THE PLUNKET SOCIETY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23037, 14 May 1938, Page 16

THE PLUNKET SOCIETY

FOUNDERS' DAY LETTERS OF APPRECIATION • The 31st anniversary of the founding of the Royal New Zealand Society for the Health of Women and Children (Plunket Society) by the late Sir Truby and Lady King at Dunedin will be celebrated to-day. Various messages of appreciation of the valuable work being done by the society have been received. The Prime Minister, Mr. Savage, states in a letter that it would be difficult to find in New Zealand, or anywhere else, an organisation that has done better work than the Plunket Society. The fame of the society had gone far beyond the boundaries of the Dominion, and had been an inspiration to other countries. The Prime Minister said that he hoped that the celebration of founders' day would bring to the service of the society the measure of public support which it well deserved. The Minister of Health, the Hon. P. Fraser, said that the society, under the inspired leadership of the late Sir Truby King, -had spread its beneficial influence into countless homes. When the society was first inaugurated, the infant death rate stood at 88 for every 1000 live births, whereas now the rate was at the low figiire of 31. The Leader of the Opposition, the Hon. A. Hamilton, stated that New Zealand's infant mortality was the lowest in the world. He added that the Dominion owed & tremendous debt to the splendid organisation of the Plunket Society, which was carried on by the self-sacrificing work of jts officers. No organisation in the Dominion was more worthy o$ support than the Plunket Society.