THE PLUNKET SOCIETY.

Thames Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 17971, 21 August 1930, Page 4

THE PLUNKET SOCIETY.

The Plunket Society has been hit by the Government’s scheme of economy, as it is proposed to reduce the annual grant towards the salaries of the nurses. This decision has naturally created much surprise and indignation. The Plunket Society, as the Mayor of Wellington remarked, should be the last to suffer in the Government’s search for savings. The work of the Society is carried on by purely voluntary action, and it becomes necessary to raise money by various devices. The onus of providing almost the whole of the nurses’ salaries has been thrown upon the Society and when a deputation waited on the Prime Minister and the Minister of Health, Mr Forbes stated that “the whole question was one of finance.” He held out, however, some hope that the proposed reduction would be restored on the Supplementary Estimates. But what amazes the public is that the Government should have ever contemplated retrenchment in this direction, in view of the practical humanitarian work which the Society is doing. This is shown in the wonderfully progressive saving of infant life, and its immense value to the State. Rather the Society could have expected a small increase in the grant rather than a reduction. The representations which have been made to the Prime Minister may have the effect of getting the original amount restored, or at least, the reduction made lighter than at first proposed.