The Daily News. SATURDAY, JULY 22, 1905. TEACHERS' SUPERANNUATION.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 7879, 22 July 1905, Page 2

The Daily News. SATURDAY, JULY 22, 1905. TEACHERS' SUPERANNUATION.

The measure submitted to the House by the Government on Thursday having for its object the formation ami administration of a fund for thesu-jK-raniiualion of teachers is the outcome of resolutions passed by almost every educational authority in the colon). But for ihe (lifficdltics inherent to the financial part of the scheme there is no doubt it would have been carried out some time since. No great harm has been caused by the delay, except that in the cases where teachers have already passed the age when their power of imparting knowledge lias waned, the children have sulfcred in efficiency. These cases ale, we arc glad to say, exceptional, and can he well overlooked in llie promise of a better •state of afTairs in the future. Under the Hill now before Parliament there is a clause compelling retirement of male teachers on reaching the age ol sixty-live, and female teachers live years earlier. Both sexes can. however, if they please, voluntarily retire five years before the maximum limit, after giving three months' notice, and become entitled to the pensions provided. The points which will interest most teachers arc those relating to the amount of their contributions and the extent ol the pensions. The institution of the proposed sliding scale of contributions on i.n age and salary basis is th.' only fair Way in which a new pension fund could be worked out on sound lines, considering the varying ages ami salaries oi the present teachers, while to base the amount ol the pension on the total amount ol '.he salary received during the time the recipient is contributing to the fund is equally reasonable, especially as the minimum pension is fiied at £52 a year. The superannuation fund is to be started will', a grant of £a(MIU by the Government, and tlie measure provides fov deficiencies in the finances from time to time being met from the same source. For some years, to come there is likely to be adeticit, as there are in the service many teachers well up in years, who, in the ordinary course of events, will become claimants on the fund. As the scheme is timed to come into operation on the first day of the coming year, anil as teachers have six months from thai date in which to elect whether or not they will become contributors to the fund, il may be assumed that there is a possibility of only a few contributions coming to limid, except frcm those who wish to take immeliatv advantage of the pension, which can be claimed after the first oi April, so that in all probability the Government subsidy will be required to pay the iirst claims. An illustratii/n of now the scheme works out will he seen if the case oi a teacher oi

twinty-ihe years of age when first conli ibul nig is taKen. Assuming thai iiir the foi iy years hi' is contributing to the funtl lie is in receipt "f an average salary of tliilt a year he will al the cud 01 I lie period, whin lii'can claim his pensioi', have paid in t;tuil, and become entitled to onesixtieth part of his total stipend fur the 111 years, as bis pension, namely, £101) a year, and so on in proportion. I'roper provision is made for eases of teachers who resign, die or arc dismissed from the service to insure Mia I no money paid in by any ti-acher Will be forfeited, a concession being r,ra<)e. U) Ibnse lemporarily prevented fiom following their avocation. TlltTc will doubiless he considerable discussion on souue of the details, hut as a whole Hie pmposals should reccmiiHcml tlicliisilves for acceptance, and 1 lie (iovcrnmcnl deset'e lo lie congratulated on the practical Way in which they havu :solved a very ditlicult problem.