APPEAL SUPPORTED

Wairarapa Times-Age, 15 May 1939, Page 5

APPEAL SUPPORTED

ENDORSED BY MINISTERS & OTHERS PREMIER PAYS TRIBUTE TO SIR TRUBY KING. OUTSTANDING SERVICE TO HUMANITY. “I am very glad,” the Prime Minister (the Rt Hon M. J. Savage) observes in the course of a statement, “to associate myself with the appeal for a National Memorial to Sir Truby King. Few men have been more deserving of honour and remembrance. Today is the anniversary of the founding of the Royal New' Zealand Society for the Health of Women and Children —-now known as the Plunket Society. Its work is a household word.

“Sir Truby King was a most extraordinary man, possessing genius, dynamic energy and enthusiasm. Moreover, he had the rare quality of being able to communicate to others his own unbounded enthusiasm, with the result that the movement he founded and fostered rapidly expanded. He was blind to obstacles that would have deterred lesser men. Misunderstanding and opposition only acted as a spur to further efforts. Nothing was allowed to stand in the way of the cause to which he devoted his life. And no one can say today that the end he served did not justify all means. The memory of Sir Truby King is honoured not only by his fellow-countrymen but by humanitarian movements the world over. “A man who can justly claim to have reduced the death rate among infants in this country to the lowest in the world deserves the greatest honour and respect. Every New Zealander knows the bare fact of Sir Truby King’s achievement —how he set out to save the wastage in infant life by education in motherhood, by introducing methods of feeding in accordance with the fundamental laws of nutrition and not least of all by founding the Plunket Society.

“As a result of all these efforts the infant mortality rate in New Zealand dropped from nearly 89 per 1000 in the year the Plunket Society was founded to round about 32 per 1000 at the present day—the lowest in the world.

“No greater tribute could have been paid to Sir Truby King and to his country than the widespread adoption of Truby King teaching and methods throughout the world. He was indeed a true benefactor of mankind. And it is pleasing to reflect that the men of world renown that this young country has produced should be honoured for their contributions to the constructive cause of science. We would be failing in our duty as patriots in the true sense of the term if we did not give all honour to those who have served their country in so outstanding a manner. “I trust, therefore, that the appeal which is being sponsored by the Plunket Society for so worthy an object will meet with wide and generous public support. On behalf of the Government I wish to express my warm approval pf the appeal.”

GREAT FORCE FOR GOOD

INSPIRED LEADERSHIP & GUIDANCE. HEALTH MINISTER URGES GENEROUS RESPONSE. “I deem it a privilege on behalf of the Government to express its wholehearted support of this appeal to establish a suitable and lasting memorial to the great founder o' the Plunket. Society, the late Sir Truby King,” states the Minister of Public Health (the Hon P. Fraser). “There is no doubht that human progress marches only where the needs of the mother and child receive proper consideration and where it is realised that they are entitled to the best that medical science and nursing care can provide. The inspired leadership and guidance of the late Sir Truby King in founding the Plunket Society has been a great force in this direction. The results achieved through his work are seen in the saving of the lives of thousands of infants and placing them on the highroad leading to healthy life. They signify also better maternal health and so less sorrow and more happiness.

“So it must follow that such outstanding humanitarian service for the protection of infants and maternal life and health should where possible be extended and supported. “I sincerely trust therefore that the people of the Dominion will most generously respond to this worthy appeal, for funds to perpetuate the memory of one of New Zealand’s greatest sons.”

DEBT OF GRATITUDE SIR TRUBY KING’S SPLENDID ACHIEVEMENT. FINANCE MINISTER SECONDS APPEAL. “There could be no appeal more worthy of the support of the citizen? of this Dominion than that now being launched in connection with a national memorial to the late Sir Truby King.” says the Minister of Finance (the Hon W. Nash). “New Zealanders may justly feel proud of their country’s record of social progress and humanitarian endeavour. They have good reason, therefore, to welcome the opportunity of expressing in some fitting manner, the magnificent personal contribution made by Sir Truby King during his lifetime towards this progress. “Since its foundation by Sir Truby and Lady King 32 years ago, the Plunket Society in New Zealand has achieved wonderful results. The proud position which New Zealand has for long enjoyed as the country with the world’s lowest rate of infant mortality, is due in no small measure to that devotion to an ideal for which the name, Sir Truby King, will always be remembered. It is hard to realise that those principles of mothercraft today so well-established, were, not very long ago, so little understood. For his work in establishing and, above all, in teaching those principles, Sir Truby has earned the gratitude of countless thousands of New Zealand mothers. “Sir ’Truby brought not only idealism to his work and a sympathy for and understanding of the problems of motherhood; he possessed also an immense enthusiasm and an organising

genius which helped so much to build the Plunket Society into the fine organisation it is today. It may truly be said that as a result of his efforts, he helped to build a nation. “In the Plunket Society itself and the work it is doing so successfully, Sir Truby has left behind him a monument of which any man might be justly proud. It is fitting that the National Memorial Appeal that has now been launched should have as one of its main objects the strengthening and extension of the work of the society. I hope that all citizens will respond generously in recognition of the very great debt which this country in particular and humanity generally, owe to the late Sir Truby King."

“LEAST WE CAN DO”

WORK CARRIED ON NOBLY. OPPOSITION LEADER’S TRIBUTE. “Few people in New Zealand, if any, have earned the sympathetic consideration of the public as has Sir Truby King,” the Hon A Hamilton, Leader of the Opposition, declares in a statement supporting the appeal. “To honour his work in the form of a National Memorial is the least a grateful community can do to show their appreciation for his great services to infant life not only in New Zealand but throughout the world. “Although he was primarily a professional man of medical science, he was able to apply his scientific knowledge in a wider and wonderfully practical manner. He also had the valuable faculty of claiming the attention and support of able business associates. He was not only successful in the practical application of, his medical science to infant life, but before his death he was also able to see his work so well established as a business that its fruitful results would continue long after he as the founder was gone.

“Memorials that remind us of men of this type are an inspiration to us all, but especially to men of science to apply their knowledge to solve practical human needs.

“My message would not be complete without a word about the Plunket Society which Sir Truby founded and which is being carried on so nobly and so successfully today. The wonderful voluntary work ,that is being performed by our public-spirited womenfolk in carrying on the work of the Plunket Society is abundant evidence 'of the sincerity of the cause for which this appeal is being made. “I trust that the appeal will meet with a generous response and that the effort will be richly rewarded.”

“A TRUE ECONOMIST” STATEMENT BY MEMBER FOR MASTERTON. “When one looks round the world today.” said the member for Masterton, Mr J. Robertson, in heartily commending the Truby King Memorial appeal, “and notices the names of the distinguished of the earth which figure most in the headlines of the world’s Press, the more we can feel that we in New Zealand honour ourselves in doing honour to the memory of the work and life of Sir Truby King. The powers of the earth shower honours on those who have achieved fame in forms of service which unhappily involve the destruction of life, material and spiritual. and which in the long view of things seldom contribute anything to the real welfare of humankind. Sir Truby King’s work stands out in splendid contrast. The prevention of disease, the building up of national health, the saving of infant lives and the elimination of unfitness at its source are work that, judged by any human standards, is worthy of the greatest honours that humankind can bestow. “New Zealand has reason to be proud of such a man. and still more so that he is one of us. Sir Truby King was a true economist who recognised that the true wealth of a nation is in the health and happiness of its people. Monuments to his work are all around us, but it is well that we should set' up a tangible appreciation of that work so that future generations may see and learn something of the man who laid the foundations and pioneered the work of the world-famed Plunket Society of New Zealand.”