PLUNKET WORK.

Otago Witness, Issue 3954, 24 December 1929, Page 7

PLUNKET WORK.

PROGRESS IN AUSTRALIA. SIR TRUBY KING INTERVIEWED. AUCKLAND, December 17. “Plunket work is going ahead well in Australia,” said Sir Truby King, who arrived in Auckland by the Alarama from Sydney this morning. “ Some thousands of pounds are being spent in Melbourne in making additions to the Karitane hospital there and in establishing more suburban centres for district Plunket work. “Matters are moving in the same direction in Sydney,” continued Sir Truby, “ and at the Karitane Hospital there they have just added a wellequipped and up-to-date laundry, and other improvements are under way, including doubling the accommodation of the central premises in Elizabeth street to meet the increasing requirements. A new centre for Plunket nurses has just been started at Redfern, a suburb with 25,000 of a population. This latter is in connection with the factory of the Karitane Products Society, which will be in full working order about the middle of January. It will be capable of turning out Plunket feeding preparations for infants, which, up till now, have been made in Wellington and shipped to Australia. The new’ factory will be capable of turning out enough of these foodstuffs for the whole of the Commonwealth.”

\\ hen questioned as to how this would affect the Wellington factory, Sir Truby King replied: “So far as New’ Zealand is concerned, the effect will be negligible because the extremely high tariff wall in Australia has proved an effective barrier against export from the Dominion. For instance, there is now a 40 per cent, protective duty against Plunket emulsion, etc., and this has made Australian prices for Kariol and Karilac so high as to be almost prohibitive. The contrast between this and the British policy of absolute freetrade is very striking. The new Australian tariff, which has just been established, makes the contrast even more emphatic than heretofore.”