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Dominion status proclamation, 1907

Prime Minister Sir Joseph Ward stands on the steps of Parliament Buildings, Wellington, and reads his 'message to the people of New Zealand' at the official ceremony to proclaim New Zealand a dominion on 26 September 1907. The governor, Lord Plunket, stands to the right of Ward.

Alexander Turnbull Library,
Reference: 1/1-008649-G,
Further information and copies of this image may be obtained from the Library through its Timeframes website.
Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Matauranga o Aotearoa must be obtained before any reuse of this image.

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Plunket Society formed

The Society for the Promotion of the Health of Women and Children was founded at a meeting in the Dunedin Town Hall. It came to be known as the Plunket Society after its first patron, Lady Victoria Plunket, the wife of the governor.

The impetus for a society that would ‘help the mothers and save the babies’ came from Dr Frederic Truby King. In March 1907, while on the staff of the Mental Hospital at Seacliff, north of Dunedin, he contributed an article on child welfare to the Otago Daily Times. He believed that scientifically formulated doctrines on nutrition and infant care were the key to the future health of the nation. More immediately, they would help reduce the death rate among babies and children, which seemed to be escalating.

Later that year the Karitane Home for Babies opened in Dunedin. The first patients were tiny malnourished infants who had been gathered up by Truby King and his team and cared for at the Kings’ cottage in Karitane, near Seacliff. Six Karitane Hospitals were established to supplement home and clinic visits. These operated both as training bases for Karitane Nurses and as care units for babies who were failing to thrive. Dunedin’s Karitane-Harris Hospital became the sole training centre for Plunket Nurses.

By 1909 branches of the Plunket Society had been formed in each of the four main centres. In 1912, after a lecture tour by King, a further 60 branches were formed, each employing a Plunket Nurse.

Mothers were educated in practices of ‘domestic hygiene’ and ‘mothercraft’ that were based on King’s ideology, which stressed regularity of feeding, sleeping and bowel habits. The Plunket philosophy became parenting lore in New Zealand, and within three decades it was credited with giving this country the lowest infant mortality rate in the world.

Following his death in Wellington on 10 February 1938, King became New Zealand’s first private citizen to be honoured with a state funeral.

See 'Born in New Zealand', a 1958 National Film Unit documentary about the Plunket Society from the Archives NZ YouTube channel:

Governor Lord Plunket opening Parliament

Lord Plunket, the governor, arrives outside Parliament House to open Parliament, 27 June 1905. The guard of honour can be seen in the background.

Auckland Weekly News, 6 July 1905

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Plunket nurse weighing a baby

A nurse weighing a baby at the Waterloo Plunket Rooms in the 1950s.

Despite the significant differences between Māori and Pākehā, and between urban and rural New Zealanders, most children and their parents received the benefits of extensive social services. Most would meet a Plunket nurse, either in their own homes or in purpose-built Plunket Rooms such as this one in the Hutt Valley suburb of Waterloo. Weighing babies and toddlers was part of a Plunket ritual: the society’s founder, Frederic Truby King, had seen weight gain in babies as a measure of the success of the organisation.

Credit:

Archives New Zealand/Te Rua Mahara o te Kawanatanga
Ref: Weighing baby, Waterloo Plunket Rooms, 1950s. AALF 6112, 23/1/23, 827, Box 2

Permission of Archives New Zealand/Te Rua Mahara o te Kawanatanga must be obtained before any reuse of this image.

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Taradale Plunket Rooms war memorial

Taradale Plunket Rooms war memorial.

For more images and further information on this memorial visit the Napier City Council website.

Images: Napier City Council

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