PLUNKET SOCIETY

Waikato Times, Volume 122, Issue 20491, 6 May 1938, Page 6

PLUNKET SOCIETY

MORE MEMBERS NEEDED DOMINION-WIDE APPEAL CAMPAIGN OPENS TO-MORROW A Dominion-wide appeal for more subscribing members to Hie Plunket Society will be made next week throughout New Zealand and the campaign will be opened to-morrow by a broadcast by Viscountess Gallwav from station IYA at 9.5 p.m. The campaign to secure subscribing members is more particularly among mothers and fathers of children who are benefiting from the society’s work. Founder's Day will be celebrated next Saturday, May 14, when 31 years of useful work will have been accomplished. Ever since its foundation by the late Sir Trubv King the society has kept to the principle laid down by the founder, that no charge is made for the services given by Plunket nurses to mothers and children. Many mothers make contributions unasked, but the sum received is only a small fraction of the total income. To maintain its work the Plunket Society is dependent on subscriptions from public-spirited people, most of whom are not beneficiaries; from street collections and from a Government subsidy which suffices to pay one-third of the nurses' salaries. In Hamilton alone the cost of th© maintenance of the service amounts to £43 per month. For the lives saved and the benefit to human health and happiness this is a very small sum. Special broadcasts from the YA stations will be given throughout next week, the speakers including the Dominion president of the society, Mrs James Begg, Miss Mary King, Mrs Cecil Wood and Mrs J. C. Allen, of the Auckland branch, who will speak on Founder’s Day.