INFANTILE HEALTH

Dominion, Volume 19, Issue 238, 22 June 1926, Page 4

INFANTILE HEALTH

PLUNKET SOCIETY’S WORK

NEW ZEALAND BODY MEETS There was a large and enthusiastic attendance of members of the R°y a ‘ New Zealand Society for the Health ot Women and Children—more familiarly known as the Plunket Society-at the eighteenth annual meeting ot. the society last evening, the Mayor (Mr. L. J. B. Norwood) presiding. Apologies were received from several supporteis of the society, including the Prime Minister (Rt. Hon. J. G. Coates). The Mayor, in moving the adoption of the annual report and balance-sheet, stated that anyone reading the report could not but be struck with the very great service it was rendering. the society was performing very excellent service on very limited finance. The nature of the work/ said His Worship, "is not in the least spectacular, and it is difficult to awaken the feelings of the people to the great benefits which must at last accrue owing to the work of the society/’ , The Minister of Health (Hon. J. A. Young), in supporting the adoption of the report and balance-sheet, offered his sincere congratulations to the Wellington branch of the society on the success of the year’s operations. The Minister paid a glowing tribute to the work of the founder of the society, Sir Truby King, to whose efforts it was due that the infant mortality of New Zealand was as low as it was.

A Sympathetic Government. The Hon. Mr. Young said that he wished to assure his hearers that there was no man in New Zealand who was more sympathetic to tho society than the present Prime Minister. I will let you into a Cabinet secret, said Mr. Young. "Some time ago I went to the Primo Minister with a request for a grant of £15,000 for your society. I handed it to him; ho looked at it, immediately signed it, and passed it back to me across the table. When I examined the paper I saw the words: ‘Approved, J. G. Coatee.”' As well es that vote, he continued, there was later to be considered a vote of .£26,000, making a total grant of approximately. £41,000. Thev had a very good friend indeed in the Prime Minister, who would help them always to the utmost of his power. Wellington's New Hospital.

"In Wellington you are to be congratulated/’ continued the Minister, “upon what you have done. But you have an ideal before you—the building of a Karitane Hospital. This ideal you are getting on with, and it is a great and worthy object, towards which you have in a year or two raised £13,000. When the hospital is completed, it will be the first hospital of its kind in the world. This will not ba because It is a Karitane Hospital; it will be because of the fact that this hospital will have been built especially for the purpose for which it was intended. Other nos pitals have been converted from buildings which were built for other purposes, which is not satisfactory, but this will have the great advantage of being built according to the ideals of the society and of its founder.” In Dunedin, said Mr. Young, there was the lowest infant mortality in the world, and for that the Plunket Society could claim the credit. "It is a splendid thing that we have people in the community who are so public-spirited, and who can afford the time, to carry on 'his great work. It is not charity, and it is not philanthropy—it is humanitarian service. The society takes a message of truth and knowledge to the people with a view to saving life.” Mr. S. Kirkcaldie, president of the Citizens’ Committee, in speaking to the report, said that he was bitterly disappointed with the result of the appeal for the £25,000 needed by the society for the erection of the proposed new Karitane Hospital; £15,000 had been raised, but there was still a large sum needed. He thought it an astounding thing that Wellington should be the last, city in the Dominion to possess a Karitane Hospital, and he stated that he 'elt like approaching the Government, and asking for an outright grant of £5OOO to help towards the acquisition of the funds required. All of the money was. not needed at once. If he were given £5000.0n the last day of this year, and a further £5OOO on June 30, 1927, then the Plunket Society would be able to go on free of debt. Dr. Wilson, superintendent of the Wellington Public Hospital, also delivered a short speech, and pointed out how the Karitane methods were being adopted where possible in that institution. Sir John Hosking also spoke m support of the report. Sir Truby King’s Praise.

Sir Truby King, in rising to propose a vote of thanks to the Citizens’ Committee, said that he regarded it as a very great privilege to be able to pay a tribute to the work of that body. They had done a great service for the society in the matter of the collecting of the funds for the building of the proposed new hospital, and he admired the pluck shown by Mr. S. Kirkcaldie in his determination that the remainder of the sum needed would he obtained. Referring to. the work at present being done at Kent Terrace, Sir Truby King stated that he regarded what had been achieved as absolutely unique. It was a very remarkable thing indeed that, of the 165 children there treated, there bad not been, since November, 1924, a single death. Such a record reflected something more than mere credit on the nurses who had been engaged in this work. He considered that the strain placed upon the nurses under the present conditions was far too great, for they really had to work day and night.