NEW GOVT. RENTS

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30712, 30 March 1965, Page 1

NEW GOVT. RENTS

Prediction By

Teacher

The raising of Government house rentals will reduce the interest of primary school teachers in taking country positions, in the opinion of Mr D. J. Sullivan, president of the West Coast-region of the. New Zealand Post-primary Teachers’ Association.

“Five years ago the Government raised the rental of all post-primary teachers’ houses to £2 15s and up to £3 5s a week,” Mr Sullivan said and “the result was predictable. Secondary teachers were not prepared to forgo the advantages of urban life without some monetary recompense, and as a result such district high schools as Benneydale, Murchison, and Ohura have for many years been in a continual state of staff crisis. Six per cent of our post-primary pupils are receiving an education which should not be tolerated in any advanced country.

“One would have expected that the Government, seeing this situation developing, would have rectified the position by lowering these unrealistic rural rentals. But instead of this, I read that the Government proposes to remove the ‘injustices and anomalies’ by raising all Government house rentals to the same figure. The result will again be predictable. Primary teachers will not serve in country areas, and the staffing crisis will spread from secondary to primary schools if primary rentals are raised."