FOR WOMEN Place Of The Plunket Society In Community

Greymouth Evening Star, 30 August 1947, Page 8

FOR WOMEN Place Of The Plunket Society In Community

Plunket Society history in Greymouth was made yesterday when the first West Coast conference was held in Wesley Hall. The Dominion President (Mrs James Begg), the Christchurch President (Mrs B. H. Gilmour) and the Dominion Secretary (Miss K. P. Rapps) were on their, first visit to the district. Miss S, Lusk (nursing adviser to the council), the fourth visitor, has previously visited Greymouth. .

Widespread interest was taken .by the various Plunket committees on the West Coast and almost 50 delegates from branches as far afield as Granity, -Westport, and Ross were present. Other committees represented were: Greymouth, Hokitika, Runahga,'Reefton, Blackball, Ikamatua, Brunner, and Kumara.

Addressing the meeting on “The Plunket. Society’s Place in the Community,” Mrs Begg said that a strenuous month’s tour in the North Island which she and her executive officers had just completed gave them a wonderful opportunity to see and appreciate the unselfish work j and the keenness of branch commit-; tees. The Plupket Society was in, I no sense a charitable organisation, • but wa.s a truly educational body, i

The present times, said Mrs Begg, were truly anxious.- Mothers were harassed by many shortages—housing, clothing, and. maternity hospital accommodation. The Plunket Society’s duty , was to try to ease their burdens. True democracy entailed unselfishness and some service to fellow-citizens. This could be exercised by membership of Plunket committees. Increases in New Zealand’s birthrate had given Plunket sisters more work in recent years. She wished to stress the fact that there were no nurses more fully qualified than the Plunket sisters,, as they were now to be called. Pre-school work was important, she said. Mothers 'had to be trained to the six-monthly cheek on the pro-school child so that Plunket supervision could continue from birth to school age.

The Plunket Nurse In introducing her subject, “The Plunket Nurse On and Off Duty,” Miss Lusk said that she had prepared her address with a view to asking for the committees’ help. , The system could not be carried on without committees doing the , spade work. Nurses gave great service, but the work of committees, while often unspectacular, was essential. New Zealand was very short of trained nurses. There were not fewer being trained, but requirements were half

as many again as in 1938. The Health Department,, hospital boards, and the Plunket Society, were all competing for the services of trained nurses, and in order to be successful in obtaining its due proportion, the society had to see that salaries and conditions for its staff compared favourably with those offered by its competitors. The correct form of address for a trained nurse was sister and the society was going to intro-

! duce this innovation. - Mrs B. H. Gilmour, president of j the Christchurch . branch, confined ; her address to the affairs of Karitane ! Hospital, Cashmere, which was open--1 cd in August, 1918. Canterbury and. the West Coast had honoured a promise very generously by bringing in a scheme of voluntary contributions to hefp the hospital’s finances, and she wished to express thanks. Social security payments did not maintain Karitane hospitals, said Mrs Gil- . mour.

i Administration Problems j ’ The Dominion secretary (Miss- K. : P. Rapps) took as her subject, “Administration—What it Involves.” She had found on her recent '-.travel throughout the country, she said, that branches were glad to hear of the 1 administrative side of the organisai lion. There were 80 branches and I hundreds of sub-branches through- ‘ out New Zealand. The. voluntary work of committees was the organisation’s greatest asset. It was impossible to assess its value in terms

of money. ; Dealing with - finance, Miss Rapps ! said that the society had enjoyed assistance from successive Governments in the way. of .subsidies. The society was proud, too, of the fact that it enjoyed the respect and confidence of the public as exemplified in their voluntary contributions.