SCHOOL TEACHERS' PAY

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2280, 14 October 1914, Page 9

SCHOOL TEACHERS' PAY

DEPUTATION TO THE MINISTER. A deputation of Wellington school teachers waited on the Minister of Education (the Hon. J. Allen) yesterday morning and suggested alterations to the provisions for salaries in the Education Amendment Bill. The Hon. A. L. Herdman, the Hon. F. M. B. Fisher, Sir Walter'Buchanan, M.P., and Mr. D. Guthrie, M.P., accompanied the deputation. The first speaker was Mr. G. M'Morran who said that the lack of provision for transfer expenses was unsatisfactory. .: Mr. H. A. Parkinson, a member of the Teachers' Institute, urged the Minister to consider the proposal to reduce the number of education districts to four or fire. He asked, too, that the minimum salary should be increased from £100 to £110. Married assistants should receive half house allowance. Headmasters of district ' high scliools were not provided for with sufficient salary. . Miss Helyer urged that there should be more separate schools for girls, and that more provision should be made to have girls in the higher standards taught by women. . r ■• The representative of the AssistantMasters' Association, Mr, E. C. Blake, said that the salaries of assistants were iri many cases too- small to permit of the teachers bringing up their families in any degreo of comfort. He urged that married assistants should receive house allowance. The Minister, replying, pointed out that there were .limits to the amount of money which could be speht on improvino: the conditions of Uie teachers. T,he Bill would involve considerable increased expenditure on the profession, and while ho thought that the country would not cavil at the provision, ho considered that it was wise not. to make the demands so heavy that tho country would turn against them. .Ho could not.hold out any hope of equal salaries for men and women. It was almost impossible to have a Dominion scale of grading, but provision had been made for the taking over of inspectors by the Department, and the intention was to provide Dominion grading and a Dominion scale of salaries. Ho went on to say that the work of a teacher must be considered not as the work of a day, but as the work-of a lifetimo, and it must be. remembered that women retired on superannuation several -ears, sooner than men did. Hbwevor, women had ".received grfiafc consideration under the. Bill, and had been granted almost everything they had asked for: Moreover, a man. had his wife and children to provide , for. A very great . improvement had been made in to separate girls' schools, which would have their position as regarded pay improved. liTlio superannuation question could not be dealt with this year.' He was willing to\ reduce the number of education districts to four, if Parliament was agreeable. In time, ho thought, the education districts would be co-terminous with the 'university districts. He was in favour of giving an extra: allowance to married teachers, and he was not sure that, they would not have to adopt a I system of house allowance throughout tho Public Service. If it was possible to do anything, in this matter, he would, be glad to do it, but it was a question which" needed considerable working out. . ■.