TEACHERS' SALARIES. SOME COGENT FIGURES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2808, 8 January 1908, Page 37

TEACHERS' SALARIES. SOME COGENT FIGURES.

'From Otra Own Correspondent.) AUCKLAND, January 6. In the arguments advanced by school teachers in support of their demands for a higher scale of salaries than that now existing, a strong point is invariably made of the unfavourable position in respect to remuneration in which they claim that they are placejd as compared with other branches of the public service. This aspect of the question figured largely in *a discussion which took place at the annual meeting of the New Zealand Educational Institute on Saturday afternoon in connection with a motion to the effect that the Miriiser of Education should be asked to provide for " salaries that are adequate remuneration for the important work of our profession."

Mr J. Caughey (Wellington), in seconding the motion, quoted an interesting set of figures. Starting with pupil teachers, he said that there were now 671 of these teachers receiving from £25 to £55 a year, or a rate equivalent to that received by a letter boy in the Postal Department at the age of 16 years. There were 708 adult teachers (who were expected to be trained and certificated) in receipt of from £40 to £95, or equal to the earnings of boy porters, first to fourth year cadets, and cleaners in the Railway. Department. The number of teachers receiving from £100 to £120 was 695, and the corresponding service in regard to payment was that performed by deck hands on Government steamers, porters, labourerSt fencers, cross-ing-keepers; and." fifth jear cadets. Teachers

to the number of 456 were paid from £125 to £150, and similar payment was given to horse and crane drivers, second class' guards, etc. The salaries of 212 teachers ranged from £170 to £180, and the same remuneration was paid to carpenters and blacksmiths and tenth grade railway traffic clerks. He quoted many more similar comparisons, and referred to .a .recent remark by the Prime Minister to the effect that in the civil service every cadet of ordinary ability could rise till, at the age of 28 years, he would receive" a salary of £200. s Yet there were 2550 teachers out of a total of 3207 who had not yet reached the salary of £200, although a large number of them were over even 38 years of age, many of them being married men. In addition to the" examples cited, there were, Mr Caughey said, other salaries in the railway service higher than the hiehest paid to any teacher. The whole troubleabout teachers' salaries seemed to have arisen from the fact that many years ago the Government decided that it could afford to ' pay £3 15a per pupil "for primary education, quite apart from any consideration as to whether the capitation grant would meet all needs. The Government subsequently framed the present Bcale of salaries upon the basis of a grant of £4 2s 6d per pupil. Thus the present scale was an improvement upon- the old one, but the provision for increase was very small, and many of the increases were merely readjustments. All subsequent requests for increases ' had been met by pointing to the large amount of the education vote, which could not be further materially increased. The recent increases in the salaries of railway servants had involved an annual increase of expenditure to the extent of £60,000, rising with overtime to £111,000, yet in spite of the state of affairs disclosed by these comparisons the Minister^ had stated that, in reconsidering the scale of salaries during the present recessv he could not do more, than make a few adjustments and increases, amounting in all to about £3000 or £4000. If it required £60,000 a year to put the payment of teachers on a proper basis the Government should grant that sum, as it did in the case of the railway. It was interesting, he said,' to note- that the .New South Wales Parliament had just passed regulations raising the salaries of teachers to the extent of £58,000 a year. Mr B. H. Clark (Southland) "briefly reviewed the position of the past 20 years. In 1886, he said, £325,597 paid m salaries to 2621 teachers in New Zealand, including 917 pupil teachers. - In .1596 the total payment was £395,831, 'distributed - amongst 3515 teachers, including - 1043 pupil teachers; whilst in 1906 £478,000 was received by' 3872 teachers, including 518 pupil teachers. , During the time the number " of pupils had increased 40 per cent., whilst /the total amount paid as salary had increased" 50 per cent. Calculated "on the same basis as in 1886, the amount paid-in 1906 would have -been. £406,000. The net increase was about £72,000, or about 15 per -cent, above what was paid 20 years ago. Could they, he asked, name ■ any other branch o£ the public service in, which* there had not 'been a greater increase than 15 per cent.? whilst the fact that the cost of living had increased in ' a much greater ratio was undeniable. The great increase in the education Vote, of which they had heard so much, had not occurred in teachers salaries. In 1886 primary school teachers' salaries amounted to about 70, per cent, of the education vote, but in 1906 the salaries were very little over one-half of the total vote of £913,660. Mr F. Hilgendorf (Otago) said that railway cadets received £50; £65, £80, and £95 a year, as compared with £25, £35, £45, and £55 paid to pupil teachers, and the lodging allowances of the former were also much greater than those of tho latter. The greater portion of the late increase inthe education vote, he said, was not going into the primary school system, but into extras. As an instance; he said that " whereas in 1886 the salaries of the Eduoa'tion Department's officials amounted to £2000, they reached £8000 in' 1906. The motion was" carried unanimously. In the course of the discussion some instances of individual hardships consequent on this system were mentioned by Mr O. ~ D. Flamank, an Otago delegate. He mentioned the case -of a teacher who had been 13 years _in the service and was receiving the princely salary of £110 a year. 1 This man, he said, had a delicate wife and a family to support, but in consequence of a drop in the attendance at his school his salary would probably fall to £90. The case of another teacher, a .widow with seven children, whose salary was being reduced through the same cause from £120 to £90, was also referred. "I think this is scandalous " was Mr Flamank's comment on the existence of such a system.