TEACHERS’ INSTITUTE

Gisborne Times, Volume XXIII, Issue 1821, 30 July 1906, Page 2

TEACHERS’ INSTITUTE

THE HARDSHIPS OF BACK-BLOCK TEACHERS. PRESS ASSOCIATION

New Plymouth, last nighi

The lot of back block teachers at Taranaki is at present a most unenviable one, Owing to the terrible state of the roads it

is unsafe in many cases to send children to school. In consequence teachers’ salaries are suffering severely. To cite a case a teacher accepted a position as sole teacher at Wangaroa. He was advised that the salary was £9O. During three months tho salary only averaged at the rate of sixtys-ix pounds per annum. At present in that district, as in numerous other isolated quarters, living is exorbitantly high on account of carriage. The four pound loaf is ten pence, kerosene, 15s per case ; flour, 16s 6d per cwt, and so on. Dealing with the above and other cases, the Teachers’. Institute yesterday resolved to ask the Minister for Education to amend the scale of salaries, so that no certificated teacher in sole charge receives less than £llO per annum.

It was also resolved to ask tliat the Supcrrannuation Act he amended so that sixties be obtainable for back service ; that the Minister be asked to frame a uniform set of holidays through-out the Colony, so that all districts should have an equal amount of vacation, and that the Minister of Railways be asked to make concessions in fares to school teachers visiting Christchurch Exhibition,