NOTHING TO HIDE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 30 June 1938, Page 4

NOTHING TO HIDE

METHODS OF THE PLUNKET SOCIETY CHRISTCHURCH PRESIDENT WELCOMES INQUIRY. DENIAL OF UNDUE RIGIDITY. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) CHRISTCHURCH, June 29. Unauthorised use by some mothers of Plunket diets issued to other mothers was given by Mrs J. Cracroft Wilson, president of the Christchurch branch of the Plunket Society, as the cause of “those digestive upsets which bring discredit on the society” in an address at the anual meeting of the branch. Mrs Cracroft Wilson mentioned other cases of mothers not carrying out instructions and still calling their children "Plunket babies.” “The unjustifiable attack which has been made on the society makes it more necessary than ever that all our thousands of Plunket workers should be ready in every possible way to uphold the teaching which for 30 years has brought help to the mothers and babies of this country,” said Mrs Cracroft Wilson. “I am glad to see that the Minister of Health, the Hon. P. Fraser, has spoken of the wonderfully beneficial work of the Plunket Society. It has received world-wide recognition, and it would be regrettable if anything should be done that would detract from its value or lessen confidence in the work for the excellent methods of the society. “We have sometimes been blamed because our methods are too rigid, not elastic enough,” she said. “I think that if people who say that would go to the Plunket rooms they might, think that our methods were too elastic if they could see some mothers not carrying out the nurses’ instructions and yet coming back for weighing and correction of feeding and calling their babies Plunket babies. Babies under doctors' advice and care often come to the rooms and are helped and frequently supplied with gifts of clothing if they are necessitous cases.

“You will see that a commission has been set up to inquire into nutrition. This will come into close touch with the Plunket Society. We welcome a fair inquiry. We have nothing to hide and we put all our cards on the table —the cards being the Plunket nurses’ records, of which there are thousands in the Plunket rooms from one end of New Zealand to the other.”