TEACHERS THREATENED.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1267, 24 October 1911, Page 4

TEACHERS THREATENED.

Bather late in the day for effective protest the New Zealand Educational Institute has realised that there is small liiith to be placed in Ministerial promises. Tin; teaching profession claims that its Court of Appeal, constituted by Act of Parliament to hoar argument in cases of dismissal from appointment, thereby extending to teachers a security of tenure which only such a court could provide, should have its powers extended to meet certain circumstances which did not exist when the Teachers' Court of Appeal Act was passed. Last year certain amendments to the Education Act—the exact position, in detail, is set out in another columnplaced within the authority of hoards arbitrary powers of transfer, the' precise significance of which was not fully appreciated at the time. But the actual experience of certain members of the profession since then convinced teachers that, the transfer clauses of the amended Act constitute a serious menace to that security of tenure which the Court of Appeal Act conferred upon them. The position now is that a board may arrange all its appointments by a system of transfer which may involve loss of status and diminished income by certain teachers affected, and against such transfers, whatever disability may attend them, there is no appeal. Again, pursuing the contingency that a board may appoint by transferas already certain boards have done in several instances—the Teachers' Court of Appeal might quite conceivably come to bo regarded as a barren institution. The public will have no difficulty in arriving at the conclusion that the danger which menaces the teachers is a very real one, that nothing but the desired legislation will remove. On the eve of the general election of 1908 the teaching profession, in the very nick of time, suddenly became aware of the fact that its "Ministerial head proposed to deprive its members of something like £30,000, conferred upon them by the special legislation which in that year was framed to improve their status and emoluments. Fortunately the general outcry which was raised at that opportune season warned the Government that the temper of the profession was such that the demands of its members were not to be trifled with —the. Government conceded the, position. It is a singular coincidence that three years later, on the eve of another general election, the teachers of the Dominion should be faced with a danger even greater—the loss of their security of tenure. Both Mr. Fowlds, when Minister for Education, and more recently, the Hox. T. Mackenzie (Acting-Minister for Education), distinctly promised to remedy the matter this session. Now, at the eleventh hour, the Prime Minister says that it cannot be dealt with this session. Perhaps he will condescend to explain his reasons. Some explanation is certainly required.