PLUNKET SOCIETY

Te Aroha News, Volume XLI, Issue 6598, 12 May 1925, Page 8

PLUNKET SOCIETY

THE TE AROHA BRANCH ANNUAL MEETING The annual meeting of the Te Aroha Branch of the Plunket Society was held in -the Parish Hall on Saturday afternoon. The attendance was not large, but among those present were the Mayor (Mr R. Culter), Dr. Gordon and Mr Nicholls. Mrs Gordon presided. Prior to the meeting afternoon tea was served and musical items on a gramaphone were given. Mrs Gordon, who is now acting as secretary, read the annual report as follows: —

' One retrospective glance at the year just ended (March 31st) brings very clearly to view that the Plunket Society has passed into the order of things established, things permanent. It has become a/i integral and indispensable part of our local existence, a great stride in our modern civilisation. In these days it would be hard to imagine Te Araho without its Plunket Nurse, its pilgrimages of mothers with babies to that little shi’ine in Rewi Street, to obtain advice, instruction, help and comfort. Any mother will testify how vital a necessity to her and to her child the Plunket system has become. What did we all do when there was no Plunket Nurse? But how came our Plunket Society into being. It did not evolve itself, nor did it just happen along. It was built up, slowly and arduously, but securely, by human effort, dogged human persistence, clear human vision and faith and hope. In the early days, there were but a few who could rightly appraise the value or estimate the beneficent results of Dr. Truby King’s great message to humanity, the Gospel of the Mother and the Child. These few longed to interpret it to others, to show women what the great message was going to mean to them. And to these pioneers who cut so successfully the hard ice of apathy and indifference and climber an Everest of difficulty, who marked out a path for us to follow, we owe our gratitude and our remembrance. In congratulating Sir Tfuby King upon the long-overdue recognition of the measureless debt the British nation owes to him, we feel that the seal of recognition must be conferred also upon his coadjutor, Miss Pattrick, before those who know even a hundreth part of what she has done for women will be quite satisfied, and we look forward confidently to the day when we can unite in congratulating Dame Pattrick. Her example alone should stimulate us to further effort, continued enthusiasm and high resolve for the future. We are still a long way from the summit. Our local Society has much to achieve, and needs to'be extended with the rapid increase of infant population in Te Aroha. Until October, 1924, Te Aroha had been a sub-branch, but on October Ist we began as ■ an independent branch, and in Novemer Waihi linked up with us as our first, and at present, our only sub-branch. Like ourselves, the Waihi Committee were greatly helped in their inauguration by'the support of their Mayor and Borough Council, and of their local doctors.

The Te Aroha Committee regrets greatly that owing to the resignation of Nurse Glasgow in January, the arrangements regarding extended hours and days at the Plunket Rooms, and for visiting mothers and babies at their own homes were temporarily disorganised. A new resident nurse, however, not being immediately available, Miss Pattrick, the Director of Plunket Nursing, made such arrangements for us us helped us to tide over the difficulty with an absolute minimum of inconvenience. We tender her our grateful thanks for her personal visit to us, for her help and her sympathy. Thanks also to the Hamilton Committee for lending back to us our old nurse, Nurse Underwood, so inseparably connected with our earlier history, and always regarded as Te Aroha’s Very Own. Although Nurse Underwood’s other engagements only allow her to visit Te Aroha one day weekly, she does an immense amount of work in the few allotted hours, and contrives quite mysteriously to pay quite a number of visits to homes. Nurse Cox-Smith is meeting with cordial appreciation at our sub-branch, Waihi, and the work there is progressing steadily. We have to thank the Thames Committee for the services of Nurse CoxSmith. Thus we are extremely fortunate in having been able to avoid any actual gap, and we await the arrival of our new resident nurse with patience. To the Mayor and the Borough Council we are deeply indebted, also to the various outside organisations who

have helped: us so materially during the year. From these we have received over £9O, and the. various entertainments and annual street collection organised by the Committee have further augmented our funds and stabilised our financial position. In a few weeks we hope to be installed in the new modern concrete buildings just erected by the Borough Council as a Rest Room, with comfortable accommodation for the Plunket Nurse and her patients. The kindnes of Mr F. Jennings in devoting the entire proceeds of his recent pupils’ concert at Manawaru to our Society enables the committee to furnish and equip the two rooms generously allotted to us by the Borough Council.

We then go forward to another year under most favourable conditions, and we trust that our own efforts will not slacken or fall short because of the support we receive from others.

We add a word of special acknowledgement to our honorary auditor, Mr Samuel, for his ready help and advice, and '.the president takes this opportunity of expressing her keen appreciation of the loyal help and efficiency'of the Committee, with special reference to Mrs Nicholls, the secretary, and to Mrs McGirr, the treasurer.

