FOUNDER'S DAY

Waikato Times, Volume 122, Issue 20498, 14 May 1938, Page 16 (Supplement)

FOUNDER'S DAY

PLUNKET SOCIETY APPEAL j D 0 AII NT 0X - WID E EFFORT PRIAIE MINISTER'S MESSAGE It would be difficult to find in New Zealand, or anywhere else indeed, an organisation that has done better work than the Plunket Society. Its earnest efforts have been devoted to the welfare of mothers and children. The fame of the society’s success has gone far beyond the boundaries of the Dominion, and actually has been an inspiration to other countries (says the Prime Alinister, the Hon. M. J. Savage, in a message of appreciation for Founder’s Day, which falls to-day). For many years I was a member of the Auckland Hospital Board and other local bodies in (hat centre, and during that experience I learned a great deal about the services of the Royal New Zealand Society for the Health of Women and Children, which is now known in practically every household as the Plunket Society. It is now 31 years since the society was founded in Dunedin by the late Sir Truby King. The gifted founder has been taken away, but his ardent and beneficial work lives on. Every year since the society’s foundation has added proof of the value and growth of a noble service. For many years New Zealand has had the lowest infant mortality rate in the world, and last year a new low record was created. Afuch of that success is directly attributable to the work and influence of the Plunket Society. On behalf of the Government and myself as Prime Minister, I can assure the Society that it may rely on our sympathetic support and best wishes for the continued success of a splendid movement. I hope that Founder’s Day to-day will bring to the service of the Plunket Society a full measure of public support which is well deserved. Rights of the Mother and Child In the march of human progress the rights of the mother and her child must surely receive first consideration. Both are entitled to the very best that medical science and nursing care can provide (writes the Alinister of Health, the Hon. P. Fraser). I deem it a privilege on the thirtyfirst anniversary of the foundation day of the Royal New Zealand Society for the Health of Women and Children to express my appreciation of the great humanitarian work of this organisation and of the signal success which has attended Its efforts to “help the mothers and save the babies." The society, under the inspired . initial leadership and wise guidance of its distinguished founder, the late Sir Truby King, has with unflagging zeal spread its beneficial influence Into countless homes in our own and other lands. It was in ,1907 that Sir Truby uttered the plea that "a general dif- ! fused knowledge and recognition of infant requirements and maternal dut- ' ies would save the community one life . per diem and would correspondingly increase the strength and vitality of the rising generation.” That year, 1 when the society was Inaugurated. our infant death rate was 88 per 1000 ; live births. To-day the rate in this country stands at the astonishingly low figure of 31 per 1000 live births. ' Such a result speaks for itself. On behalf of the Government it gives me the greatest pleasure to commend to all the aims and objects of this society. I sincerely hope that the appeal now being made to increase the membership will be rewarded with the success it so well merits. 1 Low Mortality Rat© i That New Zealand's Infant mortal- . ity is the lowest in the world is a • record of which we are extremely t proud, and it is with great satisfacs lion that we realise we are the envy • of other countries in this very import- : ant social service (says the message : of the Leader of the Opposition, the ■ Hon- Adam Hamilton). But many of our people are apt to forget that this happy position has i not been attained by chance or happy , circumstances, but is largely due to , the magnificent work accomplished by . the Plunket Society. In practically i every part of our Dominion —in the i cities, in the country towns, and even s in the backblocks —will be found the i local branch of the Plunket Society i complete with its Plunket nurse and t Plunket rooms, ever ready to assist ■ in maintaining the health of our little ' ones. Tr f Further than this, there are Karii tane hospitals equipped to give the f most modern and proved treatment to r infants whose state is so serious that hospital attention is necessary, c There are few men who have done - a greater public service for New Zea- • land than the founder of the Plunket - Society, the late Sir Truby King. His - name 'wilt ever be honoured by the . citizens of this country as one of its 1 greatest philanthropists, and the Plunket Society has every reason to be I justly proud of their founder and his i great work for children. 1 it would be Impossible to estimate 5 the number of healthy young men and - women —to say nothing of growing i boys and girls—who to-day are taking their part in the development of 1 New Zealand and who. but for the advice and skilled attention given by s the “Plunket" in I lac days when they - were very young and, perhaps, sickly i children, would not now be enjoying - their robust health. Perhaps many r of them would not even be with us. i It is with the greatest confidence I that I recommend the society's appeal.