The Bay of Plenty Beacon Published Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. MONDAY, OCTOBER 20, 1941. HELP SAVE WHAKATANE'S BABIES

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 4, Issue 170, 20 October 1941, Page 4

The Bay of Plenty Beacon Published Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. MONDAY, OCTOBER 20, 1941. HELP SAVE WHAKATANE'S BABIES

WITH all due respect to the pressing needs of the war effort, the urgency of the W.W.S.A-,, the Red Cross and other organisations we claim the right to ventilate the dire needs of a duty nearer home. We refer to the languishing* state of the Plunket Society. For many years the affairs of this commendable organisation have been carried on the backs of a willing few. The ranks of the veterans have been thinned for various reasons yet there have been no volunteers coming forward to take their places. Apparently the public views the whole service with a complacency which almost leads one to believe that the average person considers it run and, sustained by the State. This surmise is so far removed from the truth that the remaining members find themselves in such a weakened position as to seriously consider suspending operations altogether unless a greater element of support is forthcoming. Saving the babies^—the slogan initiated by the late Sir Truby King who built up a service which has made this country the envy of the world, is being overlooked in Whakatane. The primary duty of any community is being forgotten, allowed to die for mere want of a little interest. Do bur citizens realise that with this Society lies'the very key to its future prosperity and expansion? How many hundreds of thousands of our citizens today can count themselves indebted to the system whicjh re volutionised the child mortality figures of the Dominion. How many mothers can think back with thankfulness to the time when the services of the Plunket Nurse were at their disposal together with carefully investigated expert adviqe for the care and the nurture of her infant. All this vital work has been going on under our very noses for years, yet so few have known and appreciated it. If the Plunket service in Whakatane should lapse, it will constitute, we understand the first instance in any community where this has taken place. The slur will be upon, the whole town. Now that the position has become better known we are confident that the special meeting called for to-morow afternoon in the Parish Hall will be a record one; that mothers will make a point of qoming to the rescue of the Society which has so long befriended them, and that hundreds of other supporters will become members in order that they may have the privilege of being associated with such a vitally constructive and far-seeing institution.