THE PAY OF TEACHERS.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1847, 5 September 1913, Page 3

THE PAY OF TEACHERS.

STRONG PROTEST. I ]' \ b TO MINISTER OF EDUCATION. t c c Grievances as to the superannuation j and salaries of teachers were explained c yesterday in fairly forcible diction beforo 1 the Hon. James Alien, Minister for Edu- c cation, by a deputation from the Secon- j dary School Teachers' Association, J which body was holding its annual conferonce at Wellington. The deputation was introduced by Sir William .Russell, , who said that the teachers were anxious j to discuss tho possibility of their being j placed in the saluo position with regard to superannuation as Civil Servants and also tlio question of improved salaries. , Teaching Strain and Superannuation. 1 Mr A. 0. Gilford, M. A. (Wellington Co l - < lege) dealt first with tho question of ( superannuation, and contended that , teachers ought to be treated in that re- ; spect better than Civil Servants, as the j latter were able to continue their highly- , paid work right to tho end, whilst the teachers' work was so strenuous that it becamo of less value perhaps. If, however, tho last three years of the teachcrs' work were tho best,, it would cost nothing to grant superannuation on that basis,' but if not it meant that tho unfortunate ones were being paid , by superannuation, which left such terriblo uncertainty that although they were paying for superannuation all the time they had nothing stored up until 62. What they asked for was that they should be treated the same as Civil Servants. Toachers' Widows. Mr. A. Heine, M.A. (Wellington College), (prosidont. of tho association), ! pointed out the inadequate amount allotted to widows and children, as teachers' salaries were so low that it was impossible to make provision for their ! wives and children, and the secondary . school teacher who broke up might die when ho was fairly young, and tho su- ' perannuation given to his widow ; amounted in 0110 case to only £30 or £40. Something should bo done to mako more, amplo provision for their widows and children. For his own part, ho ' should be quite willing to receive only one-third,-instead of two-thirds, if ample provision was made for his widow in case of his death. ; "Wearisome Crlnd from Day to Day." Mr. G. A. Lundie, M.A. (Palmerston North)., remarked that three weeks ago 1 lie sent the Minister for Education a < fairly lengthy document in which he : drew attention to some of the palpable i griovaiices under which teachers were i labouring. Thoso grievances wore of a twofold nature. They complained that whereas the primary school -teachers kncw--from year to year what their annual increments would be, the secondary i teachers were at the morcy of the boards as to what those increments should be. Tho whole position was an anomalous ■ one. Thero was always a type of people willing ' to take advantago of another by ingratiating himself by unfair means into the good graces of members of the board, so that tliey would get their emoluments increased in a greater proportion to tho others. Thero might not bo many teachers of that kind, but tho Ministor would sco the gross unfairness of their position. Tho second point was that their salaries ] were so grossly inadequate, that they j did not know how to mako ends meet. } Whore teachers were married it was a , wearisome grind from day to day, but on prizo days they were told they, wero ( "the. salt of tho earth," and I'the real ; Sjmon Pures," and it was said that their .work was such that the, nation { could not get on without them. But when tho reverse side of tho shield was shown they had tho scandalous fact that teachors were shamefully and grossly 1 underpaid, and that little was being dono to ameliorate their condition. Teachers wore looking to the Minister for Education as their forlorn hope. ' Tliey know,' however, that ho was being bombarded by people who wanted more money, but tho point ho wished to emphasise was that small amounts of largesse would not meet their claims. There wore dozens of cases in which, if tho teachers' salaries were doubled, only bare justico would be done. The Hardship and the Pay. The sweating of teachers (continued the speaker) had becomo a national . tradition, and he knew of no colony. ; where teachers were paid less. At Pal- - merston North only the headmaster got over £250, an M.Sc., who took tho ad- i ,vanced work, got tho. lordly sum of < £220, and another married man got < £185. True, ho might make more by . teaching private pupils, by taking in boarders, and by working at Tcchni- ' cal School teaching, 20 or 25 hours a ' week. Nervous breakdown must come ; to men who laboured in that way. They i tried to form a union, and took coun- i sol's advice, but discovered that teach,- : ers did not come under the provisions < of the Arbitration Act, and there were ( many reasons why they , did not wish i to come under that. He submitted a : scheme to tho Minister under which they asked for commeucing salaries at £200, to advanco after 20 years' service " to £515. Mr. Lundie then handed to the Minister' a schedule of tho salaries i proposed. It was as follows First year ; masters, £220; mistresses, £180; second ; year, £225-£175; third year, £250- < £210; fourth year, £275-£225; fifth- ; year,, £290-£240; sixth year, £305- " £255; seventh year, £320-£270; eighth year, £335-£280; ninth year, £350£290; tenth ' year, £365-£290. Tho ; scheme also proposed that masters of from ten to twenty years' service should receive annual increments, of £15 until £515 was reached, and mistresses of tho samo term of service £10 yearly ■ until £400 was reached. Extra provision was also made for thoso teachers who were "specialists." It was no mora difficult to take a degree of Bachelor of Law or to qualify as a barrister, than- it was to take a degree at Oxford or Durham, that ontailed three years' hard work, and ho- knew a solicitor who had been in practice at Palmerston North only four months and was making £220 a year, whilst any solicitor or barrister who could hold out for four or five years in a provincial town in New Zealand could mako £200. or £300. a year. Teachers considered that they were professional men, and tliey wanted that question handling in a statesmanlike manner. They asked that lady teachers should begin at £180, and advanco after 20 years' service to £400, though most ladies would get married before they reached that; and that men who had taught three years in the secondary school should, get £250 (women £210), the increments bcini; on a smaller ratio after seven years until tliey reached £515. Thero were very few of them who could bo headmasters, though there wero many excellent and ablo men fit and proper to bo headmasters. In South Africa every teacher was allowed six months' holiday after a certain period of work. The Total Increase Sought. Tho Minister: Havo you made any calculation as to what your proposal would cost? Mr. Lundie replied that tho increases to 'their 200 teachers would cost from £20,000 to £30,000 a year. That would take up a good part of tho money saved by tho Public Service Commissioners, so it would be a case of "robbing Peter to pay Paul." The Minister: They aro increasing salaries by £40,000 though. Mr. Lundie: We hope to receive a "square deal" like the Civil Servants, ! J Mr. F. ilartjn Rennor, M.A, (geore-