A compilation of the Nurses’ Monthly Reports show that considerably over 2000 visits have been paid to the rooms by mothers and babies, as against 1798 for the previous year. Approximately 100 visits to homes have been made by nurses. The Waihi subbranch, which was inaugurated in November, 1924, shows a total record of 298 visits from mothers with babies or older children, and six visits to homes by nurses. ,

The balance sheet, presented by Mrs McGirr, showed the following items:—

Income: Bank balance, and cash in hand on April Ist, 1924, £57 4/6; annual subscriptions, £9 18/6; donations (including receipts from bazaars, concerts, etc.), £149 5/1; grants from the Government or head office, £8 9/7; sale of books, £5 8/9; sale of milk, sugar of milk and measures, £7 19/8; Waihi branch, £5 9/-; total, £244 2/1. Payments: Nurses salaries, £IOB 18/2; nurses’ travelling expenses, £lO 11/8; rent, cleaning, lighting and fuel, £2 10/-; printing, etc., £8 6/1; bank charges, £l4; purchase of books, £4 18/6; purchase of sugar of milk, etc., £ll 1/10; other expenditure, £8 3/3; cash in hand or in bank, £4l 18/7; total, £224 2/1. Other expenditure, furniture purchased, freights, cartage and petty expenses, £8 3/3.

Statement of affairs as at 31st March, 1925: Cash in hand or in bank £9 18/7, owing to branch £ll. 8/8, office equipment £lO, other assets £3 5/-, total £ll6 12/3.

Mrs Gordon read two letters, one from Nurse Glasgow received on February 17th tendering her resignation, and another from the Te Aroha Borough Council offering the Society two rooms in' the Rest Room building in order that the invaluable work the Society was doing might be better carried out.

Commenting on the report and balance sheet, Mrs Gordon said the. item “rent” was for the hire of-halls used for entertainments in aid of the Society. They paid no rent for the Plunket rooms, which with lighting, etc., had been granted free by the Borough Council. They may be aware that the Rest Room was opened that day, but owing to the walls not being quite dry it had not yet been furnished. Mrs Gordon mentioned that in all business matters the branch was under the control of the Central Council, which had received a copy of the report and balance sheet.

The Mayor, who was then asked to speak, thanked the Society for the kind invitation he and the members of the Borough Council had received to attend the meeting. He did not know why Councillors were not there. Probably they could make excuses satisfactory to themselves, though not to anyone else. He was sure that if they came to a Plunket meeting once they would come again. There was nothing very terrible to face. He was very pleased to represent the Council and if others were not present from that body he was sure it was not from lack of interest in the Society. Whenever any proposal came before the Council affecting the welfare of the Plunket Society they were always unanimous. They recognised the great work the Society was doing. While the Council could not erect suitable premises for the Society, they had been anxious to help and they were glad to make an arrangement by which the Society could have the use of part of the Rest Room. The question of the legality of their action had been raised, but if there was any risk

they were prepared to take it, but he was sure no one would condemn what had been done, and he was satisfied that they had acted rightly. He He had brought the keys to the rooms set apart for the Plunket Society, and was pleased to hand them over to Mrs Gordon. He trusted the Society would be able to- use the rooms advantageously, and that they would find the new premises of material assistance to them. It was idle for him to talk about the good work of the Plunket Society. It was something that everybody was familiar with, but he would like to express his apipre-, ciation of what had been done and offer his good wishes for the future success of the Society.

Mrs Gordon, in thanking His Worship, said the Society would not be in the happy position it /was in today if it were not for the Mayor and Borough Councillors. She was proud of her colleagues on the Council, who had done more for the women and children than any other Council. She had expressed her gratitude to them so often that anything further was mere tantology. It may Tiave been noticed that her name was on the tablet on the Rest Room. She felt a little diffident about that. It was the Deputy-Mayor who first brought the matter of a Rest Room up in the Council. The Mayor’s name should come first, and then the Deputy-May-or. She would have been quite content to have come third and she wished it to be understood that the tablet did not imply any personal credit to herself. She sometimes got credit just as she got blame when she did not deserve it. The Mayor thought it right and proper that as the representative of the women,, of Te Aroha on the Borough Council her name should be on the -tablet.,. They could regard it as a recognition of the fs2t that for four years she had represented the women on the Council. It was really a tribute to the women of Te Aroha and not to herself personally. The old antagonism to women on public bodies was passing away and now men and women were co-operating and working together for the good of the race. She was glad to have her name on the tablet simply * because it was a recognition of women. She desired once more to express to the Mayor and Council her gratitude for the way they had helped her during the past four years on the Council. .No proposal on behalf of the Plunket Society had ever been turned down. The Society had also had the support of the Borough staff, valuable h?lp having been given by Messrs -Pilkington and Dalton. Dr Gordon spoke a few words. He was pleased, he said, as a medical man, to certify to the good work done by the Plunket Society. He hardly ever saw a sick infant now, though cases of that kind often claimed the atention of medical men before thq Society commenced its work. He would like to express his appreciation of the valuable work the Society and Nurse Underwood had done.

Mr Nicholls said that though a member of the advisory board, the office had been almost a sinecure. His duties mainly consisted of posting and delivering correspondence for the secretary. They had some difficulties to contend, with during the year, but he was glad that these were now over. He wished the Society all that was best for the coming year.