THE PLUNKET SOCIETY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20309, 17 July 1929, Page 10

THE PLUNKET SOCIETY.

The attainment of its majority was celebrated by the Auckland branch of the Plunket Society at its annual meeting last evening. It was able to review 21 years of invaluable service to the mothers and children of the city and to regard with satisfaction the change in public opinion that has been effected during its history. The society began its beneficent work in an atmosphere of hostility; it is now the object of universal commendation, for the whole community has been awakened to the truth of the principles it expounds, and acknowledges that this voluntary organisation of devoted public servants is not only an essential but also the most efficient means of conveying wise instruction and intelligent assistance to mothers in the care of their infant children. Having established itself in public esteem, the society should now be able to expect that its work would be carried forward upon a steadilybroadening fiont.. That hope might be realised but for the hampering lack of money. With wise foresight, when the Karitane hospital was opened, the society strove to raise a sufficient fund to ensure financial independence for that branch of its work, but, except for a few bequests, it has no endowment to support the larger nursing service. For that it has to rely upon annual subscriptions, supplemented by a Government subsidy, which is determined not by its needs but by the amount of funds raised by its own efforts. During the past year, public subscriptions amounted to £IBO9, which was adequate only because the society practised the most rigid economy, its nurses worked far harder than was fair to themselves or to those whom they sewed, and plans for the development of the service, in proportion to the needs of the population, were again deferred. The president apologised for emphasising the society's predicament : it fs a reproach to the people of Auckland that its needs should be so desperate. With adequate means it could increase its nursing staff to the level reached in Wellington ; without extravagance, it should be able to spend far more in a year than the Auckland hospital costs in a week, and the public would still be indebted to it. The present appeal will, it may be hoped, be promptly and generously answered, and immediate subscriptions, whatever their amount, will be made more welcome by accompanying them with an undertaking of annual repetition, to save the society from a recurrence of its present embarrassment.