tary of tho association), supported what the previous speakers had said, and remarked that though some of them were working under boards where tho conditions wero heaven as compared with other teachers' loyalty to the colleagues led to their appeal. In his capacity as secretary ho went through ji statistics collected 18 months ago when g tliey received 120 confidential reports as to tho salaries and years of service c ol' teachers, and found that only seven ; received over £300 a year, twelve £300, , thirteen between £250 and £300, thirty- i one between £200 and £230, and 57 below £200. With such a state of affairs a one could not wonder that there was a v feeling of dissatisfaction. There should c bo somo classification of salaries throughout tho Dominion. Mr. Renner i then gavo instajices of what ho termed j an extraordinary variation in salaries j at various schools, and, proceeding, said . that £640,000 had been spent on dc- E fence in training 20,000 Territorials,- j equal to £32 a man. ' , , , i Tho Minister: That does not include , senior cadets ; that makes the number j more than 20,000. _ t Mr. Renner (continuing) said that a j certain proportion of that money was due in tho way of salaries to secondary j Bchool teachers, as many of them for years past had been drilling and training some 5000 senior cadets, of which ] duty they were very proud. ( Posltltm of Women Teachers. ( Miss Jacobsen (Auckland) referred 1 to the disparity in the salaries of men i and women teachers, and claimed that > tho teaching profession should receive ] a higher remuneration than any other ] profession open to women. Strenuous ; training was necessary to make a wo- ] man teacher competent, as she could not commence teaching until she was 22 or 23 years old, and brain-power ef- , ficiency should receive recognition. In England, where teachers' salaries were admittedly low, they were higher than ; those in New Zealand, without taking into account the difference in the cost of living, whilst in Now South Wales the salaries were about twico as high. Miss Bing, B.A. (Christchurch) emphasised the fact that many lady teaoh- < ers could not marry because she had to ; undertako the responsibility of supporting her aged parents, and many of them could not give themselves proper comfort and rest because of that responsi- 1 bility. ' Reply to the Points Raised. The Hon. Jainos Allen; in _ reply, said J that one fact occurred to hiih regarding the superannuation proposal. If that were based on the tnree years' highest salaries it might mean going back fifteen or twenty years to assess tho , superannuation. This would mean that during the intervening years coiltributions would bo made on the basis of a smaller salary than was being received previously. Ho would readily admit that inequalities existed with regard to superannuation of secondary school teachers. Public servants wero treated on a different basis, and candidly, he did not think it was fair. There' was no solid reason why there should be any difficulty in fairly adjusting the superannuation as far as the secondary teachers were concerned. It would be wrong to deal with tho matter in a slipshod,way. . Tho whole matter would have to receive very careful consideration. As they wero awaro, ho had been compelled to tako a trip to F,ngland in the interests of tho Dominion, and during tho recess bo had had; no timo to go into these anomalies, but he would give them the assurance that as far as himslef was concerned ho would endeavour to see that inequalities were removed. He fully recognised that tho secondary teachers were underpaid, and as a rsponsiblo Minister, they had his sympathy. Ho had already mado provision for • some of tho teachers in tho district high schools and tho primary schools. Tho points laid before him would liavo his very earnest attention during the recess, and next year legislation would bo brought down dealing with the salaries of tho teachers of primary and secondary schools. "I desire to make your lot better," tho Minister added, "and tho'promise is not an idle one." ' Mr. Lundio: I am afraid I shall have to assure you that we shall ask you to hear us again. The Minister: I shall be pleased to hear you iit any time.