The Waikato Independent THURSDAY, MARCH 20, 1930. PLUNKET AND REST ROOM.

Waikato Independent, Volume XXX, Issue 2313, 20 March 1930, Page 4

The Waikato Independent THURSDAY, MARCH 20, 1930. PLUNKET AND REST ROOM.

In community and municipal progress the district of Cambridge advances another step forward to-day with the opening of the new Plunket and Rest Rooms, the tangible result of a community endeavour held in the shape of a Queen Carnival some fifteen months ago. The new structure has been designed and built to serve a dual purpose, each phase of such being of outstanding importance to the entire district. In the provision of an up-to-da!te -rest room a long-felt district want has been provided, and Cambridge can now claim to rank alongside other progressive towns in the Dominion in this connection. It is essential that a town like Cambridge, which is the shopping centre of a wide area, should have such a facility, .and now that it is provided we feel certain it will be appreciated and more especially by country folk and visitors. Perhaps of even greater importance to the district is the provision of up-to-date accommodation and facilities to enable the local Plunket Society and its officers and nurses to pursue their humanitarian work —a work that has been the means of saving many young lives and which has materially helped to gain for this Dominion the enviable record of having the lowest rate of infant mortality in the world to-day. The Plunket Society throughout the Dominion, and equally so in the Cambridge district, is doing a great work in the protection of young life, and safeguarding the health of the mothers, and our encouragement cannot be too generous. When it is appreciated that the local society practically stands on its own feet in the matter of financial maintenance —the Government only subsidising the employment of nurses —it will be seen that great work has been done, and that the local society has been able .to carry on all these years speaks volumes for the Efforts of those actively associated. That the district public was not backward in appreciating all that has been done by the local society was demonstrated by the splendid response to the Queen Cai-nival effort, when £I3OO was raised in the course of a few weeks. Of the total amount about £IOOO has gone into the building, the balance being placed to the credit of the Plunket Society, and it is safe to say that this money has been invested where the greatest return from it will bo obtained. Although for years the local Plunket Society made an annual appeal, the executive found it at times difficult to carry on, but the result of the Carnival has been of great encouragement, and realising that the public had generously responded, the society has not made the customary appeal during the past two years. New Zealand owes a deep debt to the activities of the Royal New Zealand Society for the Health of Women and Children—better known as the Plunket Society. Founded at Dunedin in 1907 by Sir Truby King—whose name is now a household one throughout the Dominion homes—the society has since extended its system throughout New Zealand and its practical methods are being adopted to an ever-increasing extent in other countries. Some idea of the great work that is being performed by the Plunket and othcrjkindred societies in the Dominion is gained from statistics,'which in every case are favourable to this country as compared with other parts of the world. For instance/ for the period 1923-27 deaths, of iqfants under one year old in New Zealand were 40 per 1000 births, as compared w-ith 56 in Australia and Norway, 70 in the Irish Free State; 71 in South Africa; 72 in England and Wales; 74 in the United States; 82 in Northern Ireland; 90 in Scotland and France, and 98 in Canada. Going back to the 1921-24 quinquennium the infant mortality under one year per 1000 births ranged from 100 in Belgium to 265 in

Chile. The work of the welfare societies in this Dominion is even more pronounced when the infant mortality statistics are reviewed over the period 1918-27. In 1918 the percentage was 48.41, but by the year 1924 it had fallen to 40.23. With increased activities the drop in the rate of mortality continued, the percentage being 35.74 in 1927 and in 1928-29 it was 36.4. The rate for the last year mentioned is the lowest ever recorded, not only for the total births but for the individual sexes. What is still more encouraging is that the pronounced fall in the Dominion's infant mortality during the last two decades.has not been accompanied by an increase in the death of children between the ages of one and ten years. There has, on the contrary, been a substantial fall, and this is a clear indication that the educational methods adopted and practised by the Plunket and other societies are having a lasting benefit. We take this opportunity of congratulating the residents of the district on the up-to-date public facilities which are being officially opened to-day, and we feel confident that no one will ever regret the expenditure that has been entailed.