TEACHERS'SALARIES.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 340, 29 October 1908, Page 8

TEACHERS'SALARIES.

THE NEW SCALE, MR. MASSEY'S INTERPRETATION OF THE ACT. • HON. G. FOWLDS INTERVIEWED. Mr'. XV. F. Massey, Leader of the Opposition, arrived in town by the Napier-Welling-ton express train last night, and loft for tho south by the Maori shortly after. In teply to a question by a Dominion reporter , is to his interpretation of the salaries provisions of the Education Act Amendment Bill when before the House, Mr. Massey said that-he had no other impression in his mind but that' those teachers whose present salaries were below the minimum of the new scalo would be raised to that minimum on January 1. There was nothing in the text of the clauso in question that suggested, any other intention on the of the Minister. Was this the general impression among Inembers,. Mr.-Massey? "Yes, most certainly. Had any other interpretation been possible, it would have been commented upon." , A meeting of the Executive Commitee of the New Zealand Educational Institute was held yesterday afternoon, when the position was fully discussed, and a course of action decided upon. It was decided that the proceedings' should be kept private for the present. • A point worthy of note was made by one of the city teachers yesterday. "It seems to mo," said he, "that it would have been much more just to have' raised all teachers who are below the minimum to the. minimum at once, and held back—for such period as cor- \ responded to the difference, in annual £5 increments, between the minimum and- any salary over the-minimum—all those teachers who were over' the minimum. That is to Bay, if a man were £10 over the minimum of his position, in the new grade, further * should ■ be withheld for two , years."

STATEMENT BY THE MINISTER. "AT CROSS PURPOSES." (BY TELEGRAPH—PRESS ASSOCIATION.! Auckland, October 28: Interviewed to-day upon the subject of the controversy which has arisen regarding the effect of the Education Act amendments upon the salaries below tho minimum, the ' Hon. Geo. Fowlds, : Minister for Education, said it seemed to him that in some respects the newspapers and the Department had been at cross purposes regarding the operation of- the new scale of teachers' salaries. Mr. Massey's utterances upon the subject he .'regarded as simply intended for political purposes. Dealing' first with tho subject of the smaller oack-blocks schools,; with attendances ranging from nine to fifteen, the Minister pointed out,that hitherto the teachers in these schools had not been provided with a fiied salary. ! ;From the beginning of the year, however,-they would be graded. Formerly they were not graded, and the teacher was paid upon a capitation basis. With the Beginning of the year, these'schools would be included in the first grade, and the teachers would start with tho minimum salary of £90 provided for in the new Act. Similarly, schools of from 16 to 20 pupils pre-, vicusly in grado one would be raised to grade two, and the minimum salary for that position would be paid. That, the Minister declared, was. his. construction of the Act. 6»j also in the case of 26 to 32 pupils there would be a rise in the grade, and tho salaries would'begin at £130.

The difficulty that seems to have arisen in the'minds of teachers was the result of. confusing these .cases where no alteration ,had taken place in tho grade of the school. In such cases: the salaries would bo increased by £5 per year where they are below the amount fixed for the position. Ultimately, in reducing the number from 30 to 10. Inorder to secure regular and systematic, promotion and increase in teachers' salaries, it was,' Mr. Fowlds-points out, quite unavoidable that some apparent anomalies should be found in making'the. change. The least 'anomaly, however, was in making sure that each teacher would receive, an increase £S per year until the maximum salary provided'for the position was reached. "The legal interpretation' of the Act is not a matter for me to decide," continued the Minister. "That will be gone into by the Crown law, officers, and whatever the law provides will be! given effect to. The intention is that, in every case where,,no alteration is madq, in the grade of the school any salary, which is less than either the minimum or ,the maximum shall be increased by £5 per;year'until the maximum is reached.' That was made 'perfectly clear in evidence, given before the Education'Comtnittee also in the House of Representatives." THE INTENTION OF PARLIAMENT. TELEGRAPH—PiESS: ASJJCUTIOS.J Dunedin, October 27. Several local Parliamentarians are of opinion that the Education A,ct is defective and will' require' to be amended in order to make it clear that the intention of Parliament was that present teachers' salaries should start as from the beginning of tho year at tho minimum salary of the grade in which they were placed. They/are very emphatic in stating that Parliament never intended to ■ penalise old teachers.' ,