing school inspector that he had induced her to get him a duplicate set made of her New Zealand Plunket lantern slides, for lecturing and demonstrating in the course of his journeys; and similar lectures have been given for several years in and round about Vancouver by Dr. Clayton—an ardent practical advocate of the New Zealand system, who speaks with a special view to better teeth, better nutrition, and better health.

A great deal is being done for mother and child at Honolulu and in Fiji, where leading doctors and nursing services work on practicaly Plunket lines, adapted to their special local requirements, and bv this means and by improving their milk supplies, etc., have already brought down tneir infantile death rates to averages of from six to eight per cent among Europeans, Americans, Japanese, and Indians respectively—though the original islanders (Hawaiians and Fijians) still average rates varying from 20 to 25 per cent.

Great regret was expressed at the recent death of the Hon. Mark Cohen (late editor of the Dunedin "Evening Star"), who had been for some years an unremitting advocate of Plunket work in the Pacific Islands—a matter which he brought before the special attention of the first Pan-Pacific Conference at Honolulu. Dr. Condliffe (late Professor of Economics at Canterbury College, and now Resident Secretary and Director at Honolulu of Pan-Pacific Affairs) is another Xew Zealander who takes a similar practical interest in promoting child welfare throughout the Pacific. En route, I had the privilege of giving the first introductory professional address at the Pan-Pacific Conference of Women, now sitting at Honolulu. A Pan-Pacific general medical conference is to be held there a year hence, in which I am urged to take' part.