OUR BABIES

Marlborough Express, Volume LIV, Issue 128, 2 June 1920, Page 2

OUR BABIES

(From Ota/go Witness, May 25, 1929.)

"By Hygeia. Published under the auspices of the Royal New Zealand Society for the Health of Women and Children.

"it is wiser to pufc a fence at the top of a precipice than to .maintain an ambulance at the Bottom."

PLUN-KET SOCIETY

DUNEDIN ANNUAL MEETING

The following is taken from newspaper reports of the meeting:— The main features of the annual meeting of the Royal New Zealand Society for the Health of Women and Children, held in the Town Hall, Dunedin, on the 10th inst., was the address of Dr Truby King, C.M.G., whoso untiring, fearless campaigns against the public ignorance of the vital truths of motherhood and .infant. nurture have been the spearhead with which the Society have pierced below the skin of indifference, and whose recent? two years' tour in England, America, and Europe has added immensely to the already great prestige the Society's work had won them abroad. There was a very large gathering of citizens .of both sexes, the assemblage including also a number of school children- and the Rev. Professor Hewitson, who presided, and all the several speakers paid tribute in the most outspoken and sincere terms to Dr King's work and to the root idea of sympathy and sacrifice which inspired him and the" Society. Also, the following, "resolution was carried:— ..'. '" That this, being the first public meeting of the; Society held in Dunedin since the return to the Dominion of Dr Truby King, the Central Council, for thmeslves and on behalf of ' all. the branches, extend to the doctor a cordial and hearty welcome, and desire to place on record the very keen appreciation by the Society of. Dr King's scalous efforts and the truly magnificent work accomplished^, by him in the .Homeland in the interest of the mothers and babies of the Empire. ». ■ 'DR.- TltUBY' KING'S ADDRESS:. The Sympathy, Zeal, and Devotion of Womeii the Main Factors". '•'Dr King, who was warmly .received, j deprecated' the reference to himself ! as thin head and inspiration of the Society. The secret of its 'success, -he averred, was to .be- found in. the zeal, self-sacrifice, and devotion of noble and demoted- women like ..j the late Mrs Carr' (the Society's President); like Mrs,,Tighc Brown, who, as Nurse Campbell, had been the; matron of their main Baby Hospital and training centre for three 'years, and who. had recently come all the way from Wellington to resume, temporary 'charge.,, in spite of family ties; like, Nurse Patrick,- who for ..years had done such splendid work for the Society, both as their matron hero and as .their representative in London, and who. was now in America further fitting herself for the highest ■smfl widest responsibilities the Society could give her on*her return. As'j long as the Society had such capable and -devoted women working all over the country, on their committees, and on their nursing staffs, the future of mother and child in New Zealand was in safe hands. He agreed with Professor Hewitson that sympathy was the highest motive force in the universe, not only j from tho point- of view, of religion, \ai from that of. science. The sympathy and sacrifice to be found in family life—the' increasing love of family, of country, of humanity—was absolutely inlierent and, the main C2seiiti«l'in.evolution'. We owed to the higher evolution of love and sympathy all that was noblest and best- in human nature. The vitalising ; rind inspiring force which had carried the Society's movement along was :ikmVto\h*at expressed in the saying of Mr Diavison, the influential and wealthy American who liad ''organised the biV International Conference of medical men at Cannes to,decide how to perpetuate the Rca..-ofcsp movement 'in p'feSeb ■■'timci .'--Mr Davisor. said:— -■ fV ■■■■.-■■ -■;■; '.. When 1 fV^mp .to.realise what thic - -meant for Imra'anity (the child welfare movement, etc.), I could no more have turned my back upon it '. than I could Vburn my back unpti a well into »wliich my children had fnllen. - ;\ ■ '' , This' was tlje v» .spirt which' had pctua.tcd their,', Lite president, Mrs Can1,, in common w^itli other devoted people all over New Zealand ■ns ■oiYiJinisera, lnr-nib'ers of committee r;;id nurses, and had made the Society v/hrit it is vow. , The Plunket Society's Handicap in Wartime. The Society had been kept back by £!m war, but ths renorfc \v?.n quite sufficient- to show that satisfactory progress had been made; and made won 'during tho war. Of cour.se, they Tiad been handicapped through this great catastrophe; but for it, there would bo more Knritare hospit.ils established, and other hospitals already in existence would ■have advanced a stage further.; More Plunket and Karitano Nurses i

■, Needed. Thor-e v.vnild ;il?o have been' rt lnrger number of Piunkct nurses at work and in training. ■ Iv^le.ss than three of their matrons' nt the Karitan^ Hospital' had pucoesfivoly' left tlie Dominion to fulfil war duties: they v>*_ere the type of women thai could least- be spared, even temporarily;" indeed, they were exactly the type most weeded for responsible positions ail over New Zealand. Tlip Hew premises being added to tlio 'Knritmie Hospital at' Anderson's Bay would jro a long way to supply

the demand for Plunket and Karitnne nurses. But they luid responsibilities outside the Dominion and were asked to train at least a dozen nurses for Austral in to start the building un of In.fpnt Welfare Work on New Zealand lines-. Tlieir new buildings voulcl enable all this work to be carried out cflicipntlv and exneditiously.

(To be concluded next week.)