PLAIN TALK ON SALARIES.

Putaruru Press, Volume VII, Issue 293, 20 June 1929, Page 5

PLAIN TALK ON SALARIES.

VIEWS OF MR. E. C. BANKS. On Teachers for Country. A novel view was taken by Mr. E. C. Banks, the member representing this district on the Auckland Education Board, at a meeting of teachers in Matamata, when he suggested that a salary penalty be inflicted on teachers serving in the big towns, because the great majority would not serve in the country, if they could help it, without some such penalty. “ Ninety per cent of teachers want to stick around the big towns,” stated Mr. Banks, in opening his remarks, the tenor of which was heartily supported by the meeting. “ This was not a good thing for the country,” the speaker continued, “ and for this reason I do not like the remote allowance being done away with as is proposed under the new scale of salaries for primary school teachers. After being settled in a town for three years teachers simply will not go to the country.” Continuing, Mr. Banks said that he thought country teachers should be given a higher salary even if it meant lower ones for the towns. If this were brought about they would not be so satisfied in sticking to the towns. There should be a fixed principle on this question, and he suggested that towns the size of Matamata could be paid according to scale with less for all towns above that size, and more for smaller towns. If something of this kind were not done then they would be up against it when it came to transfers. Later in the discussion Mr. Banks suggested as a rough guide that in the four big centres £24 should be taken off salaries and added to those for schools in towns and districts less than Matamata. Towns from Matamata’s size to say Wanganui would be according to scale. “ You will have the towns against you solidly, but you will have the Minister with you,” he concluded. Mr. Crocker pointed out that under that suggestion Matamata salaries would remain the same, while at Waharoa, only four miles away, they would be less.

Mr. Banks: Well, which place would you sooner live in? A voice: A teacher \could live in Matamata and teach at Waharoa, travelling to and fro. Mr. Banks: Then he would need the allowance. Mr. Wells: If Auckland suffer £24, I think Hamilton could suffer £l2. Mr. Banks remarked that the suggestion was only made as a basis for discussion. Some difficulty was then experienced in framing a resolution to suit, but eventually on the motion or Messrs: Mollov (Te Poi) and Gauntlett (Wardville) it was agreed to recommend to the Institute “ That schools be classified according to their relative remoteness, and that remote allowances be paid to all teachers therein, in accordance therewith.”

The motion was then carried unanimously, Mr. Wells remarking that perhaps the last part was not very clear.