PLUNKET SOCIETY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 16 November 1938, Page 6

PLUNKET SOCIETY

DOMINION CONFERENCE OPENED ADDRESS BY HON. W. NASH. NO NEED TO FEAR FUTURE. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. Opening the Dominion Conference of the Plunket Society, the Hon. W. Nash (Minister of Finance) said he did not know of any Government subsidy which was a better investment than the money found for that body. He apologised for the absence of the Hon. P. Fraser (Minister of Health) but said Mr Fraser would be present at some time during the conlerence. If the Government continued to supply funds to supplement the money raised by the society and the women of New Zealand continued to work as they had done in the past, the society had no need to fear the future. Its appeal was in its achievements. He read a table showing that less than thirty years ago one child in ten died in its early years. Now only three in every hundred died in those years. It was hoped to reduce that figure to one. There was no limit to the work that could be done by the society. The Health Department had still under consideration a further grant to the .Karitane homes and here the work done justified theybest possible consideration. The conference, which is attended by 200 delegates, is the first since the death of Sir F. Truby King. It stood in silence as a heartfelt tribute, made with a deep sense of personal loss. Welcoming the delegates, Mrs Begg said the society faced the future buoyed up by its achievements of the past. Provision through State action of oranges at a penny each for children, and greater attention to balanced diets in boarding schools, are among the subjects of the remits.