SECONDARY SCHOOL TEACHERS' CLAIMS

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 228, 20 June 1919, Page 8

SECONDARY SCHOOL TEACHERS' CLAIMS

Sir—While we secondary teachers feel grateful to you for devoting not only a large amount of space in your columns to our recent pamphlet, "The btatus and Pay of the Secondary Teacher in Now Zealand," but also for giving our demands a prominent place in a subleader, I feel' constrained to point out that you have "damned" our efforts "with" faint praise." You say that we undoubtedly, deserve a substantial increase in remuneration, although the sum ,of .£54,000. which we ask for, seems a. 'large sum to divide up among 323 teachers; and that we must not be surprised if we do not get what we ask for. The number should be 349; but that is neither here nor there. It is your statement that the amount is too large, and the would-be participants too few that I take exception to. My own opinion is that, in this particular case, the num. her oi teachers and the amount _of money asked for, have, paradoxical tnoiigh it mav seem nothing to do with each other. "Take an extreme but possible example; Suppose there are ten men in New Zealand each in the receipt of .£l5O per year, but-who are worth £350 per year; would it be fair to advance the argument that .82000 is too lar»o a sum for ten men? And yet the proportion of 34!) to 54i000 is not nearly as alarming. After all, comparison of figures as quoted above has nothing to do with the case. The facts are simply these: You have in this country a body of men nud women who demand tlw status of professional men and women. They are so in name, but not so in rermiiierarron. The {act Unit this body is numerically °mall constitutes its chief weakness, for it is thus a negligible quantity in the game of politics. A largo organisation like the N.Z.E.T., which numbers ils members Iv thousands, can get what, itwants. Why? Because it is recognised as a great political factor; because even in the remote country districts the opinion of the schoolmaster in politics conies to be the opinion of the community round the school-house.

Now. we want this question of our own status and pay to be settled apart from politics. It remains to 1m seen whether our appeal has struck the right note in the Cabinet, and among members of Parliament. We have to all intents and purposes asked them these questions: "Do vou consider that the sum of ,£lO3 for women and ,S2SI for. men is a sufficient sum, on the average, for professional men and women?"

"Do you consider that the sum of Xiflfl as the average minimum and £550 the average maximum for men an excessive rates of remuneration for professional men and women?"

i We hope that Parliament will return an emphatic No! to both questions; and, further, that the present Minister of Education will free himself from the shackles of precedent, and earn the gratitude of the whole- State, secondary teachers included, by giving us exactly vh»t we want, no more and no less than

■a what ire- have asked for in our receni 'publication.—l am, etc., F. MARTYN KENNER, Hon. Sec. N.Z.S.S.A.A.