SCHOOL TEACHERS' SALARIES.

Press, Volume LVIII, Issue 10870, 21 January 1901, Page 6

SCHOOL TEACHERS' SALARIES.

TO THE EDITOR OF TH* PRESS. Sir,—l notice with regret that the teachers at their annual conference seem unanimous in thinking that a colonial scale of salaries will be the most satisfactory remedy for all the injustices that at present exist in their payment. As it seems certain that *uch a scale will be introduced. I hope they may be right. But unfair a* I believe a great deal of the present jurisdiction to be. I cannot bring myself to believe that the closer contact with the Government, to which a colonial scale will be but a beginning, is a step in the direction of lessening injustice. If the teachers had exercised their energies in the jetting reform in the elections of members of Boards of Education thir efforts would have borne better fruit. Board members who have the appointing of teachers should have an intimate knowledge of the workings, not only of country schools, but also of those in the towns and suburbs, then salaries would be more fairly allotted, and better systems of promotion" would soon be in vogue. A great many teachers seem to regret that under the "present system their chances of employment keep them to one province. Yet they may oe thankful that the same system keeps "Westland the other side of the Alps, and that, though teachers, like other Government servants, no doubt, grow luxuriantly on the coast, they are not at present able to strike their roots on the Canterbury Plains.—Yours, etc., JUSTICE. January 18th, 1901.