FEMALE TEACHERS.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2230, 21 April 1881, Page 2

FEMALE TEACHERS.

There appears to be somewhat of a flush of candidates for teaching appointments in Victoria. Whether the Victorian larrikin is supple and teachable in the earlier stages of its interesting career, and tho work of educating its precocious instincts is a pleasant one, or whether the female part of the population finds generally some difficulty in gaining employment, or whether the sterner sex is falling into the habit of older couutries in the matter of marrying late in life, or whether, finally, the policy of Protection is driving the males out of the country and leaving only females, the fact remains that the appointments for school mistresships are eagerly sought after. And so much is this tho case, that the matter has been brought under the notice of the Legislature. A member of the Victorian Assembly the other day gave notice of his intention to urge upon the Minister of Education tho propriety of making a rule that female teachers should retire from the Government service on marriage. This rule has been adopted in the Victorian Postal Department, and the member considered that its extension to tho Educational Department would be advisable. It is somewhat difficult to understand the principle on which the proposal is based. There is apparently no reason why a married person should not teach as well as a single one. Results aro what the State has to look to, and it appears somewhat hard that it should pry into the personal affairs of its employees. Marriages, especially in the colonies, are often rashly entered into. The contracting parties have little beyond the interesting passion to live on. It is often not only a case of love in a cottage, but the cupboards of the cottage are remarkably bare. Why, then, deprive one of the interested parties of a means Thereby a useful adjunct to the family exchequer might be obtained ? But perhaps it is argued that the State should tako such a stop on moral grounds. The teacher, if she have her heart and soul in her work, is looked upon as married to the State. If askod, she should reply, "My country is my husband." Consequently the obtaining of another husband may be looked upon as a species of bigamy. Now, this journal is a moral journal, and has never uphold the practice of bigamy. It has used its utmost efforts against the crusade of those Mormon elders, who have endeavoured to entice beauties, both fair and dark, into tho fold of their peculiar church. But the mosj moral journal could hardly object to bigamy of the nature alluded to above. Tho union of a young lady with the State must of necessity be of so transcendental and ethereal a nature that we confess to being unable to completely grasp the idea. That singular young man who, as ancient legends tell us, fell in love with his own shadow, would by most people be considered a hard and practical business person in comparison to the young lady who could fall in love with the State or even the Education Department. That peculiarly English proverb that asserts that the more a wife is beaten the more she loves the beater, could hardly be stretched so far as to include 10 per cent, reductions and the concoctions of endless school returns. We must beg, therefore, to be allowed to hold the opinion that any fervent love between a young female teacher and her country as represented by the Education Department should not be any bar to a more prosaic union. The Victorian Legislature may think otherwise —but then the members of that body are so very aesthetic!