PLUNKET FOUNDER ‘A MARTINET’

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31365, 10 May 1967, Page 2

PLUNKET FOUNDER ‘A MARTINET’

The Plunket Society is now an integral part of New Zealand’s community life but its place was not always so assured. Mrs Janet Williams, of Christchurch, who has served in the society for 60 years, believes that it owes its existence to the fiery and domineering temperament of its founder, Sir Truby King.

Mrs Williams remembers Sir Truby King as a “martinet.” His word was law with his adherents and he did not believe in sparing opponents. He poured wrath upon the heads of the Health Department and the medical profession, who were then jealously guarding what they considered to be their province, and insisted on complete acceptance of his theories.

“Without him wo wouldn’t have got anywhere. He was a fanatic but those are the people who get things done. Sir Truby King ran rough-shod over everyone. Anyone opposing him didn’t stand a chance," Mrs Williams said yesterday. One of Mrs Williams’ most vivid memories of her early year* with the Fluaket to of

an argument between Sir Truby King and the Director of Health at the society*! first conference in Wellington in 1910.

Mrs Williams went to Wellington as a young bride and formed the Wellington branch in 1908.

“I’d never been to a conference before, and I was terrified at having to be in the chair. I had Sir Truby King on one side and Dr. Valentine on the other. At one stage they leaned across me, quite forgetting I was there, I’m sure, and literally fought.” He was then pressing for a yearly Government grant and the Health Department, in an effort to keep the society under its control, was insisting on conditions with which he strongly dis-

agreed. “They said the nurses must do district work as well as Plunket and he was against that He wanted ua to keep our independence, and we had so few nurses we couldn’t spare them," she said.

A correct and balanced diet for babies was the basis of Sir Truby King’s theories. He considered that more babies died from overfeeding than from malnutrition and his recipe for “humanised milk” which was prepared from fresh cow’s milk at considerable cost in time and trouble, had to be followed to the letter. “In those day* the word Glaxo made us shudder. It was comparable with arsenic. I remember a terrible scene in the Wellington plunket rooms,” she said. "He rang me up and

asked mo to call a committee meeting immediately. He would do that, and of course, you didn’t dare disagree. “We went to the rooms and he told us ha had heard a Wellington nurse had been using Glaxo and calling it humanised milk.

"He demanded I get the nurse in and when she came he pulled out a can of Glaxo from his over-coat pocket and said: Ts this what you call humanised milk?’

“She fainted dead away on the floor. She was paid off and dismissed that day. A while later Truth and Glaxo got hold of the story and Glaxo made her their “Glaxo nurse.’ You can imagine—- " Former Plunket Nurse Turns to Glaxo."

In the years since Sir Truby King’s death to the 19305, Mrs Williams has seen many changes in the Plunket

“He wouldn’t recognise it now,” she said. "Things go very smoothly with the Health Department and the doctors; mothers use Glaxo often; and the feeding methods have completely changed," she said.

The Plunket system was not perfect, but the work was increasing all the time. Each new housing development wanted a nurse and rooms and although the society could not continue without its Government subsidy it still relied heavily on voluntary assistance.

Mrs Williams is not surprised at the increased work undertaken by the society. “Once it began it just

mushroomed. Of course, there was considerable opposition from doctors and from mothers. It seems extraordinary that mothers need to be taught how to look after their babies, but they do.”

They had no system at all, she said. The mothers just fed the babies on anything soft aad sweet all day and Wight The babies either lacked proper nutrition or were blown up like balloons.”

Today’s babies presented a very different picture, and most young mothers readily admitted their reliance on the Plunket and its nurses.

When tiro Plunket Society celebrates its diamond jubilee next week, Mrs Williams will have a place of honour as the Christchurch branch’s most long-standing member.

She is one of the few members who worked with Sir Truby King in the early days of the society still active. After forming the Wellington branch, she began branches in Lower Hutt, Featherston, and Masterton.

In 1914, Mrs Williams returned to her home town, Christchurch, and apart from 10 years in the Walrarapa she has served on the committee of tiie Christchurch branch, including a term as president, since 1920.