TOPICS OF THE DAY

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 44, 20 August 1913, Page 6

TOPICS OF THE DAY

On Monday night, thirAy-one .waterside workers, after arduous In Cold hours at unloading ahd Quarantine, coaling the steamer Delphic, were detained as possible smallpox "contacts," and they had cause to complain about a blunder or bungle which compelled them to pass the night without blankets. The agents for the steamer say that the vessel is not a passenger-carrier, and has blankets for only the 1 officers ; the crew provide for themselves. It is also said that . the lateness of the HeaJth Department's order— after 9 p.m.— made it impossible to arrange for a supply of bedding from the shore, The District Health Officer submits that his Depart' ment had a tiusy time, but all the explanations, even with the additional remark by Captain Evans— that it was " a fine night," does not change the fact that men who had been at perspiring work had no chance to change their clothes and had no blankets. We cannot admit that it was too late to draw from Greater Wellington enough comfortable cover for thirty-one men. It would have been easy to get sufficient for the night from the Public Hospital's reserve. Also "private enterprise," by a telephone message, could Jiave b,een set in motion at no great coat. The responsibility of ordering the men into quarantine for the night was assumed by the Health Department, which should have taken care to guard them against pneumonia or even harmless discomfort. Undoubtedly a mistake was made during the excitement, and the blanketless brigade of the "fine night" has reason to be resentful. It is a lesson to the authorities to have a little more Eresence oF mind next time watersiders ay« to be isolated after toil on a cargo steamer, of poor resources. Far away in the King Country, with four miles of eludge be* "Passing Rich tween him and "a on £90 a Year." store of any kind," ahd eighteen mile® of morass, alleged to be a road, from the railway, is a eole-chafge teacher whose salary is £90 a year (which a horse haa to sharej and £10 house allowance. At present he has eleven pupils, but as they are in eight grades, ranging from Primer I. to Standard V., who will envy the exile his "team" of eleven and the £90, shared by the horse? If the ordinary statute law can be "a hass," how many sorts of asininity can be a, cast-iron ''law of averages" — mere numbers of pupils— when applied to rural schools, regardless of the arduous multifarious duties entailed on a, single teacher by the care of seven or eight grades of pupil—from the toddler lisping the alphabet to the boy or girl of expanding forehead, at grips with a syllabus which stretches to the stars? A typical case of hardship is forcefully put by a backblocks sufferer in The Poet to-day, and our readers should ponder on the complaints. High authority may answer that these £90 victimisations are exceptional, but no euch argument can be any excuse for a callous indifference to the grievances of men in the wilderness. A rigid policy of restricting salaries to a beggarly pittance in sparsely-populated districts is a folly which no thoughtful public should tolerate. It is not only a cruelty to the underpaid teacher, but it is unfair to the community. It means that the teacher who accepts such a school as si stepping-stone is eager to make his escape at the earliest opportunity. The system of payment means practically that a ban is put upon the backblocks school. The wages are obviously not enough to hold anybody of any ambition or any consciousness of competence. The authorities expose the school to a succession of migratory in- j structors, and frequent changes are cer- ! tainly not desirable. May the Government remember the £90 (a bit for the horse), the dole for a house, and the eight grade* taught by, one man..

Think of the general taxpayers— and their pessimism and optimism. Each has the Taxpayers, his gloomy moments when he meditates on the Government— any Government — but he brightens at the thought that he and hie. friends in a group A may be able to gain something at the expense d J3, C, D { down to Z. Each group has its hopes, in turn, as any reader of the daily newspapers may observe. It i* an exciting quest of a large dividend from the taxeß paid, but as the State's revenue is limited, a school infant can understand that, though particular groups can be pleased for Rome of the time, all the groups cannot have cause for joy at largesse all the time. Hence com© plots and stratngems by oundry crafty groups to circumvent others. One method was mentioned yesterday by Mr, Jull, chairman of the Counties' Association. He condemned an anomalous system of subsidies which, he said, promoted an exploitation of the general taxpayers. He referred to the higher scale allotted to the small local bodies on an assumption that they are necessarily "weak" or "poor," because their active ties are comparatively limited. "Many counties," Mr Jull declared, "have been deliberately reduced in size to obtain a greater subsidy." This charge was voiced emphatically at last year 1 * conference, and cases were cited. This may be regarded as "fair business" by men who may be described as shrewd, but It 3« not pleasant business for those who have to pay for the trickery. Mr. Jull's repetition, of statements about this deplorable "farming" of the taxpayers should have the best thought of the people's representatives, who are expected to exert themselves to prevent greedy grabbing at the public till by any group. In all the hustle for returns on all manner of questions, is there not one politician to press for official information as to the extent of the practices exposed by Mr. Jull?