COUNTY MAKES GRANT OF £20

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 84, Issue 190, 14 August 1940, Page 8

COUNTY MAKES GRANT OF £20

VALUE OF WORK FOR THE YOUNG After hearing a deputation from the Patea branch of the Plunket Society yesterday, the Patea County Council decided to make a grant of £2O to the funds of'the society. Mesdames R. W. Haddow and G. Honeyfield and Mr. G. Pettigrew waited on the council. “It is appalling to think of the, amount of cadging the women of the Plunket Society have to do,” said Mr. Pettigrew, in stressing the importance of their work. “The richness or poorness of a nation is judged by the number of children it has, and the declining birth-rate in the British Empire was to be deplored. France was another country with a declining birth-rate. Germany had a high birth-rate and there was even a premium for every child born out of wedlock. The state there cared for it and educated it and it became an asset to the nation. He considered that the Plunket Society should be given every encouragement in its important work. Mrs. Haddow said it was difficult to raise money by public effort in these days and the society had decided to approach the council for a donation. They had recently purchased a car and this was furthering the work by making contact with mothers in outlying centres and it had proved a great boon. Contacts had been made

up as far as the Waitotara Valley Road by the nurse, who was accomplishing much good. After the deputation withdrew the council made its grant.