The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo. MONDAY, JUNE 3, 1901. THE TEACHERS' SALARIES COMMISSION.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXII, Issue 130, 3 June 1901, Page 4

The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo.

MONDAY, JUNE 3, 1901. THE TEACHERS' SALARIES COMMISSION.

For the causo that lacta assblancu, For ths irrons tbat noada resistance, For tho futuw in tJie dlst?.:ico, jnd the good that we oan do.

We are glad that a serious effort is at last being made by the Government to place the national school teachers upon a more satisfactory footing. The expenditure upon education amounts now to about half a million sterling per annum, and the teachers employed constitute one of the largest and most important branches of the public service. The Parliamentary control over the vast sum drawn from the consolidated revenue is almost nil, and the. anomalies in the administration under the various Education Boards are of so flagrant a character that there is considerable dissatisfaction throughout, the service. It has never been clearly shown why teachers should be denied- the advantages which are enjoyed by officials employed in other Government departments. Classification schemes for the Postal and Railway Departments have been, accepted as reforms in the right direction, and they have undoubtedly assisted in improving the status and increasiing the contentment of the public officers so engaged. It is quite as desirable that teachers, whose work is extremely onerous and productive of nervous strain, shall be placed in a position of greater security with regard to, salary and be delivered from that perpetual worrying which has characterised Board administration. It will also conduce to t the efficiency of the service and its attractiveness to men of talent it if be placed on a brood colonial basis.

An important advantage offered by; the sitting- of the Commission is the : opportunity it. affords for ventilating the simmering grievances which have found expression from time to time through the medium of the Educational Institute. We are glad to see that teachers ;irc coming forward freely to represent their ciise, and the evidence obtained should aid very materially in formulating n salary scheme thai will do justice to all classes. The divergent views expressed by the Boards of Education upon the recent attempt by the Government to distribute bonuses shows how impossible it would be to evolve anything like uniformity of opinion or practice through the medium of the provincial school guardians. At the same time it xaust be granted that the plan on which the bonuses , were, paid resulted in the most palpable absurdities, aud gave rise to a serious discontent and rankling sense of injustice among' teachers whose claims were overlooked while fellow-workers with less merit were over-paid. The precedence given to teachers of infant classes over first assistants in some of our schools under the bonus distribution was particularly unfair. However it was chiefly through (he clamour which arose, against the Government attempt to regulate teachers' salaries that led to the appointment of the present Commission, and if it result in finally settling this vexed question good will have been achieved.