More Govt help for Plunket

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32666, 23 July 1971, Page 5

More Govt help for Plunket

(TVet#. Zealand Press Association)

WELLINGTON, July 22. Government assistance to the Plunket Society will be increased 45 per cent, or by $264,000, this year, said the Minister of Health (Mr McKay) in a statement today.

Announcing a new basis for the assessment of grants to the society, Mr McKay said the new scheme had been introduced because of the society’s difficulties after substantial increases in staff salaries during the last year, coupled with the difficulty some branches were having in raising funds. Up to this year, the Government had subsidised Plunket staff salaries on a fixed percentage basis. Now it would meet the full salaries bill which would be abated by a set sum to be found by the society itself.

This formula would provide the society with a firm indication of the extent of its financial commitments, and enable branches to plan their fund-raising accordingly. Mr McKay said that besides the revised salariessubsidy scheme, other existing grants to the society—among them the subsidies on voluntary contributions and on capital improvements to Karitane hospitals—would be continued, and the subsidy on the purchase price of cars would be increased from 20 per cent to 40 per cent.