Plunket Society at 75

Press, 7 August 1982, Page 16

Plunket Society at 75

A Fence at the Top. The first 75 years of the Plunket Society. By Gordon Parry. Royal N.Z. Plunket Society, 1982. 167 pp. $lO. (Reviewed by Alison Neale) As a former Plunket baby and Plunket mother. I found it difficult to review this book objectively. Like its founder, Truby King, the Plunket Society still arouses strong feelings, ranging from gratitude and adoration to resentment and anger, in several generations of New Zealand women. This book has missed the opportunity to record and discuss these feelings and the beliefs about our relationships with our children which lie behind them.

It is a prosaic account of the first 75 years of the Plunket Society, and mostly an account of the professional side of that society; Lip service is given to "the anonymous committee members and the devoted nurses,” but it is the words and actions of the society's predominantly male experts which were recorded and to which Gordon Parry has mainly referred in writing this history. Truby King's life is naturally an important part of the book. His personal magnetism and his often arrogant behaviour resulted in "a combination of human dynamo and male chauvinist.” "The more highhanded his attitude, the more the ladies loved him." writes Gordon Parry, revealing perhaps more of his own male chauvinism than that of his subject. King was always supported by his “articulate, patient and path-smoothing wife Bella" who. in fact, wrote many of his articles, but we learn little about her character or about that of King's

daughter, Mary. The voluntary workers of the Plunket Society often remain anonymous or are identified by their husband's name or occupation. We learn little of the reasons behind the sudden emergence of the Plunket Society as a nation-wide force. Is it Plunket that has shaped our nation, or did Plunket meet the needs of an already formed New Zealand character, as the Ritchies of Waikato University suggest? To read this book one would hardly gather that much of Plunket’s philosophy and practical advice on babies has been controversial. Parry refers to criticism of Plunket methods as “bringing other malcontents out of the woodwork,” again

revealing his own bias, without seriously discussing the pros and cons of the Plunket system. Presumably this was not the author’s brief, but the lack has turned what could have been an enlightening and stimulating review of child rearing in New Zealand into a somewhat boring official history. Having said that, I would add that the emphasis on the importance of child rearing, which Truby King and the Plunket Society have highlighted, is one which needs continued emphasis today. “If only New Zealand would pay as' much attention to the nurture of babies as it does to the care of animals, many lives would be saved." Insofar as this book records part of the history of an organisation which has affected most of this newspaper's readers, then it is worth reading. As you read, remember that much is left unsaid and ask yourself a few questions about just what was going on beneath the surface.