PLUNKET PROBLEMS

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 18, 21 July 1943, Page 6

PLUNKET PROBLEMS

''CHRONICALLY HARD-UP"

The urgent need of funds with which to meet deficits and to carry on its great work was the principal topic of discussion at the annual meeting of the Wellington branch of the Royal New Zealand Society for the Health of Women and Children yesterday. Several speakers put forward suggestions for increasing revenue. The sum of £7000 is required to meet accumulated deficits from previous years and to ensure that there is no curtailment of the work in future.

"The service which this organisation renders needs much greater monetary support than you have been given. You must determine to get the message home to the public that this great organisation must have the money," said the Mayor, Mr. T. C. A. Hislop,. who presided.

• The principal item of expenditure during the past year was the working of the Karitane Hospital. The difficulty arose from the emergency removal to Featherston, which had caused a deficit of £1409.

"There is an even greater need for the work of the Plunket Society in this country because of its low birthrate,'' said Dr. H. B. Turbot, of the Health Department. "The effect of the low birth-rate was being counteracted by making a healthy race through ante-natal clinics, after-birth care, and the training of .mothers in the feeding and care' of their children." He stressed the, need of a closer link between the clinic and the family doctor, and also the necessity for widespread dietary teaching. More time could be devoted to these things if the society were not chronically hard up and continually struggling for .money, he said.

The original idea of the founder had been free treatment for mothers, but times had changed. He did not see why the society should not evolve with the times and see that every mother made a contribution to the funds.

In speaking to the report, the president, Mrs. W. Bullock, said that the society should not have anxiety over finance. Sir Truby King had given his all to make child life healthy and happy. Greater assistance could be given through endowments.

Other speakers were Mr. P. E. Pattrick and Mr. E. W. Hunt, of the advisory board, who spoke on the financial situation.

The Mayor was accompanied by Mrs. Hislop. All present officers of the society were re-elected.