PLUNKET SOCIETY

Press, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23661, 11 June 1942, Page 2

PLUNKET SOCIETY

ANNUAL MEETING HELD "We need to raise £IBOO every year to enable us to balance our budget and I am afraid we shall find it very difficult this year," said Mrs Cecil Wood, vice-president of the Christchurch branch of the Plunket Society, after xeading the annual-report and balance-, sheet at, the branch said that hwreaafd'-and. were increasing, but, largely owing to the fine work dbne by Mrs Arthur Rose and her committee : ast year, in raising £1027 by the «ale of surprise packets, the branch was beginning the year with a credit balance. On the other hand, the statement of receipts and expenditure of the Karitane baby hospital showed a deficit of £27 4s 9d on the year’s working. The Mayoress (Miss £. Couzins) presided at the meeting, which was held in the Plunket rooms in Chester street. The president (Mrs J. Cracroft Wilson! expressed appreciation of the work done by Mrs Wood, by Mrs Alfred Bunz and her sewing - bee that met. fortnightly to make baby clothes' for the Karitane hospital, by the honorary - architect, Mr G. T. Lucas, and by the honorary auditors, Messrs R. H’. Mitchell and Sons, and the medical staff of the hospital. An excellent address was given by Miss Elsie Andrews, of New Plymouth. She dealt first with the evils of cocktail drinking amongst young mothers, quoting from Sir Truby King's advice to expectant mothers to abstain from alcohol, which, she said, was a narcotic, a harmful drug. She then emphasised the importance of the early training of young children in good habits. Character formation, she said, began at birth, An eminent child psychologist, Dr. Susan Isaacs, had said that it was too late at three or four years of age to form character. Training could not be postponed. Miss Andrews appealed to mothers to train their children in clear thinking, to be truthful to them and not lose the Godgiven gilt of their children’s confidence by telling them half-truths, to encourage children in creative work instead of giving them toys, to encourage them to offer to help and not rebuff them when they tried to be helpful, and above all, to show them tenderness at all times. "Don’t be undemonstrative," Miss Andrews concluded, "give a child all the love you can; in .my long experience with children I have never known one to suffer from too much love, but I have known many suffer from too little” Officers were elected as follows: — President, Mrs Cracroft Wilson; vicepresidents, Mesdames Cecil Wood, A, Rose, and G. Basan; active members of committee, Mesdames A. J. Benzie, E. Boulton, A. Bunz, A. E. Baxter, Miss A. Buckley, Miss Couzins, Mesdames E, J, Cordner, S. P. Godfrey, Malcolm Gray, P. G. Greenwood, R. E. Hall, A. E. Kincaid, J. S. Kelly. G. McEvedy, J. W. Niven, C. Teschemaker, W. G. Scannell, H. R. Smith, E. O. Trerise, D. E. Wanklyn, B. B. Wood, Algar Williams, M. Wilson, and Miss G. Widdowson; and the following sub-branch representatives: Mesdames R. Barnett, H. H. -Blackwell, Leyden Baker, F. Blewitt, K. Brown, H. W. Crozier, W. Jt Edginton, L. Hale, E. Harris, R. E. Hudson, H. S. S. Kyle, G. S. McKenzie, E, Mclntyre, A. C. McKillop, F. W. Scott, O. Stanbury, B. E. H. Whitcombe, E. C. Webb, and Geoffrey Wood; honorary members of committee, Mesdames R. W. Anderson, H. D. Acland, M. H. Godby, F. H. Pyne, J. Stevenson, P. H. Wood, and Miss Tabart; advisory board, Messrs H. D. Acland, G. L. Donaldson, M. H. Godby, R. H. Mitchell, Stewart Mair, and D. E. Wanklyn.