CORRESPONDENCE.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume X, Issue 1205, 18 November 1882, Page 2

CORRESPONDENCE.

We do not, hold ourselves r>\spon»jibJb foV the opinions cxprvutibd by our

TEACHERS AND THEIR. PROSPECTS;

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, By teachers 1 mean those in charge of Board’s amt those who are employed in Native schools. Of the former there are some 1,207 in different parts of the Colony ; of the latter about 100: making some 1,300 teachers in all. The greatest portion of these ' men are in isolated places, sometimes ten l miles and more from any town. In fact those ' in the Native schools are worse placed than 1 their brethren under the different Boards, for ! with very few exceptions, they are completely i cut off' from their own race and color. Away : i from any medical advice, should such be ’ i needed fur their families, and sometimes so ' I placed that It is a wonder they keep out of i debt, as they have to procure food and cloth- j ! ing at exorbitant prices. Biittlidt, 1 suppose, < •is only a trifling matter. V» hut have teach- : | ers to look forward to after 20 or SO years I i service? .Nothinr/, absolutely nothiny !on i < which to fall back upon in the autumn of | their days. Some of them may by pinching , | and thrift manage to lay by a little while l their families arc young, but this is soon ab- i ! sorbed as they grow older, in clothing, feed- 1 i ing, and educating them, and in making some ' ' little provision for them when the bread win- , i net’s eyes arc closed ; and all this has to ' i be done out of a salary say at the very ; i outside of £2OO a year, Sometimes not i , even that. Teachers arc considered I : Civil Servants, as such their salaries i I have been docked during the late I financial crisis, but that is all the privilege ’ • accorded them. They have not the pros- , pect of looking forward to any sort of pen- , sion after 20 or 30 years service which other i members of the civil service arc entitled to. ; The Government, or rather I should say ' I those of our legislators who take some in- ' I tcrest in Educational matters might devise I some scheme whereby teachers might have , something to look forward to when they are ' past work, either through old age or acci- | ; dent. There are many broad acres in the : Colony—could not a few be set aside as an , endowment to make a sort of retiring fund. The head of the department enjoys a good . salary, and will receive a good pension, I , but the teachers under him neither be- : grudge him his honors, nor wish them curtailed as he is well worthy of them, but why should those who have all the drudgery ' to do be left in the cold. Is it fair or honest"? The meanest native clerk in India on the receipt of E4O or £5O a year Can look forward to a pension after 20 years' service, but men who have to train up and develop > our future statesmen and writers get

1 nothing. The colony is yet young, the land i has not been all acquired by land specula* : tors and others, let it make some provision . for its teachers ; how will it be 20, 30, or j 50 years hence —when by emigration and I increase of population more teachers will be : required; ami who will naturally ask what I they have to look forward to when past i work. There are, as I said before, some i 1,300 teachers; in about'2o or 30 years I time perhaps there will be twice that number. Would it be ton much for the Government to set apart 100 or 150 acres for i each teacher for him to have for his sole use and to be used by him when hb retires from i work, and at his death to revert back to the Government for the use of any future i teacher retiring. Even 20,000 or 30,000 i acres out of the millions in the Colony '■ would not be too much to set aside, for it would not be lost to the Colony, for each teacher who had 100 or 150 acres would i still have to pay his quota of revenue to the Colony in the shape of land, property, and other tuxes. Give each teacher 100 or 150 acres of land, not in the district in which he holds his appointment, but in some other part of the Colony. Let it be his as long as he is in the service, and conducts himself as he should do, and after his twenty years' service, or if he is disabled by accident or sickness, let him retire to bis land, to bo enjoyed by him while he lives, and at his death let the land revert to the I Colony for the use and benefit of the next i retiring man. 1 am, &c., I’er Aspeha ad Astra. —■—>