Plunket Society , Appeal

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLVII, Issue 21504, 17 November 1939, Page 6

Plunket Society , Appeal

IT is New Zealand’s pride that the country has the * lowest infant mortality rate in the world. This is due in part to climate, natural racial vigour and healthy conditions of life created by the absence of densely settled areas, but these factors alone arc not entirely responsible for the preservation of valuable infant lives. Had it not been for the visionary zeal of the late Sir Truby King, founder of the Royal New Zealand Society for the Ileal Hi of Women and Children, the position would not be nearly as satisfactory as it is. The Plunket Society, in the 32 years of its existence, has done incalculable good. Through its labours thousands of children who would otherwise have gone prematurely to their graves have grown instead to healthy maturity. But this is not all. The Plunket Society has been able to lighten the burdens of motherhood in many ways, and to-day there is no excuse for ignorance of pre-natal and antenatal problems. The advice of experts is ever at hand and those who do not wish to pay for a priceless service are not asked to do so. Whatever they give in return is purely a voluntary contribution. An organisation such as the Plunket Society, however, cannot be maintained without money, so appeals have to be made to the public. To-day the Timaru Branch of the Plunket Society will be collecting on the streets and those to whom the appeal is made should have no difficulty in seeing the supreme inerits of the cause to which they will be asked to contribute. Last year Plunket nurses paid nearly 3,000 visits to homes in the Timaru area and visits by mothers and children to the Plunket rooms totalled more than 5,000. These figures show the volume of work which has to be done, and it is work which must be continued. It is impossible for the Plunket Society to reach a stage at which it can be said that there is no room for further progress. There is still need for new advances. From 1928 to 1937 the death rate for infants under one year had been reduced from 36.18 per 1,000 births to 31.21. Further reduction is possible, but that can be made only if the Plunket Society is encouraged to extend and to intensify its work. Every penny contributed by the public to-day will, in the words of the Society’s motto, “help the mothers and save the babies.”