PLUNKET SOCIETY WORK

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27098, 22 July 1953, Page 2

PLUNKET SOCIETY WORK

Mrs Bodkin Addresses; Conference 1 “MUST NOT HARK BACK : TOO MUCH TO PAST” (Mew Zealand Press Association) 1 INVERCARGILL, July 21. > “To work efficiently the Plunket Society must be prepared to meet new 1 conditions with new methods, and not J hark back too much into the past,” ’ said Mrs W. A. Bodkin, Dominion 1 president, at the opening of the Otago , district conference of the New Zealand - Plunket Society today. “Our first interest is the welfare of J the mothers and babies,” she said. “The ■ young are important in the community, 1 especially in a welfare state such as 1 New Zealand is. All over the Dominion the society has outgrown its present facilities because of the steadily-increasing population and the higher standard of equipment necessary today.” Mrs Bodkin said she felt that the Plunket Society had been a pioneer in adult education in this country—educating mothers and fathers in the field of infant welfare. It was not the society’s intention to take over the responsibility that naturally belonged to parents but to give them encouragement and confidence by assisting them to bring up their children sensibly. There were mushroom towns in the North Island where the increase in population was phenomenal, she said. The society found it difficult to cope with this great increase. If each branch at its annual meeting put aside a grant, this money would enable branches to be established in new areas.