PLUNKET ROOMS AT HORNBY

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27471, 4 October 1954, Page 2

PLUNKET ROOMS AT HORNBY

OPENING OF NEW BUILDING

Apart from a plumber and a drainlayer, only voluntary labour had been engaged In the building of the new Plunket rooms in Tower street, Hornby, said Mr J.. K. McAlpine, M.P., when he officially opened the rooms on Saturday afternoon. Seven fathers and grandfathers constructed the building under the supervision of Mr E. Kilburn, a retired master builder, on land given by the Paparua County Council. A gardener, whose wife is a member of the committee, will lay out the grounds in lawns and shrubs.

The building has an area of 475 square feet, and cost about £6OO. It comprises a waiting room and a clinic, eventually to be separated by folding or sliding doors; an enclosed porch, where prams can be left in wet weather; a kitchen; and a cloak room containing a wash basin. The waiting room and clinic together measure 25 feet by 12 feet. The floors are all attractively covered with mottled green and fawn linoleum.

The new rooms were built by the Hornby sub-branch of the Plunket Society. The work of the sub-branch, covering the Hornby, Islington, and Templeton areas, was formerly carried on m halls.

The twenty-fifth anniversary of the formation of the sub-branch was this year, remarked the president (Mr J. Wastney). Mrs P. L. Kime, president of the branch (Springs-Ellesmere), congratulated the sub-branch on achieving its effort in such a short time (about six months) and at such a reasonable cost.

Since the introduction of the Plunket system, the ante-natal death rate m New Zealand had decreased remarkably, said Mr McAlpine. The proportion of deaths in the first year of life to live births in 1950 was only six in 1000, compared with 18.26 in 1910.

The Plunket Society can justifiably claim to have been a major cause of New Zealand’s fine record,” Mr McAlpine said. Plunket work was vital, and young parents might later be able to contribute financially to the society. Mr McAlpine bade farewell to the people of the Hornby district, which he has represented in Parliament for eight years, but which will soon become part of another electorate.